Biden is caught in a no-win situation 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, senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen explains how Joe Biden isn't pleasing anyone with his latest move on Israel. Plus, senior national politics reporters Henry J. Gomez and Matt Dixon report on the potential domino effect that could hurt the prospects for two potential Donald Trump running mates. And we recap Day 14 of Trump's New York criminal trial.

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Biden is caught in a no-win situation on Israel

By Jonathan Allen

President Joe Biden is trying to thread the needle on Israel’s war against Hamas, but his threat to stop sending certain weapons to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government left some in Washington wondering whether he’s lost that thread.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said in an interview with CNN Wednesday. “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem.”

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In point of fact, Israel is conducting limited military operations in Rafah, the Gaza city where more than 1 million Palestinians have clustered since the war began in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on the Jewish state. Biden said Israel has not yet crossed a “red line” by going into population centers.

But at the