Israel’s Netanyahu Ignores Biden’s ‘Red Line’ on Palestine, Will Proceed With Rafah Invasion

Israel Prime Minister will ignore Joe Biden’s “red line” in his war against Hamas by proceeding with an invasion of the Palestinian city of Rafah, he announced on Sunday.

In an interview with Politico, Netanyahu confirmed that he would proceed with an invasion of the  Rafah on the southern border of the Gaza Strip with Egypt, disregarding Biden’s protests on the matter.

“We’ll go there. We’re not going to leave,” he explained. “You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is, that October 7 doesn’t happen again. Never happens again.”

When asked about Biden’s concerns, Netanyahu said he was not sure “exactly what the president meant,” but that he was “wrong on both counts.”

He continued:

[The Israeli people] also support my position that says that we should resoundingly reject the attempt to ram down our throats a Palestinian state. That is something that they agree on.

[Our opponents] don’t understand that the reason we don’t have peace is not because the Palestinians don’t have a state. It’s because the Jews have a state. And in fact, the Palestinians have not brought themselves to recognize and accept the Jewish state.

Netanyahu’s comments come after Biden said in an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart that invading Rafah would be a “big mistake” and that Netanyahu must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”

“It’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake,” he warned. “It is a red line, but I’m never going to leave Israel. The defence of Israel is still critical, so there’s no red line I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”

Despite his lukewarm support for Israel’s war on Hamas, Biden is facing increasing pressure from the left of the Democratic Party to stand up to Israel’s military campaign.

Such discontent has been reflected in recent primaries, where between 10 and 20 percent of voters in a variety of states cast their vote as “uncommitted” rather than endorse him as the presumptive Democratic nominee.