By Athena Papakosta

The United States of America is Israel’s closest ally. Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, Washington reiterates that its support for Tel Aviv is iron and unwavering. THE But the Biden administration’s patience is being tested for weeks now, since the Israeli prime minister chooses to listen but in the end ignore calls and warnings from the Americans.

Washington has already tried to gnash Tel Aviv’s teeth either by imposing sanctions against Israeli settlers in the West Bank, or by not vetoing resolutions condemning Israel at the United Nations.

Now the United States is choosing to step up its pressure.

The Biden administration made the decision to freeze a shipment of bombs to Israel, and then decided to review other arms packages as well.

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was clear. “We will continue to do whatever is necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” but “we are reassessing military assistance missions in light of developments in Rafah.”

A few hours later the president of the United States himself broke his silence on the matter and for the first time speaking to the American network CNN said that the US would stop sending weapons to Israel if the country’s prime minister gave the green light for a large-scale attack in the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip.

The final decision has not yet been made. But the movement is already stirring the waters.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, speaking to Israel’s Channel 12, said he did not believe the United States would stop supplying Israel with weapons, but called the decision to freeze a shipment of bombs “very disappointing,” “even irritating.” ».

Raising the tone even more, Gilad Erdan added that the US president, Joe Biden, “cannot say that he is our partner in the goal of destroying Hamas at a time when, on the other hand, he is delaying the means to achieve it.”

For its part, the US government has denied the “red lines” but has made it clear that Joe Biden was not joking when, speaking by phone with Benjamin Netanyahu on April 4, he stressed that an Israeli attack on Rafah would lead to a serious reassessment of relationship between the two allies.

An American official, speaking to the Washington Post newspaper, spoke of a warning shot by Washington in order to make Tel Aviv aware of the seriousness of the US concerns about the Israeli attack on Rafah.

At the same time, analysts, apart from Rafa’s argument, are also focusing on the fact that talks on a cease-fire agreement in Cairo are still ongoing.

They therefore explain that it is not excluded that the American government chooses to increase its pressure on Tel Aviv and specifically on the country’s war council so that its members support the plan-proposal.

Another factor that experts do not ignore is the fact that the country is already on the pre-election trajectory with Joe Biden due to the student mobilizations in favor of ending the war, “losing” the young people from his side.

The ball remains in the Americans’ court, as they have yet to say their last word, while the State Department’s report is pending on whether Israel has used weapons supplied by the United States, according to the international humanitarian fair enough. However, Netanyahu’s next move is also pending, and he has so far chosen to remain silent.