Netanyahu: Israel isn't America's "vassal state"

Axios' Barak Ravid reported today (Wednesday) that during a security cabinet meeting last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu lashed out at the US administration due to its embargo on military aid to Israel. According to the report, an aide quoted Netanyahu as saying he knew "how to deal with American pressure" and that Israel would do "whatever it could to protect itself" - even if it meant defying Biden.

The recent conflict of interest erupted about two weeks ago when Biden withheld a shipment of about 3,500 bombs en-route to Israel following Netanyahu's promises to invade the Gazan city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have allegedly taken refuge since the beginning of the war.

Netanyahu also told cabinet members that Israel is not a "banana republic" - a term coined by former Prime Minister Begin after then-President Ronald Reagan froze $300 million in military aid to Israel following the annexation of the Golan Heights.

The report also details how former ambassador to Washington, D.C., Ron Dermer, who served under Presidents Obama and Trump, and is now a close confidant of Netanyahu's told the Prime Minister that Biden "wouldn't dare" come through with his warnings of freezing arms shipments. Apparently, Dermer believed Biden's promise was an attempt to garner support from progressive Democrats opposed to the war in Gaza.