The White House has delayed a high-level meeting with Israeli officials to discuss Iran after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video accusing the United States of withholding military aid.
The meeting had been scheduled to take place on Thursday.
Axios reports, "President Biden's top advisers were enraged by the video — a message U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein delivered personally to Netanyahu in a meeting hours after it was published, two U.S. and Israeli sources say. Then the White House decided to go a step farther by canceling Thursday's meeting."
"This decision makes it clear that there are consequences for pulling such stunts," an unnamed U.S. official told the outlet.
A senior Israeli official told the outlet, "The Americans are fuming. Bibi's video made a lot of damage."
Some Israeli officials who were supposed to attend the meeting were already en route to the U.S. when they received word of the cancellation.
In Netanyahu's video, which was posted to social media, he states that it is "inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel." Give us the tools and we'll finish the job. pic.twitter.com/eQHpyd9q0X
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) June 18, 2024
Axios reports, "In private, Biden's team was angry and shocked by Netanyahu's ingratitude, according to one U.S. official."
Publicly, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that only one weapons shipment had been stopped since the war began — "while billions of dollars of weapons had flowed unimpeded."
Israel remains the top cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since World War II, with billions of taxpayer dollars being shipped there annually.
"We genuinely do not know what he is talking about," Jean-Pierre said.
The White House has denied the meeting was canceled over the video and claims it is trying to find a new date and time.
“As we said in the briefing yesterday, we have no idea what the prime minister is talking about, but that’s not a reason for rescheduling a meeting,” a White House official told The Times of Israel.
“We have been working to find a time to schedule the next SDG that accounts for the travel and availability of principals, but have not yet fully finalized the details so nothing has been cancelled,” the official added. “In the meantime, meetings with Israeli officials are being held throughout the week at expert and senior levels on a range of topics.”
