Psaki blames Biden for delayed weapon threat to Israel

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized President Joe Biden for not withholding weapons shipments to Israel earlier.

In an appearance on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Psaki gave her thoughts on the drama surrounding Biden’s threat to withhold further offensive weapons shipments to Israel if it launched a ground offensive into Rafah. Psaki, breaking with criticisms of the move, took it a step further by arguing the only problem was that Biden hadn’t made the decision earlier.

“I do think that there’s some leverage we’re all seeing being used,” she said.

“Should it have been used earlier? I think the answer is yes to that,” Psaki continued. “But we are seeing them pull back in the sending of weapons. That’s actually a pretty significant sign, given that the United States and Israel has a long-standing connection on military support, where the United States is a big provider of that.”

Touching on her insider experience, the former administration official suggested the relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Biden is possibly even worse than publicly known.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu, I would say, is someone Joe Biden has had a tricky, challenging, difficult relationship with for some time,” she said. “People don’t always see that. That isn’t talked about.”

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In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden said he would stop sending offensive munitions, including artillery shells and bombs, if Israel went ahead with its plans to fully invade Rafah in the Gaza Strip. The comments drew uproar from Republicans, while Democrats have been split in their response.

The Israeli war cabinet voted on Thursday to expand the ground operation in Rafah, though it isn’t clear if this would cross Biden’s red line, nor is it clear exactly what Biden’s red line on Rafah is. The Israel Defense Forces have already launched an invasion of Rafah and cut off the vital border crossing with Egypt.