President Joe Biden is "throwing Israel under the bus" because he's facing opposition from progressives and a segment of voters, and that means Hamas is more likely to refuse a deal on releasing its hostages, Fred Fleitz, a member of the National Security Council under former President Donald Trump, said on Newsmax on Saturday.
"He's in so much trouble with his progressive left and in states like Wisconsin and Minnesota, where there are a number of Muslim voters who vote Democrat," said Fleitz on Newsmax's "Saturday Agenda." "But what I think is such a tragedy here is that the more that Biden criticizes and isolates Israel, the less willing Hamas is to make a deal for the hostages."
He added that Israel would agree to a cease-fire in exchange for the release of the hostages, "but Hamas will not go for that."
"It's holding out for very tough demands because it knows that Israel is increasingly isolated, especially when one of their closest friends in the world is throwing them under the bus," said Fleitz.
Foreign policy expert Harley Lippman, also on the program, commented that many people in Israel are hoping that Biden is doing what he needs to do to appease the liberal left and get elected, others feel that he is not "letting Israel win the war."
But Israel shouldn't have to interpret Biden's moves, he said.
"It should be pretty clear, our response to everything that happens there in working with Israel," said Lippman.
Fleitz also Saturday discussed the likelihood of a retaliatory strike from Iran after it said Israel hit its consulate this week in Damascus, Syria, killing several Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials.
"This was a terrorist headquarters," Fleitz said. "I'm outraged today because the Biden administration, through an intermediary, went to the Iranian government and said, 'We had nothing to do with this.'"
That was the wrong response, he added.
"I think it's outrageous. And I might add, I still think American soldiers are at risk because our soldiers are more vulnerable to Israelis, and I don't think what Biden's offered to the Iranians is going to matter."
Meanwhile, the Arab states want the Israel-Hamas war to stop, said Fleitz.
"They are blaming Israel for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but you know they're not breaking relations with Israel," he said. "It hasn't stopped the Abraham Accords. I think at the end of the day, they don't like this war; but they don't like Hamas either. They don't like what Hamas did, and that's why we don't have any Arab states taking Hamas refugees ... They know Hamas is a terrorist organization, and no neighboring Arab state wants them in their country."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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