A potential tipping point for Biden on Israel: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell examines whether this week marked a tipping point for President Joe Biden's approach to Israel. Plus, senior national political reporter Jonathan Allen looks ahead to Donald Trump's potential statement on abortion next week.

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Is this a tipping point for Biden’s Israel policy?

By Andrea Mitchell

Did it take the death of seven World Central Kitchen workers to get President Joe Biden to shift his policy toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza?

Until now, according to senior administration officials, Biden has been one of the last holdouts of his national security team on taking a harder line as the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has deepened, even though his reluctance to do so seemed intractable to allied world leaders and even some of his own advisers.

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The president’s call with Netanyahu on Thursday and a virtual meeting of their advisers on Israel’s plan to invade Rafah appear to have been a turning point. Secretary of State Antony Blinken — who was on the call — broke precedent by going on camera soon afterward to cite specific steps Biden wanted Israel to take, including opening the critical Erez land crossing into North Gaza and the port of Ashdod for aid deliveries.

Blinken had been pressing for both during multiple trips to Israel and said Friday, “U.S. policy on Gaza will be determined by