Let's bring in the top White House National Security spokesman
John Kirby.
John, thanks for joining us again this morning.
We know the Israeli war cabinet met this morning.
What do you know about what they decided?
We don't have any indication right now that they have
made a decision,
George, or what? What, what they might do.
I mean, obviously, this is for them to to decide.
And then and to speak to the president and his
conversation with the Prime Minister.
Netanyahu did reiterate that it was a tremendous success for
Israel Saturday night.
Not just the military superiority that they showed,
but they showed they're not alone,
that there was a coalition of nations that were willing
to help them defend themselves and that he ought to
think about that success and what that success all by
itself. Says to Iran into the region,
do you think he's persuaded the Prime Minister not to
strike back again?
That's going to be up to the Prime Minister and
the war cabinet to decide.
The president was also clear,
as he has been throughout,
that we do not seek a wider war in the
region and we don't seek a conflict with Iran and
the United States is not going to be part of
any any retaliation, we know that.
Is there any other limit to support for Israel if
they do escalate this conflict?
This gets into the whole idea of conditioning aid and
and and that kind of thing.
And what I would tell you is that.
We're going to continue to make sure Israel has what
it needs to defend itself.
And President Biden, you know,
I believe he's the 1st president to ever actually put
U.S.
forces in the fight in that defense of Israel.
And of course, he was the 1st president to visit
them during wartime.
So he takes that commitment.
Very seriously. At the same time,
what is happening in Gaza on a humanitarian scale has
got to improve.
And we are continuing to talk to our Israeli counterparts
not just about what operations they're conducting,
but how they're conducting them and trying to get that
done in a more precise,
careful way. Inside Gaza, you heard Martha's reporter runs and
missiles did not get through.
Are they a paper tiger?
I think this showed not.
Not in addition to Israel's military superiority.
I I think it did show.
It did demonstrate. That Iran is not the power that
it purports to be,
that it doesn't have that same military superiority that that
said,
and Martha's right, you can't take it for granted.
I mean, they still have.
Quite an inventory available to them.
They still have a large military and a sizable maritime
force.
They certainly have a sizeable ballistic missile capability,
so you can't take that for granted.
Nobody's taking their eye off the ball.
We're going to stay vigilant.
Aid needs for Israel, Aid needs for the Ukraine.
Are you confident the House is going to pass it?
They need to, George. I mean,
my goodness, if they just took the bipartisan bill that
the Senate passed and put it on the floor of
the House,
they we know there's the votes for that.
Excuse me. And if the event Saturday night proved anything,
it's the sense of urgency here for both helping our
ally Israel and of course,
helping Ukraine, which, as you and I speaking,
are continued to face Russian onslaughts in the Donbass region
and Russian air assaults to their infrastructure.
John Kirby, thanks as always.