(TND) — The U.S. reportedly stopped a bomb shipment to Israel over concerns about how the 2,000-pound munitions would be used in densely populated Gaza.
The Associated Press cited an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined comment to reporters Wednesday.
President Joe Biden’s administration is also concerned Israel will launch a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering.
The war, now seven months old, has left more than 34,500 people dead and displaced about 80% of Gaza’s population, according to the AP. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy the Hamas terrorists who attacked his country in October, sparking the current conflict.
While the sides work toward a possible cease-fire and release of hostages held by Hamas, the paused weapons shipment demonstrates a growing tension between the U.S. and its ally, Israel.
Simon Reich, a political science professor at Rutgers-Newark with expertise in global affairs, said Wednesday that the American decision to pause the shipment of bombs factors in several concerns.
“The first one, we’ll say, is Biden's personal concern that the United States may be supporting an (Israeli) administration that is, from the American point of view, applying this air campaign with too great of zeal,” Reich said.
Biden might also be concerned about how the U.S. support of Israel’s bombing campaign could be viewed under the scope of international law.
And then there’s the domestic situation, where pro-Palestinian protests have engulfed U.S. college campuses.
Reich said there are likely domestic political considerations at play in the decision.
Oklahoma State University politics professor Seth McKee said it’s mostly political upside for Biden to halt the shipment of bombs to Israel.
The administration is troubled by the anger it’s getting from young voters, who are sympathetic to the Palestinians in Gaza.
Biden will need those young voters to come off the sidelines in the election this fall.
And McKee said Biden is trying to appease two seemingly opposed portions of the Democratic coalition: Jewish Americans and Arab Americans.
Jews in America vote approximately 70% Democratic, he said.
Is the pause in bomb shipments a signal of a more pro-Palestinian stance from the Biden administration?
“I think it's more complicated than that, because it's a pressure tactic,” McKee said. “American support for Israel historically is pretty ironclad in terms of the amount of money we send their way on a fiscal basis. But I think it's obviously an overture to say, ‘We want some direction in what you're doing.’”
McKee said there’s a “canyon” between this one gesture and the U.S. abandoning its support for Israel.
Reich said the U.S. is trying to pull whichever levers it can in order to hold sway in the Middle East and to influence Israel’s decisions in the war.
“The decision to limit the provision of (military) material to only those that are defensive rather than those that are construed as offensive is an important symbolic act it can make in trying to persuade students on campuses in the United States and (America’s) potential Arab partners in the region that it is mindful of the fate of Palestinians,” Reich said.
Middle East expert Gordon Gray recently told The National Desk that the U.S. relationship with Israel is at its most strained since Netanyahu spoke to Congress nearly a decade ago in opposition to an Iran nuclear arms control agreement pursued by then-President Barack Obama.
Gray, a former U.S. ambassador to Tunisia who is now teaching at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University in D.C., said there have been other valleys in the U.S.-Israeli relationship over the years.
“But it certainly ranks up there in the top five or six moments of strain” between the two nations, Gray said.
In recent years, Netanyahu has turned what used to be widespread bipartisan support for Israel into more of a partisan issue, Gray said.
There might be some concerning signs for Israel within U.S. public opinion, as well.
The Pew Research Center has found that nearly half of American adults under 30 oppose providing military aid to Israel.
And, pointing to the recent partisan nature of U.S. views on Israel, half of Republicans favor sending Israel military aid for its war in Gaza, while just a quarter of Democrats feel the same.
Gray said it’s important to distinguish the U.S.-Israel relationship from the U.S.-Netanyahu relationship.
The U.S. and Israel have historically had a “close and strong relationship,” he said.
The U.S. was the first country to recognize Israel when it was founded in 1948, and Israel has been the biggest beneficiary of American foreign aid since the end of World War II.
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