In case you missed it — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today spoke at a press conference to denounce President Biden’s decision to withhold some shipments of American weapons to Israel if the Israeli military advances into the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
In part, Senator Cotton said:
“It’s now plain what we suspected all along: Joe Biden’s de facto position is for a Hamas victory over Israel. Israel’s goal is simple: rescue the hostages—including American hostages and destroy Hamas to get justice for the worst atrocity against Jews since World War II and to prevent the next atrocity. Hamas’s goal is also simple: survive. Hamas’s leaders and its last four battalions are holed up in Rafah, so Israel has to defeat Hamas in Rafah to win. Hamas wins if it survives in Rafah. And Joe Biden has threatened to withhold weapons from Israel for fighting in Rafah. Therefore, Joe Biden objectively favors a Hamas victory over Israel. It’s just that simple.”
Senator Cotton’s full remarks may be found here and below.
It’s now plain what we suspected all along: Joe Biden’s de facto position is for a Hamas victory over Israel. Israel’s goal is simple: rescue the hostages—including American hostages and destroy Hamas to get justice for the worst atrocity against Jews since World War II and to prevent the next atrocity. Hamas’s goal is also simple: survive. Hamas’s leaders and its last four battalions are holed up in Rafah, so Israel has to defeat Hamas in Rafah to win. Hamas wins if it survives in Rafah. And Joe Biden has threatened to withhold weapons from Israel for fighting in Rafah. Therefore, Joe Biden objectively favors a Hamas victory over Israel. It’s just that simple.
And the president is only emboldening Hamas. Why would Hamas release hostages when Joe Biden will give Hamas exactly what it wants—survival—without releasing hostages. He’s also emboldening Iran. Here’s what Joe Biden has done since October 7: sanctions for Israelis and an arms embargo on Israel, sanctions relief and the end of an arms embargo on Iran.
Now, some people say Joe Biden is doing this for his reelection, which would be bad enough. It would also, I have to add, grounds for impeachment under the Democrats’ Trump-Ukraine standard: withholding foreign aid to help one’s reelection. Only with Joe Biden, it’s true.
But I’m afraid it’s also worse than that. Joe Biden and Israel-hating Democrats are using electoral concerns as a pretext to do what they’ve always wanted to do: to cut Israel loose. Remember, a lot of Barack Obama’s aides—who are now Joe Biden’s aides—disputed that Hamas was even a “real” terrorist group to begin with. For that matter, remember that Joe Biden himself threatened Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin more than forty years ago with cutting off aid for Israel. Begin humiliated Biden, warning him not to threaten Israel and saying, “I’m not a Jew with trembling knees.”
Israel is fighting a just and necessary war. Their knees are not trembling. As Prime Minister Netanyahu just said, they’ll fight alone if they have to. But let me assure all the Israelis watching: you won’t have to fight alone. You don’t have a problem with America. You have a problem with Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer, and the Democratic Party. And the American people are going to solve that problem for you in six months.