So the UK just announced an arms embargo on Israel (or "withholding arms" I suppose) and I feel kinda bad for the white house press correspondent giving a press release on this:

The Labour government apparently gave the white house a "heads up" before making the announcement and yet it's clear the white house didn't really give her a good thing to say to all the "OK is the US going to do this too? It seems like a good move!" she's just like over and over trying to say two seemingly contradictory things of "Our commitment to Israel's security is ironclad" and "Our top priority is getting a ceasefire deal."

The recent death of six hostages resulted in one of the largest protests in Israeli history if not world history as people across the political spectrum inside and outside of Likud-controlled territories demanded that the Likud government end the war and agree to Hamas' terms for a hostage release and ceasefire. Netanyahu dug his heels in. Even an internal revolt and general strike from his own constituency isn't enough to push him. The UK is no longer suppling arms. The US obviously should follow suite.

And, to be honest, it feels like the white house's strategy here is to try and say vague things that everyone wants to hear and stall until November so they can secure reelection and then either do the right thing and stop supplying weapons to Israel in order to force the Likud government to agree to a ceasefire or they'll just stop even feigning to care about a ceasefire at all. In the meantime, a lot of people will die.

They are afraid to be cast as anti-israel, which is a broadly unpopular stance among the Christian majority and among a large slice of Jews (though not as large a majority as people think), and worry it would cost the election.

But wouldn't stopping the war be an even bigger political win?

It's all very frustrating. You need leverage to win a negotiation!