The Biden administration's moves concerning the Israel-Hamas war are managed by "their political polling," retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Tuesday.
Holt appeared on "Newsline" the same day it was reported the Biden administration has told Israel it must work to avoid "significant further displacement" of Gaza civilians in southern Gaza if it renews its ground campaign to eradicate the Hamas militant group.
"The point that I see is that they manage everything by their political polling," Holt said of Biden administration officials. "It's no accident that Jake Sullivan is the national security adviser, and he's also their political and campaign adviser at the exact same time. So, they don't want to lose the Arab bloc of votes. They imposed this micromanagement thing.
"And here's where it gets really dangerous, is the president's press conference last week when he said, 'We're exploring conditions-based support for Israel.' Are you kidding me? That's our ally."
Holt added that the administration’s stance toward Ukraine "is quite the opposite."
"It's a blank check on … over $100 billion, exhausting our weapons to a dumpster fire to absolutely zero outcome other than probably a million people dead by this point," Holt told host Bianca de la Garza. "So, they're just not consistent. They rule by polling, and it's very dangerous for the world."
Holt also criticized the administration and both political parties for not taking a stronger stance in opposing displays of antisemitism in the U.S.
"There's no leadership from them on this antisemitism wave that we see coming across our country and being quite acceptable with nobody, and I say that on the Republican side as well," he said. "Nobody's grabbing a microphone and saying, Hey, America, that's got to stop right now."
As Holt spoke, mediators met in Qatar to try to extend the cease-fire beyond Wednesday.
"If you're Hamas, you're going to try to extend this day by day, week by week, month by month. It's their only path to survival," Holt told de la Garza. "So, we know exactly how they're going to play this. But if you think about the numbers, Bianca, getting 10 hostages a day for 30 terrorists in return, those numbers don't work out over time, and they take a very long time.
"This is a military mission and at some point, it's going to go to a real bad place because it doesn't work out. This is a special operations rescue mission, and it needs to be treated that way. And then quite frankly, once you turn it over to the uniforms, get out of their way and let the tough people go do the tough things to do if we're going to have a chance to save these people."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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