Netanyahu - International Pressure On Israel Will Not Work

Reuters reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated, during a meeting in Tel Aviv today with US Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), that his decision to cancel an Israeli security delegation to Washington DC this week was a message to Hamas that, "international pressure on Israel will not work."

• Recent press conferences from Biden administration officials have suggested that, despite ruptures between the governments of Israel and the US over a potential IDF operation in Rafah, the US remains outwardly unwilling to use any additional tools to apply pressure on Israel to change policy.
• State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters yesterday that Israel is operating in compliance with US laws on the use of US military hardware in combat.
• White House National Security Council spox John Kirby told reporters on two occasions this week that he's, "not going to get into hypotheticals and — and speculate about that one way or the other," about attaching conditions on aid to Israel - broadly seen as the most effective mechanism to pressure Israel on Rafah.
• Miller said on conditioning aid: "Let’s take this one step at a time... We believe that there is a better way for them to accomplish a legitimate security imperative. And I don’t want to preview any possible actions if it goes a different way."
• Kann reports that Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant requested additional long range offensive weapons and approval of the purchase of additional F-35 fighter planes in a meeting with US Def Sec Austin yesterday.