Netanyahu teetering on brink of war with Lebanon, White House

NEW YORK – The White House publicly and privately aired its frustrations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attacks against the Biden Administration Thursday, while Israel and Hezbollah threaten each other with war.

Since Netanyahu released an English-language video on Tuesday accusing the United States of withholding specific weapons, the Biden administration has discredited every word the prime minister has said since.

The video came as a surprise to the White House, National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.

The administration has made its concerns over the content of the video clear “at various levels, through various vehicles,” he said.

The Netanyahu video "was vexing and disappointing, as much as it was, incorrect, so difficult to know exactly what was on his mind,” Kirby said as he defended the Biden administration’s record of arms delivery to Israel.The idea that we had stopped helping Israel with their self-defense needs is just not accurate, Kirby said.

He recalled how the US forces came to Israel’s defense in April when Iran launched an unprecedented attack of hundreds of drones and missiles against Jerusalem.

“There’s no other country that’s done more, or will continue to do more, than the United States to help Israel defend itself,” Kirby said. Netanyahu’s words were upsetting, he said, “Given the amount of support that we have, and will continue to provide.” 

On Tuesday, the Pentagon said the United States had delivered defense materials to Israel even after Biden paused one shipment of 2,000 and 500-pound bombs.

Officials across the administration maintain no other shipment or delivery of defense articles to Israel has been paused.

Netanyahu responded on Thursday, posting a message on X shortly after Kirby’s comments became public.

“I am happy to endure personal attacks, as long as Israel receives the weapons shipment it so needs in this existential war,” Netanyahu wrote.

On Wednesday, just one day after he made the initial accusation, his office posted a message on X that explaining that US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew had said that the weapons in question would be delivered to Israel.

Netanyahu alerted the public to a weapons crisis and then announced its resolution, in advance of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s trip to Washington early next week and a month before his own expected address to a joint session of Congress.

The back-and-forth between Netanyahu and the Biden administration over arms shipments, came as the White House worked to prevent Israel from launching an all-out war with Hezbollah.

The White House for the first time on Thursday addressed the IDF’s announcement from this week that it had approved operational plans for an offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, repeating its cautious tone against Israel opening a second front of hostilities.

US special envoy “Amos Hochstein has been in the region several days, shuttling back and forth between Tel Aviv and Beirut to have these exact conversations,” Kirby said, indicating the White House is taking both Israel and Hezbollah’s rhetoric seriously.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “We have seen a dramatic increase in strikes by Hezbollah across the border targeting Israeli villages, civilians infrastructure. 

“So we have been pursuing a diplomatic resolution to try to make clear that there should be no further escalation and that's what we'll continue to pursue,” Miller said.

The issues of Lebanon, as well as other security topics such as Iran, Gaza, and a pending hostage deal, were expected to be part of discussions held Thursday between Israeli and US officials.

Kirby confirmed that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and US Security of State Antony Blink were meeting with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.

Miller and Kirby said that efforts were ongoing to close a deal that would see the return of the remaining 120 hostages held in Gaza, which would include a pause to the war.

“We continue to actively pursue a ceasefire in Gaza primarily to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people” and “to secure the return of hostages. 

Such a pause to the war, which the US hopes would turn into a percent ceasefire, would make “it much easier to achieve a ceasefire and diplomatic resolution along the Israel Lebanon,” Miller stated.