How Joe Biden’s red line on Israel went from a ‘parlor game’ to a murky millstone

Philadelphia CNN —

After dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah this week, the White House made clear: The incident did not cross the red line President Joe Biden has drawn when it comes to providing certain American weapons to Israel.

Where, exactly, that line rests remains somewhat elusive since Biden first confirmed to an interviewer in March that such a threshold exists.

Biden’s aides, acutely aware of previous presidents who drew red lines only to back away from any promised action when they were crossed, once dismissed talk about “red lines” as a media obsession.

“The whole issue of the red line, as you all define it, is something that you guys like; it’s almost become a bit of a national security parlor game,” Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in March, after the president suggested for the first time that an invasion of Rafah would prompt him to rethink some aspects of his policy.

At the very least, however, Biden’s own comments since then suggest there are actions Israel could take that would trigger a new approach from the United States. He has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as much during telephone calls and conveyed his stance publicly in an interview with CNN.

But he has remained vague about how he will quantify such a decision, leading to frustrations and a degree of confusion about his stance. Many Democrats, along with foreign leaders who the US counts as allies, say Israel’s actions clearly cross a red line – if not Biden’s, then their own and those of international law.

“President Biden rightly drew a red line for US support on a full-scale invasion of Rafah, but I think it’s unclear to the public the