Biden wants Israel to change course on Gaza aid; No Labels back out of the 2024 race

The First Lady of the White House: Is Israel Ready to Suppress the Attacks on Humanitarian Aid? Mr. Biden’s Private Call with the First Lady

The president is evidently coming under pressure even from within his own family. At the White House on Tuesday, Mr. Biden said that the first lady had spoken to him, and that she told him to stop it.

“President Biden emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,” the White House said in a statement. He made clear the need for Israel to make concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers. He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”

The call between the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Biden was tense and they discussed the military operation that has caused many Americans and others to be upset. But the White House stopped short of directly saying the president would halt arms supplies or impose conditions for their use, as fellow Democrats have urged him to do.

Biden administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private call in more detail, said that Mr. Netanyahu agreed to additional commitments intended to assuage the president. The officials said that Israel would promise to reduce civilian casualties, and would give the power to broker a cease-fire deal if the hostages were released.

John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, said the president wants to see “concrete tangible steps” to reduce the violence against civilians and increase access for humanitarian aid to Gaza. He said the White House expects Israel to make announcements of specific changes within hours or days.

Israel made its first gesture to Mr. Biden in the middle of the night. The US National Security Council said that Israel had agreed to use Ashdod to direct aid to Gaza, and to open the Erez crossing into northern Gaza for the first time since the Hamas terrorist attack in October.

“If we lose that reverence for human life, we risk becoming indistinguishable from those we confront,” Mr. Blinken said during a stop at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The results on the ground are woefully insufficient despite important steps taken by Israel to allow assistance into Gaza.

The Secretary of State made it very clear that if Israel continued to reject their advice the Biden administration would be ready to exact a price. There will be changes in policy if we don’t see the changes that we need to see.

The president has resisted curbs on arms flow to Israel in the past, but aides have argued that many of the weaponry sent are air defense missiles. But even some of Mr. Biden’s close Democratic allies have increasingly come around to the view that Washington should exercise more control over the weaponry, including Senator Chris Coons, a fellow Democrat from Delaware and confidant of the president.

“I think we’re at that point,” Mr. Coons said on CNN on Thursday morning, adding that if Mr. Netanyahu were to order the Israeli military into the southern Gaza city of Rafah in force and “drop thousand-pound bombs and send in a battalion to go after Hamas and make no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid, that I would vote to condition aid to Israel.”

In addition to his description of the call, Mr. Netanyahu did not say anything about it in his Thursday comments. In a meeting in Jerusalem with visiting Republican lawmakers organized by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, the prime minister pushed back strongly against Mr. Biden’s insistence on a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict.

The attempt to ram down our throats a Palestinian state, which will be another terror haven, another launching ground for an attempt is what Mr. Netanyahu said. “That is opposed by Israelis, overwhelmingly.”

In his statement he focused on the threat from Iran. “For years, Iran has been acting against us, both directly and through its proxies, and therefore Israel is acting against Iran and its proxies, in both defensive and offensive operations,” Mr. Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli airstrike that killed seven Iranian military officers in Syria this week.

“We will know how to defend ourselves,” he added, “and we will operate according to the simple principle by which those who attack us or plan to attack us — we will attack them.”

“We cannot do anything until the U.S. does what it takes to Israel,” Israel’s White House said after the World Central Kitchen Attack on Thursday

Kirby declined comment on what the consequences would be if those actions fail to materialize — or whether that could include a potential halt to U.S. military aid to Israel.

The seven aid workers, who were killed in Gaza by World Central Kitchen, had been deployed by the celebrity chef. Mr. Biden made a point of contacting Mr.Andrés, the man who was killed in the incident.

The seven were killed by three successive strikes on three cars traveling along a road in Gaza. The Israeli officials have described the mistake as tragic, but they have not given any more information about how it happened. The cars were marked with World Central Kitchen logos, although the attack took place at night. Mr. Andrés has said his organization kept in touch with Israeli officials about travel plans.

As of Thursday morning, the Israelis had not yet communicated any initial findings of their promised investigation into the strikes to the United States, according to a senior Biden administration official who insisted on anonymity to detail internal conversations.

The shift that Mr. Biden made on Thursday came as he was getting criticism from Democrats. He served as vice president in Obama’s administration and wassailed for not taking action against Mr. Netanyahu.

“The U.S. government is still supplying 2 thousand pound bombs and ammunition to support Israel’s policy,” Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama, wrote on social media on Wednesday. This outrage won’t do anything until there are consequences. Bibi obviously doesn’t care what the U.S. says, its about what the U.S. does.”

“He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said after the call.

Israel did not provide an immediate response to the White House’s readout of the conversation, but on Wednesday, an Israeli official blamed the impasse in the cease-fire talks on the U.S. decision to allow a U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution to pass on March 25.

The official said that the U.S.’s move was bad for the negotiations because Hamas hardened its positions. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The U.S. said at the time that vote did not indicate a policy shift, and National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that the administration was “perplexed” by Israel’s apparent outrage.

In order to get the release of hostages, a cease-fire would be implemented during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. There is a week until the end of the holy month of Ramzan.

Up First: Why Israel changes course on Gaza aid; No Labels backs out of 2024 race? (Event Summary, Part II, Dec. 1997)

It is Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.

No Labels said yesterday it wouldn’t run a candidate in the presidential election in 2024. The organization said it would stop attempting to put forth a Unity ticket because it couldn’t find a candidate. No Labels were formed in 2010 to foster bipartisan cooperation.

A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that border officials have a responsibility to look after the welfare of children on the California side of the U.S.-Mexico border. Judge Dolly Gee said that even though the Border Patrol didn’t create the camps, the adults and minors there are still considered under Border Patrol custody because agents are monitoring them and telling them where to go.

Many on the far right are distrustful of traditional institutions. Now, some of them are trying to provide a parallel economy by building their own payment platforms and even computers. Many people think it is a matter of survival. In the parallel economy, supporters are part of a society that brings together modern-day conspiracy theories and conservative values.

Source: Biden orders Israel to change course on Gaza aid; No Labels backs out of 2024 race

La Chimera: A Brief History of the Future (A Brief History) and NPR’s Song of the Year (Summer 2008)

If you are looking for a movie that has a magic ending that is still linked to reality, Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera is the movie for you. A tomb raider in Italy in 1980s tries to find his way out of a tomb.

The new show on PBS is called A Brief History of the Future, it is a response to pop culture’s obsession with dystopias. Host Ari Wallach travels around the world to meet the people shaping a hopeful future.

Books: Hanif Abdurraqib’s latest book is all about the phrase “there’s always next year.” He explores the idea through triumphs and defeats of basketball.

Adrianne Lenker’s solo album, and a punk band from Brooklyn, are two of this week’s nominees for NPR Music’s Songs of the Year.