As Israel faces a new confrontation with Iran, Republican senators have castigated President Joe Biden for a slowdown in getting weapons to Israel.
A letter from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas that includes every other GOP senator except for Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky says Biden has imposed a “partial arms embargo against Israel,” according to Fox News.
“Your stalling tactics are endangering our greatest ally in the Middle East and jeopardizing the lives of our American servicemembers stationed in the region,” they warned.
In May, the Biden administration put the brakes on the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, citing its concerns for the residents of the Gaza city of Rafah, the last major bastion of refuge for Hamas terrorists.
Fox News reported that the State Department said those are on hold, but other weapons requests are being processed.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the foot-dragging, “It’s inconceivable that in the past few months the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel.”
“Give us the tools, and we’ll finish the job a lot faster,” he said then.
The senators said the recent strike by Hezbollah that killed 12 children is linked to the delay, writing, “your fear of escalation has left Israel exposed and our enemies emboldened.”
The senators said Biden has “cast doubt upon the reliability of the United States as a long-term security partner.”
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Israel will need every bit of ammunition it can get to protect itself in the coming days after Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed Wednesday in Tehran, according to The New York Times.
The threats have led to a decision from the Defense Department to increase “defensive military capabilities” in the Middle East, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Friday, according to a Defense Department news release.
The deployment is in response to new threats from Iran and its allied militias.
“We’ve demonstrated since October and again in April [that] the United States’s global defense is dynamic, and the department retains the capability to deploy on short notice to meet evolving national security threats,” she said, referring to a rash of attacks against Israel launched in April by Iran.
Singh said the forces to be moved would be identified later.
Lebanese media report new Israeli strikes on the Lebanon-Syria border, near the Syrian village of Hawsh al-Sayyid Ali. pic.twitter.com/YdU7hYIGHT
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 2, 2024
A report in the Jerusalem Post, citing media accounts that claimed to be based on Western intelligence sources, said that Aug. 12 and Aug. 13 were the most likely days for an attack.
Those days are when Jewish people mark Tisha B’Av, a day of lamentation and prayer marking the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.
The report said Hezbollah will join in the attack.
