As staunch bipartisan criticism continues to engulf the Biden administration for withholding munitions aid to Israel, a leading Republican senator pointed out on Saturday that the White House unilaterally took the action even as the Jewish state is fighting a war against terrorism on three fronts.
On Sunday, CNN reported that the U.S. was “reviewing” the transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits to Israel, which allow for conventional bombs to be converted into precision guided weapons. “On the one hand, they’re saying too many Palestinian civilians have been killed,” remarked Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). “With the other hand, they’re depriving [Israel] of the precision guided weapons that actually cut down on civilian casualties.”
Democrats on the Hill are also expressing alarm regarding Biden’s refusal to release the weapons aid to Israel, which was approved by Congress and signed into law three weeks ago as part of a munitions aid package that also includes Ukraine and Taiwan. On Friday, a group of 26 House Democrats sent a letter to the White House stating that the lawmakers are “deeply concerned about the message the Administration is sending to Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist proxies by withholding weapons shipments to Israel.”
As Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made clear on “This Week on the Hill” hosted by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins over the weekend, that message is being heard loud and clear by the terrorist groups seeking to destroy the state of Israel.
“This is a strategic blunder,” he asserted. “It’s put all the terrorists on steroids, and it’s really deflated our friends in Israel. … “Hezbollah [has] 100,000 rockets aimed at Israel — that’s a radical Shiite terrorist group bent on the destruction of Israel. Iran [writes] ‘The Great Satan’ [and] ‘Death to Israel’ on its missiles. Hamas’s … goal is to destroy all the Jews, not help the Palestinians. They’re surrounded on three fronts. On a single day they were attacked by all three. And our response is, ‘We’re going to withhold bombs as you try to destroy the last four battalions [of Hamas].’”
Graham continued, “Hamas puts up command centers under hospitals. They store weapons in schools. They fire rockets behind mosques. They make it hard for Israel not to kill the Palestinian people because [Hamas] uses them as shields. [But] this is Pearl Harbor and 9/11 on steroids. … Give Israel what they need. … Now, what Biden’s done is obscene. It’s wrong. It’s dangerous. It makes the war go on longer. Iran’s got to be emboldened.”
The senator and former Air Force colonel went on to argue that President Biden’s refusal to release the munitions aid is hampering the plight of the roughly 130 hostages still held by Hamas for over seven months, whom Biden has claimed are the key to a potential ceasefire.
“If I’m a hostage family member, I’m feeling pretty bad right now because getting the hostages released is going to be difficult to begin with,” he pointed out. “Now that the Americans are threatening to cut off weapons necessary to destroy the last four battalions of Hamas [in] Rafah, I think you’ve emboldened them. … It’s made the hostage deal much harder. The idea of getting Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel, to do a defense agreement with the United States, when we seem hell-bent on managing Israel’s war is, is probably impossible.”
Graham further reiterated Israel’s need for precision guided arms that are being held up by Biden. “[T]he idea of leaving Hamas intact militarily is insane,” he insisted. “… [T]he Jewish people are not going to let another version of October 7th happen, they’re going to destroy Hamas. … So this whole idea of withholding precision guided weapons to finish off these four battalions is just wrong at so many levels. It puts more pressure on Israel to use other weapons. Again, Hamas is using the Palestinian people to make it hard for Israel. You can’t reward the use of human shields by standing down military operations.”
Graham concluded by emphasizing that the resolve of the Israeli people remains rock solid despite pressure from the Biden administration to consider a two-state solution and to dictate how they should conduct combat operations against Hamas.
“What Biden is doing is taking the war away from Israel, taking operational control of how to finish off these four battalions,” he contended. “I would not let Lloyd Austin lead this operation if I was Israel. The track record that he has is pretty bad. … Here’s what I can tell you about Israel. … The Israeli people from every corner of society believes that Hamas … must be destroyed, and they will do whatever is necessary to destroy Hamas. They have the same mindset we did after Pearl Harbor. This is not a Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] problem. This is an insistence by the Jewish people to destroy the people who want to kill all the Jews before they can do it again.”
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.
