The White House reportedly canceled high-level talks with Israel scheduled for Thursday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video claiming the US was withholding military aid.
President Biden’s top advisers were shocked and infuriated by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s assertion that the United States is not supplying arms and ammunition to Israel. A senior Israeli official told Axios: “Americans are outraged. Bibi’s video has done a lot of damage.”
Hours after the shocking video was released, US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein personally delivered a message to Prime Minister Netanyahu telling him his accusations were false and excessive.
Soon after, the White House canceled a Thursday meeting on Iran, two U.S. and Israeli sources told Axios.
“This decision makes it clear that there are consequences for such actions,” one U.S. official said.
“It is inconceivable that over the past few months, the administration has withheld the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel,” Netanyahu declared in the video, speaking in English.
The White House meanwhile publicly expressed confusion over Netanyahu’s remarks, with spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre saying only one arms shipment had been suspended since the start of the war.
“We have no idea what he’s talking about,” she noted.
Reports said several Israeli officials were already on their way to Washington when the meeting on Iran was called off.
Two U.S. officials said the meeting was canceled to send the video message, while a third official said the meeting had been postponed, not canceled, because of a scheduling conflict.
It is the second time a meeting on the Iran Strategic Dialogue has been cancelled at short notice – in March Netanyahu called it off after the US failed to veto a UN security resolution that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Despite the tensions between Biden and Netanyahu, the Israeli leader is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on July 24 in what is expected to be a contentious speech at a critical time in Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas.
