Top House Armed Services Dem on Biden Israel Threat: ‘White House Needs to Clean It Up’ or It Emboldens Hamas

On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said that the White House “needs to clean…up” President Joe Biden’s comments on Israel to CNN “and reiterate our support for Israel,” because “To the extent it looks like we are separating from Israel, that just gives Hamas all the more incentive to keep fighting.” He also called on the White House to push the message that Hamas is holding up a ceasefire.

After saying that Biden’s comments weren’t an accurate reflection of the administration’s position, Smith said, “I think that the White House needs to clean it up and reiterate our support for Israel, because I agree with my colleague Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), good friend of mine, with his comment [that the remarks are a signal of weakness]. Right now, the main group holding up a ceasefire is Hamas. We’ve had a ceasefire on the table for three months. Hamas refuses to agree to it, because they insist on Israel basically unilaterally surrendering and Hamas won’t even promise to return the hostages if they do. There is a ceasefire on the table, if Hamas returns the hostages, Israel will agree to roughly a two-month, eight-week ceasefire and Hamas has been blocking that. I think we need to get that message out. To the extent it looks like we are separating from Israel, that just gives Hamas all the more incentive to keep fighting.”

Smith concluded that Biden’s statement is “not political, because there is a very legitimate concern about the way Israel is conducting the war in Gaza. They have not done enough to let humanitarian assistance in. That’s been the case for months now. Now, it’s gotten better in the last four to six weeks. But early on, I think Israel made a huge mistake by signaling to the world that they didn’t care about humanitarian assistance. They’ve made a huge mistake by being slow in allowing that humanitarian assistance into Gaza. And I think they’ve also been not as careful as they should have been in protecting the civilian population in their campaign in Gaza right now. And I think it’s perfectly appropriate for the President to urge them to change that, because if they don’t, it undermines Israel’s security. But that’s different than saying that we’re going to cut them off. So, I think he needs to clarify that, but there’s every reason…to be critical of what Israel has done on certain aspects of the campaign.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett