Donald Trump, with reckless abandon, and perhaps an eye on the campaign treasure fund of billionaire Miriam Adelson, took up arms for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On President Biden’s threat to hold back some weaponry, he posted on his TruthSocial platform: “Crooked Joe is taking the side of these terrorists just like he has sided with the Radical Mobs taking over our college campuses, because his donors are funding them.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, even before President Biden had announced his condition on arms to Israel last night, had penned a joint letter to the President blasting last week’s decision to hold up the arms transfer to Israel. It said that Biden’s decision “flies in the face of assurances provided regarding the timely delivery of security assistance to Israel” and “call[s] into question your pledge that your commitment to Israel’s security will remain ironclad.” Today, Johnson added his reaction to Biden’s escalation last night. He told Politico: “My reaction, honestly, was, ‘Wow, that is a complete turn from what I have been told, even in, you know, recent hours. I mean, 24 hours ago, it was confirmed to me by top administration officials that the policy’s very different than what he stated there.”
AIPAC’s favorite Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York told Axios that he suspects Biden is “pandering to the far left…. It looks like election year politics was driving it. That’s my impression. I’d like the President to do right by Israel and recognize that the far left is not representative of the rest of the country.”
Ted Deutch, the head of the American Jewish Committee, posted on social media: “President Biden should not take steps that could impair Israel’s ability to prevent Hamas from attacking it again and again—as its leaders have promised. The U.S. knows that defeating Hamas is critical to Israel’s long-term security and to defeating the global threat posed by the Iranian regime and its proxies.” The pro-Israel lobby AIPAC said Biden’s comments were “dangerous and counter to American interest.”
Otherwise, some pointed beyond the hyperbole, that Israel is under no real constraint, suggesting that Biden won’t seriously follow through. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) told the Jewish Insider platform that Biden “came to this Congress and he said pass legislation,” referring to the $14 billion military package for Israel. “You can’t come to members and get them to vote for your bill, your package, and then throw away part of the package. Biden seems to be communicating his displeasure, and I regard these statements as a communicative act, rather than a strategic act.”
Similarly, Itamar Yaar, former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council, said: “It’s not some kind of American embargo on American munitions support, but I think it’s some kind of diplomatic message to Mr. Netanyahu that he needs to take into consideration American interests more than he has over the last few months. At least for now it will not impact Israeli capability but it’s some kind of a signal, a ‘Be careful.’”
