US ambassador: Israel’s impatience in receiving weapons understandable

Israel’s impatience in receiving weapons is understandable, says US Ambassador Jack Lew. “The US system is moving quickly still,” he stresses, acknowledging that it is “perhaps not at the speed of October 8.”

Speaking at the annual Herzliya Conference, Lew adds that the initial pace of weapons delivery “isn’t physically sustainable because you start running into supply issues.”

He acknowledges that “one shipment of large diameter bombs” was held up, but “precision-guided missiles were still delivered.”

The issue returned to the headlines last week when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video calling on US President Joe Biden to release holds on weapons shipments.

Lew says he does not understand claims that the Biden administration is not sufficiently supportive of Israel during the war on Hamas. “We support Israel and we will continue to support Israel,” he says.

“We’ve done what the closest of friends do,” the envoy continues. “We’ve shared mostly in private where things stand and where things need to go.”

Lew says that the US has been “urging that Israel fight the war in a way that reflects our shared values, that is something that leads to a better future.”

The diplomat acknowledges that “Israel did provide and is continuing to provide a huge amount of humanitarian assistance.”

He also emphasizes that the US does not believe that there is a famine in Gaza.

At the same time, he urges more clarity on who rules Gaza after Hamas: “The real issue in terms of wisdom is having a vision of where it goes afterwards… You need a vision where you don’t end up back where you started again.”

He calls for “a conversation about the future of the Palestinian people,” and argues that “Israel is on the brink of being accepted by all the moderate Arab countries.”