In Threatening Israel, Biden Hopes to Avoid a Rupture

…The threat is not idle, aides said, but he wants to force a course correction rather than follow through.

By the time President Biden hung up the phone, he had finally delivered the threat he had refused to make for months: Israel had to change course, he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or the United States would.

But as the conversation ended on Thursday, aides to Mr. Biden said, the president had reason to hope that the message had gotten through and that he would not have to carry out his threat after all.

During the call, Mr. Biden outlined several specific commitments he wanted Israel to make to avoid losing his support for the war against Hamas. Rather than pushing back, according to people informed about the call, Mr. Netanyahu promised that he would announce more humanitarian aid for Gaza within hours and signaled that he would respond to Mr. Biden’s other demands in days to come.

Mr. Netanyahu’s government followed through later that night, authorizing the opening of a key port and another land crossing for food and other supplies. The White House expects Israel to soon issue new military procedures to avoid killing civilians and relief workers, and administration officials will be watching carefully this weekend when Israeli negotiators join William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, and Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries in Cairo to try again to broker a temporary cease-fire.

Whether it will be enough to avoid the rupture that Mr. Biden never wanted in the first place remains uncertain. Administration officials insisted that the president’s threat was not an idle one and that he was “very strident,” as one described him, in making his points to Mr. Netanyahu. At the same time, officials said, Mr. Biden did not specifically threaten to limit or cut off U.S. arms supplies during the call, as some Democrats have urged him to do, nor did he set a deadline for Israeli action. The “or else” remained unclear and undefined.

…

None of which means that the two sides are certain to avoid a climactic clash. 

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I dislike very much the Times’ repeated characterization, including in their lede, of “Threat”. A “threat” in relations between countries means military action. President Biden did not “threaten” Israel. He didn’t even threaten a a break in diplomatic relations nor even a cessation of military aid to Israel.

By contrast, Axios puts it this way.

"We won't support you": Inside Biden's ultimatum to Bibi

If Israel doesn't change course in Gaza, "we won't be able to support you," he said, according to three sources with knowledge of the call.

Biden didn't specify what a loss of U.S. support would entail and he didn't mention the possibility of stopping weapons shipments to Israel, the sources said.