The White House attempted on Wednesday to balance its messaging over US President Joe Biden’s approval of $1 billion worth of new weapons transfers to Israel, on the heels of his order halting the delivery of specific bombs the administration fears will cause extreme civilian destruction if deployed in Rafah.The administration hasn’t publicly announced the contents of the $1 billion arms package and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre directed all questions to the State Department, who did not schedule a briefing with reporters on Wednesday.The Jerusalem Post has requested information from the State Department about the contents of the $1 billion arms transfer, when it was approved by Biden, and when the arms will be delivered to Israel.
The department did not respond and referred to previous comments from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who on Monday said the US has sent a “massive amount of military assistance” to Israel to defend itself, and the administration will ensure that Israel receives the full amount provided in the National Security Supplemental.
Support for Israel and protecting civilian lives
The White House said that “two things can be true at once” – support for Israel’s self-defense and the belief that more needs to be done to protect civilian lives.“Israel has to be able to defend itself,” Jean-Pierre said. “But when we see a situation in Rafah, with 1.4 million citizens who are seeking refuge there because they moved there to seek refuge, we’re going to also share our concerns.”Jean-Pierre added that the White House’s messaging on Rafah has been consistent, and so has its messaging about Israel’s right to defend itself.She reiterated that Biden only paused one shipment of 1,800 munitions of 2,000-lb and 1,700 500-lb Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs.Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon responded to the Post’s queries on the date of the last delivery of JDAM munitions to Israel, how many JDAM munitions Israel has received in the past year, and how many JDAM munitions Israel has used since October 7.Reporting of the $1 billion arms transfer came out on Tuesday as Republicans on Capitol Hill worked to garner support for the Israel Security Assistance Act which will be put to vote on Thursday.The White House won’t say if the timing of the new arms transfer is correlated to the legislation.Jean-Pierre also denied that Biden’s withholding of JDAM bombs had anything to do with the timing of the campus protests or attempts to reach younger voters.“This president is not about politics,” Jean-Pierre said. “For this president, this is about the right thing to do.”