As Israel’s war on Gaza continues unabated, the United States, which holds great leverage over Israel’s conduct, is seemingly helpless in stopping the genocide of Palestinians from being carried out with U.S.-taxpayer-provided weapons. This prompts two critical questions: First, how far does Israel need to go in order to face tangible consequences in terms of the military aid it receives? And second, how much political power is President Joe Biden willing to lose over the need to maintain Israel’s blood thirst?

So far, Biden is trying to have it both ways in appearing tough: scold Israel verbally while keeping intact the lifeline of U.S. military aid. As far back as December 2023, when Gaza’s death toll just surpassed 18,000, the President sparked headlines such as, “Biden is talking tougher about Israel, but continues to aid its war effort. ” At that time, a senior administration official told NBC News, “There’s a full expectation that what was provided to [Israel] will be used appropriately in accordance with the law of armed conflict, but we’re not at this time putting any additional strings on the assistance that we’re providing.” The implication was that if Israel further abused the military aid it receives, it would face the levers of U.S. power.

Two months later, the death toll rose past 28,000—that’s 10,000 higher than in mid-December. And still, the Biden administration did not feel the need to rein in Israel. In a heated press briefing , U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller faced hard questions from journalists about the leverage that Biden enjoys but has refused to use. Miller lamented that “sometimes people pretend that the United States of America has a magic wand that it can wave to make any situation in the world roll out in exactly the way that we would want it to.”

One of the journalists at the briefing rightly countered, “The fact is that........

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