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Will Biden Act Against Israel During the Lame-Duck Period?
US President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, July 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
JNS.org – The final two months of the Biden administration may see diplomatic actions taken against Israel, although the White House has neither confirmed nor denied assessments on the issue.
One scenario could see the administration consider approving a United Nations Security Council resolution that would target Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, reminiscent of Resolution 2334 passed in 2016 during the Obama administration’s transition period.
A report by Israel Hayom on Tuesday cited an American source close to the Biden administration as stating that the United States intends to endorse such a resolution, adding that the proposed resolution aims to assert that Israel’s presence in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City, violates international law.
The source emphasized the parallels to Resolution 2334, which the Security Council approved during the transition period between the Obama and Trump administrations in December 2016. “Many of Obama’s advisers back then are also serving in Biden’s outgoing administration,” the report said, citing the source as stating, “I know that such a decision is brewing in the [U.S.] National Security Council.”
In response to inquiries, a senior Israeli official said Jerusalem currently has “no information” about an American intention to pass a resolution against Israel at the U.N., according to the report, which added, however, that “according to the assessment, eventually, such a decision will likely come.”
Adding to the concerns, Professor Eytan Gilboa, an expert on US-Israeli relations at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan and a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, discussed possible scenarios on Tuesday. Gilboa recalled the unusual step taken by President Barack Obama when he allowed the passage of Resolution 2334.
“Obama broke the tradition where an outgoing president doesn’t initiate significant new policies during the transition,” Gilboa told JNS. “He knew Trump’s position on settlements but still submitted the proposal to the Security Council.”
Gilboa added that “if Biden goes through with this, it’s essentially a repeat of Obama’s move. It might be aimed at negating [former Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo’s declaration in November 2019, which nullified Obama’s policy on settlements.”
The professor highlighted possible motivations behind such a move, it could be an attempt by Biden to leave a legacy opposing Trump’s stance on Judea and Samaria.
Gilboa questioned the rationale behind introducing a resolution now, adding, “If they do this, they’ll face severe criticism from Trump and the Republican-led Congress. It would be an unusual step during a transition period.”
Gilboa added that “this administration has previously imposed personal sanctions on individuals, including hilltop youths. They even considered sanctioning [Israeli Ministers Betzalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir. As such, I would not be surprised if they are considering such a step. If it goes ahead, it would appear to be some sort of punishment.”
Looking ahead, Gilboa suggested that Israel needs to engage in proactive diplomacy. “Israel should argue that such moves will only hinder any potential peace arrangements, like the Abraham Accords. It’s like putting a stoke in the wheel. If Biden proceeds with this, it will backfire.”
In such a scenario, he added, Israel would likely turn to the incoming Trump administration, which would issue an opposite declaration, similar to the declaration made by Pompeo in November 2019, who stated at the time a change in Washington’s policy on settlements. “Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law hasn’t worked. It hasn’t advanced the cause of peace,” Pompeo said.
Certain arms transfers
Meanwhile, indications continue to surface of ongoing punitive measures that have been underway in the form of withholding or delaying weapons deliveries. The Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) released an update on Tuesday concerning U.S. military assistance to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023. It notes that “eight platforms have either been slowed, suspended or left unanswered.
“Recent US decisions to withhold certain arms transfers to Israel, resume others, and the inconsistent reporting around those decisions highlight the challenges of accounting for vital resupplies to help Israel wage an unexpected, prolonged, multifront, munitions-intensive conflict,” JINSA reported.
JINSA has produced an infographic detailing US military assistance to Israel since Oct. 7, including withheld supplies. “The information presented is based on public reporting and JINSA discussions with officials knowledgeable of the arms transfers. Because arms deliveries are not publicly disclosed, it is difficult to assess exactly which supplies the United States agreed to send since October 7, versus sales that were contracted before that date and delivered afterward—nor is this list likely to be exhaustive, given backlogged and incomplete reporting of agreed arms transfers by the Pentagon,” it stated.
Under the “transfer reportedly slowed” category, the infographic mentioned Hellfire missiles and precision guided munitions, D9 armored bulldozers and tank ammunition.
At the same time, the US has provided at least $17.9 billion in support of Israeli military operations against Hamas since the Oct. 7, 2023, mass murder attacks, according to research released last month by Brown University. This includes deliveries of artillery shells, air defense munitions, precision-guided munitions and heavy bombs.
On Nov. 17, Marc Dubowitz, chief executive of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Eugene Kontorovich, a professor of law at George Mason University in Virginia, stated in a joint op-ed in the New York Post, “Under pressure from Israel-bashing critics, including scores of congressional Democrats, a president who stood firmly behind Israel after the Oct. 7 massacre seems to have lost his moral compass. And just as President Barack Obama in his last months in office allowed the UN Security Council to pass a resolution slamming Israel, Biden may use sanctions to further turn the screws on the Jewish state in his lame-duck stretch.”
They highlighted that in 2022, the US Treasury Department “determined that the Foundation for Global Political Exchange, a U.S.-based nonprofit, would violate sanctions laws by inviting Hamas and Hezbollah to a conference it was planning in Beirut. Last week, however, the Biden administration did an about-face and gave the group a green light for the meeting.”
Dubowitz and Kontorovich added, “Yet at the same time, the Biden administration has created the first sanctions program” designed to target citizens of Israel.
In the broader context, the reported actions reflect internal pressures within the Democratic Party and the Biden administration’s attempts to navigate between progressive elements and traditional foreign policy stances. Gilboa observed, “Perhaps this is Biden’s way of appeasing the progressive wing after facing criticism for his support of Israel during the recent conflict.”
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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