The US continues to support Israel in the war against Hamas, but after criticism of Netanyahu, Joe Biden takes action and his administration is delaying the sale of rifles produced in the United States to Israel .

The reason? Israeli settler violence and continued attacks against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank . The Biden administration is concerned that the Israeli government is not doing enough to reduce settler violence.

In the first week of the war, Israel requested rifles for civilians in Israeli villages on the borders with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. The request had been treated with extreme caution by the administration in the wake of fears that the rifles were being distributed to extremist settlers in the West Bank, who support Netanyahu.

Biden and Congress then approved the request after receiving assurances that the weapons would not go to civilians in the settlements. A few weeks after the green light, however, the State Department decided to slow down the process and order a new review of the licenses .

Further scrutiny reflects Biden administration concerns that the Israeli government is not doing enough to address settler violence . What worried the administration were the rumors reported by the Israeli media about a secret document written by the commander of the IDF central command according to which the minister of national security Itamar Ben Gvir ordered the police not to make arrests of violent settlers in the West Bank .

(Unioneonline/L)