The United States and Israel have been at odds under the Biden administration — and Israel “needs to ask, Are you still going to fund Iran?" after its missile attack on Israel, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Newsmax.
In an interview Saturday night, Friedman, who served under former President Donald Trump, called the attack a Israel “a colossal failure.”
“The United States, the U.K., other countries have participated in coming to Israel's defense,” Friedman said. “So I think … right now there is really a common view, not just within Israel, but around, I hope, the rest of the world that Israel needs to respond.”
He also noted the “first question Israel needs to ask the United States is, Are you still going to fund Iran after all this?”
“As long as the United States is paying for this … I think Israel will be guided by that response,” he said. “If the Americans say, Look, we're going to still … pay for Iran's military, I think Israel is going to have to go it alone.”
“You cannot allow this to end with with 200 missiles being fired even as this was a colossal failure by Iran,” he added.
Friedman said, “From a political perspective, the United States and Israel have not been on the same page since the Biden administration took over.”
“In the last six months, I can think of — just off the top of my head — more than $26 billion of sanctions relief, of cash transfers that we permitted,” he said.
“As long as the United States is paying for this, I don't see how you know Israel is going to be in a position to … coordinate its next move with America.”
“When we left office, Iran was broke,” Friedman noted. “They were in no position to foment terror to fund terrorism around the Middle Eastern crescent.”
“Now they are avery wealthy country; they’ve got probably lots of weapons still in their stockpile … the focus ought to be the nukes, the nuclear weapons.”
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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