Dem
51
GOP
49
The White House has taken some time to consider what happened in Rafah over the weekend, and has decided that the Israeli government did not cross the "red line" that would lead to arms being withheld. The administration believes that Israel is trying its best to minimize civilian casualties, and is trying to avoid making war in the most densely populated parts of Rafah, and deems that to be acceptable.
There was a testy exchange yesterday between CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Ed O'Keefe and White House spokesman John Kirby. O'Keefe undoubtedly speaks for a lot of Americans, and Kirby obviously speaks for the administration's perspective:
O'Keefe: How does this not violate the red line that the president laid out?
Kirby: As I said, we don't wanna see a major ground operation. We haven't seen that at this point.
O'Keefe: How many more charred corpses does he have to see before the president considers a change of policy?
Kirby: We don't wanna see a single more innocent life taken. And I kind of take a little offense at the question. No civilian casualties is the right number of civilian casualties. And this is not something that we've turned a blind eye to, nor has it been something we've ignored or neglected to raise with our Israeli counterparts—including, Ed, this weekend as a result of this particular strike. Now, they're investigating it. So, let's let them investigate it and see what they come up with.
O'Keefe: But the president doesn't have like, a personal limit to this?
Kirby: The president has been very clear and very direct about what our expectations are for Israeli operations in Rafah, specifically, but in Gaza writ large. We don't support, we won't support a major ground operation in Rafah. And we've, again, been very consistent on that. And the president said that, should that occur, then it might make him have to make different decisions in terms of support. We haven't seen that happen at this point.
In addition to ongoing bombing, there are now Israeli tanks rolling through Rafah. If the White House is going to stand on the distinction between what's happening now, on one hand, and a "major military operation," on the other, that's a difficult case to make and it's only going to get more so.
And as long as we are on the subject, Nikki Haley thinks she's still presidential material, and so she's now visiting Israel for some reason. During her tour yesterday, she autographed some bombs that are set to be dropped on Gaza, along with the message "Finish them!" Maybe it's just us, but isn't that a little... perverse? Yes, we know that military personnel sometimes write messages on bombs that are going to be used in military attacks. But a civilian, and one who knows full well that the bomb in question could end up killing civilians? Something's very wrong with Haley, in our view. But her point is undoubtedly to send a message to the Republican base, which is very pro-Israel, that she is with them. (Z)