House Republican leadership is blasting President Biden after he suggested the U.S. could curb its support for Israel if it did not do more to protect civilians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u2018There\u2019s only one group of people who stand to benefit from conditions to Israel aid, and that is Hamas. Once again, Joe Biden is empowering barbaric terrorists by undermining our strongest ally in the Middle East,\u2019 House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital on Friday.<\/p>\n
Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Thursday as the president faced growing pressure from the left to do more for civilians in Gaza. The White House said Biden \u2018made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers\u2019 and that \u2018U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel\u2019s immediate action on these steps.\u2019<\/p>\n
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital when asked about the possibility of President Biden curbing military aid to Israel, \u2018It is completely unacceptable for Joe Biden to demand that our most precious ally Israel surrender to Hamas terrorists.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Israel has every right to defend itself. House Republicans will continue to fight so that they have the resources needed to complete their mission,\u2019 Stefanik said.<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for clarification on Biden\u2019s comments and a response to the House GOP leaders\u2019 criticism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Progressives have for months pushed Biden to curb military aid to Israel, accusing the Middle Eastern country of running afoul of U.S. policies on humanitarian support with its campaign in Gaza. More Democrats joined that wave in the wake of an Israeli military airstrike that killed seven humanitarian aid workers in central Gaza this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on the Democrat-friendly program \u2018Pod Save America,\u2019 \u2018From a moral perspective and from a political perspective, I hope very much that what he\u2019s saying today really does indicate a change in policy.\u2019<\/p>\n
But Republicans and some moderate Democrats have argued that the U.S. weakening its support for Israel is a victory for Hamas. GOP lawmakers blasted Biden after the White House said he urged Netanyahu to call \u2018an immediate cease-fire\u2026to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018The president\u2019s ultimatums should be going to Hamas, not Israel,\u2019 Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote on X on Thursday. \u2018Hamas resisted a ceasefire, brought about needless bloodshed, and refuses to release Israeli and American hostages. Biden should not undercut our ally amidst an existential threat by conditioning our support.\u2019<\/p>\n
Republicans in the Senate similarly hit back at Biden on social media.<\/p>\n
\u2018Today, Hamas launched another salvo of rockets toward civilians in Israel while President Biden declared he wants to change policy toward Israel. We all want the peace and protection of civilians, but you cannot pacify terrorists,\u2019 Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said on X.<\/p>\n
Sen. John Barrasso, R\u2013Wyo., said President Biden \u2018needs to support Israel\u2019s fight to protect its people and defeat terrorists.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018He will fall on the wrong side of history if he turns his back on our ally,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza since shortly after Oct. 7, when militants from the terrorist group invaded southern Israel and killed more than 1,200 people \u2014 mainly civilians.<\/p>\n
The Palestinian death toll since Oct. 7 is over 30,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.<\/p>\n\n
House Republican leadership is blasting President Biden after he suggested the U.S. could curb its support for Israel if it did not do more to protect civilians in Gaza. \u2018There\u2019s only one group of people who stand to benefit from conditions to Israel aid, and that is Hamas. Once again, Joe Biden is empowering barbaric <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}