CNN
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The Biden administration is dismissing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pronouncement {that a} date has been set for a floor offensive into Rafah as bluster that’s in no small half fueled by the Israeli prime minister’s tenuous political standing at dwelling, senior administration officers informed CNN.
The administration has been publicly questioning Netanyahu’s insistence Monday that Israel has selected a time to mount a widescale offensive into the southern Gaza metropolis, with prime Biden nationwide safety officers saying publicly Tuesday that no date had been shared with them.
Privately, a number of senior administration officers chalked up Netanyahu’s pronouncement – which was adopted Tuesday by a declaration that that“no drive on this planet” will cease Israeli troops from getting into Rafah – to bravado.
The prime minister has been struggling to stability his said aim of eliminating Hamas with the large strain of reaching a ceasefire that might see Israeli hostages freed. Israeli officers argue that 4 Hamas battalions stay in Rafah that have to be taken out.
Netanyahu may face a ticking clock – as soon as the warfare ends Israel is predicted to undergo a political reckoning and the potential fracturing of Netanyahu’s tenuous far-right governing coalition.
In pushing again towards Netanyahu’s Rafah plans, American officers have reiterated that the US has not seen something resembling a complete plan from the Israelis on how they’d perform such an operation, together with first shifting nearly all of the estimated 1.4 million civilians out of Rafah.
“We do not need a date for any Rafah operation, at the very least one which’s been communicated to us by the Israelis,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Tuesday, including: “I don’t see something imminent.”
“If he has a date he hasn’t shared it with us,” President Joe Biden’s nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan additionally informed reporters Tuesday.
And in a name with US Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin on Monday, Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant informed Austin that Israel continues to be placing collectively a plan for a possible invasion of Rafah and making obligatory preparations – together with for the safety of civilians – and didn’t point out {that a} date has been set for the operation, a number of folks accustomed to the decision informed CNN.
Biden stays delicate to Netanyahu’s present political standing, together with how a lot the prime minister is beholden to his ultra-conservative authorities, probably the most right-wing in Israeli historical past, one senior administration official informed CNN.
Nonetheless, US officers – everybody from Biden on down – have been largely cautious to avoid publicly commenting on Israeli politics all through the course of the Israel-Hamas warfare.
These personal observations have at occasions spilled out into public view. Talking to donors in Washington in December, Biden criticized Israel’s hardline authorities as he known as on Netanyahu to change his method to the warfare.
“I feel he has to alter, and with this authorities, this authorities in Israel is making it very troublesome for him to maneuver,” Biden mentioned, calling Netanyahu’s authorities the “most conservative authorities in Israel’s historical past.”
He warned that assist for Israel’s navy operation was waning amid heavy bombardment of Gaza and added that Netanyahu’s coalition “doesn’t need a two-state resolution.”
In a digital assembly final week, prime Biden nationwide safety officers pressed Israeli officers, together with minister of strategic affairs Ron Dermer and nationwide safety adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, on how the Israel Protection Forces would transfer such a big group of civilians out of Rafah. They requested about sensible particulars, together with the place these folks could be housed and the way a lot meals and water could be wanted for them, in line with one senior administration official and two sources briefed on the talks.
Israeli officers didn’t present complete solutions to the questions in the assembly, the sources mentioned. The 2 sides have since had follow-up discussions and in particular person follow-up assembly is anticipated to happen subsequent week, Blinken mentioned Tuesday.
In final week’s name, Israeli officers additionally argued that not going into Rafah could be a waste of the efforts made to root out Hamas through the first six months of the battle, in line with one of many sources briefed. Hamas would rebuild from the remaining battalions there, the officers informed their US counterparts.
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.