Fred Fleitz, senior fellow at America First Policy Institute, and Robert Wilkie, former under secretary of Defense, told Newsmax on Monday that the Biden administration "emboldened Hamas" to attack Israel over the weekend by projecting weakness, criticizing the Jewish State and promoting an "incompetent foreign policy."
"I was delighted to hear President [Joe] Biden say on Saturday that the U.S. has rock-solid support for Israel, but we know his support for Israel has not been rock-solid," Fleitz told "American Agenda." "There has been constant criticism of Israel by the Biden government, they've pursued policies giving money to the Palestinians, pursuing a nuclear deal with Iran, giving Iran billions of dollars of sanctions relief that has alienated the Israeli government.
"We know that Biden has snubbed [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu by not meeting with him at the White House. This has to end. I would like to see a summit between Biden and Netanyahu as soon as possible, as soon as Netanyahu can do it. I'd like to see Netanyahu speak to a joint session of Congress, so we make it clear there's unequivocal support from the U.S. and there's no daylight between the United States and Israel in fighting this threat."
There has been speculation that Iran helped plan or finance the terrorist group's Saturday attack, following a Wall Street Journal report that cited senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials. Wilkie said that Iran was "broke" when former President Donald Trump left office.
"They were making about $6.5 billion a year on oil sales," he said. "So far this year, because Biden hasn't enforced the sanctions in some vain attempt to bring the ayatollahs into the community of nations, they've earned $54 billion in oil revenue just this year alone. So, we don't have a very good track record here."
Wilkie said he spoke to several Israeli generals Monday morning and they fear the U.S. will not give Israel the munitions it needs to replenish its stocks.
"Their fear is that the Biden administration will finally, in the next two weeks, give in to a European-style pressure and ask Israel to make concessions and pull back," Wilkie said. "The prime minister was very clear today: They will be sending troops into Gaza proper. This will not take a few weeks. This will take many weeks and months, and it will be bloody. But he's right; they will send a message primarily to Iran, but also to the rest of the Middle East."
Fleitz noted the Biden White House called a lid on Monday at 9 a.m., meaning the president "wasn't going to be found, couldn't speak to the press all day," and said there were no news conferences by either the White House or Defense Department.
"This is the day when we need our president in front of the American people standing with the Israeli people," he said. "We've seen appeasement of Iran. We've seen coddling of the Palestinians, coupled with the global perception of American weakness by this president, his incompetent foreign policy. This just emboldened Hamas to commit this terrible act of violence."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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