NEW: Israeli minister Benny Gantz encountered harsh criticism & tough questions about the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza & Israel's war strategy during his meeting with VP Harris & National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday. My story on @axios axios.com/2024/03/05/isr…
Why it matters: Gantz, who is considered a more moderate member of the Israeli war cabinet, absorbed a lot of the frustration the White House has with the Israeli government right now, a U.S. official told me
The strong messages Gantz received in private, which were accompanied by stronger public criticism from the Biden administration in the last 48 hours, signal the White House has lost its patience and is ratcheting up pressure on the Israeli government
The big picture: The aid convoy disaster in Gaza last Thursday, during which more than 100 Palestinians were killed, was a turning point for the Biden administration, U.S. officials told me
U.S. officials saw the aid convoy incident as an event that embodied all the Israeli policy failures in Gaza and were surprised about the indifference on the Israeli side about what happened
Shortly before Gantz arrived at the White House on Monday, Biden tweeted: "There are no excuses. The aid flowing into Gaza is nowhere near enough – and nowhere fast enough"
Around the same time, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Netanyahu's confidant, minister Ron Dermer, about the issue. In an unusual move, the State Department shortly after made the call public
"Blinken pressed Dermer that more must be done to get aid into Gaza, to ensure that the delivery of aid is sustained into Gaza, and to ensure that once aid gets into Gaza it can be distributed to those who need it," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said
An Israeli official said that already after the meetings Gantz had on Sunday to prepare for the White House talks, the Israeli minister started realizing the Israeli government "is in deep shit" when it comes to how the U.S. sees Israel's responsibility for the crisis in Gaza
Gantz spent three hours at the White House. Harris and Sullivan both pressed Gantz on the humanitarian situation and said Gaza "needs to be flooded" with aid and it is Israel's responsibility to find solutions that will allow it to happen, Israeli and U.S. officials said
The Israeli official said Harris told Gantz the administration wants to continue backing Israel, but the Israeli government needs to do its part. "The Vice President said: help us help you," the Israeli official said
The official said Gantz wasn't only surprised by the strength of criticism about the humanitarian crisis but also about how far apart Israel and the U.S. are when it comes to a possible operation in Rafah
Harris and Sullivan asked Gantz where Israel is planning to move more than one million Palestinian civilians who are in Rafah and expressed deep skepticism it is even possible, two U.S. and Israeli officials said
Gantz tried to reassure Harris & Sullivan that Israel won't go into Rafah without evacuating the civilian population & stressed Israel has ways to do it, but also realized the WH doesn't believe previous assurances received from Netanyahu on this issue, the Israeli official said
Another pessimistic message Gantz received at the White House was that the chances are slim of reaching the mega-deal with Saudi Arabia that includes normalization with Israel as long as the war continues & as long as the Israeli government is unwilling to chart a path for a 2SS
The senior Israeli official said Gantz's conclusion was his visit to Washington was two months too late. "There is a big difficulty right now in the relations with the U.S. and we have to find a way to overcome it," the official said. END
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