On Thursday, The White House released a readout summarizing a phone call between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden called for an immediate ceasefire during the chat, saying it was “essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians.” He also called on Israel to take concrete steps to protect aid workers and implied that U.S. policy in the region could shift if Netanyahu did not heed the call. Biden’s request came days after an Israel strike in the Gaza Strip killed 7 employees of the humanitarian organization World Central Kitchen and sparked global outrage.

Today Israel announced that it’s reprimanding the soldiers connected to that killing and reopening the Erez border crossing between Israel and North Gaza. In other words, Biden’s gentle rebuke has resulted in some minor changes to Israeli policy.

We are sitting around and talking about how upset we are while we hemorrhage billions of dollars.

The sequence of events is not surprising. There’s a long history of Israel changing course at the request of the United States, a country that it relies on for vast amounts of military aid. Reagan suspended the delivery of fighter jets to the country after it bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor and pressured Menachem Begin to end his bombardment on Lebanon. George H.W. Bush withheld loan guarantees to make Yitzhak Shamir halt settlement expansion.

We’ve even seen examples of this dynamic during Biden’s presidency. Franklin Foer’s book The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future, details conversations between Biden and Netanyahu that occurred during Israel’s 2021 assault on Gaza.

Biden “held his tongue” after Israel bombed a 12-story building that served as a home base for journalists in Gaza City, and the attacks continued. However, later in the campaign, Biden instructed the Prime Minister to wrap things up. Netanyahu insisted he needed more time to bomb, but Biden reportedly told him, “Hey, man, we are out of runway here. It’s over.”

Netanyahu begrudgingly agreed to a ceasefire days later.

Again, none of this is especially surprising. However, for months the Biden administration has insisted there’s very little it can do to alter policy in the region and acted as though Israel’s policy decisions are unconnected to the United States, the country that gives them more than $4 billion a year in military aid.

This narrative is consistently pushed during press briefings.

Here’s a typical example from February 27, in which State Department spokesman Matthew Miller was asked about the tools it has to influence Israel.

“So one thing I will say about that that people often tend to forget is that Israel, like other countries in the region, is a sovereign country that makes its own decisions,” claimed Miller. “The United States does not dictate to Israel what it must do, just as we don’t dictate to any country what it must do.”

Miller made a similar statement the following month, when he was asked about Israel invading Rafah.

“We can’t dictate to them,” he told reporters. “They’re a sovereign country, and the United States can’t dictate to any sovereign country. They’re going to make their own decisions, and........

© Common Dreams