The pro-Israel backlash is harsh after Biden suspended arms sales to Israel

WASHINGTON (JTA) — John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman who has become the voice of the Biden administration’s affection for Israel, had to say something: Joe Biden is not anti-Israel.

“The arguments that we are somehow moving away from Israel contradict the facts,” Kirby said in a briefing with reporters on Thursday, his voice swelling with passion.

Kirby spoke A day after the president confirmed he had suspended deliveries of some large bombs to Israel As it prepared to enter Rafah, the city on the Gaza-Egypt border was seen as the last redoubt of a large Hamas force. Biden’s decision sparked consternation among a wide range of pro-Israel leaders and was seized upon by Republicans seeking to court the Jewish vote.

Biden risks losing his pro-Israel reputation, which he cultivated for decades out of personal pride and which he wanted to rely on in the election year.

“Delaying arms shipments to Israel is dangerous,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said in an action alert to its members. In its messages since October 7, when Hamas began its war against Israel, the pro-Israel lobby has repeatedly cited Biden’s pro-Israel record. “America must continue to stand firmly with our ally Israel in defeating Hamas and defending its citizens.”

Abe Foxman, the retired national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who broke with decades of bipartisanship in 2020 and campaigned for BidenBiden said he faces electoral danger, at least among Jewish voters who have long favored Democrats.

“I hope that the reaction to what happened yesterday will send a message to him that it’s not just Republicans who are criticizing you, but Democrats as well,” Foxman said in an interview. “Wartime arms sales are a red line for most American Jews right now, on the center, even on the left. The only way to fix the problem is to reverse it.”

Haim Saban, the Israeli-American entertainment mogul and major Democratic donor, sent an email to the campaign with an implicit warning: “Let’s not forget that there are more Jewish donors who care about Israel than Muslim voters who care about Israel.” Hamas is close to its heart.” he said in a note that was shared widely on social media. “Bad…bad…bad…decision on every level.”

But he received support from at least one prominent Jewish official with longstanding support for Israel: Senator Chuck Schumer, the Jewish New York Democrat and Senate Majority Leader, said The Hill that “I believe that Israel and America have an ironclad relationship, and I have confidence in what the Biden administration is doing.”

Biden spoke to CNN a day after observing Holocaust Memorial Day at the Capitol. He vowed to keep the memory of October 7 alive and maintain his “ironclad” support for Israel.

“Yesterday I praised (Biden) for his speech,” said Nathan Diament, the Washington director of the Orthodox Union. said on X. “Today’s threat to withhold weapons from Israel betrays this truth.”

Biden vehemently defended Israel in the days and months after Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists launched the war, massacring about 1,200 people in Israel and taking about 250 hostage. But he also watched with increasing concern as Israel launched massive counterstrikes that local officials said led to the deaths of more than 34,000 Palestinians, leveled large swathes of the Gaza Strip and plunged the population into a humanitarian crisis.

Throughout his career, Biden has made his ties to Israel a central part of his political identity. He describes himself as a Zionist and says he has been since childhood, when his Roman Catholic father described the founding of Israel as a miracle.

“I mean, this is a president who visited Israel within days of the October 7 attacks, this is a president who rushed to deliver additional military items to Israel and, frankly, provided the expertise of our own military to get there “To go and help them with their thinking about their planning and their operation of these structures,” said Kirby (who himself has worn dog tags that say “Take Them Home Now”). Raise awareness of Israeli hostages still held captive).

Biden is caught in an electoral crisis between a Democratic base that is increasingly turning against Israel and the fears of a Jewish community that has reliably aligned itself with the party for decades and continues to overwhelmingly support Israel.

“There is no question in my mind that it hurts him relative to the larger pro-Israel community,” said a senior pro-Israel Democrat who did not want to be named to speak candidly. “And I see that in my inbox, I see it with people on Twitter talking about changing positions. I’ll still vote for him. For a lot of people that’s not the case.”

Republicans seized on this as an opportunity to make gains in a community that steadfastly votes for Democrats.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee this year, again blamed American Jews for favoring Biden.

“If any Jew voted for Joe Biden, they should be ashamed” he said outside the courtroom in New York where he is being tried for Falsifying business documents. “He has completely abandoned Israel.”

GOP leaders in both chambers, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, wrote a letter to Biden on the issue. “We believe that security assistance to Israel is an urgent priority that cannot be delayed,” they said.

Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, led a letter from Senate Republicans demanding answers. “You have promised that your commitment to Israel is ironclad,” the letter said. “The disruption of much-needed military support to our closest ally in the Middle East signals otherwise.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose relationship with Biden has grown increasingly difficult in recent weeks, used a message marking Israel’s Independence Day, next Tuesday, to recall how Israel stood up to world opinion in 1948.

Relatives of Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack mourn as their bodies are taken from the mortuary of Al-Najjar Hospital for burial in Rafah, Gaza, April 4, 2024. president Biden is caught in an electoral crisis between a Democratic base that is increasingly calling for limits on U.S. aid to Israel and the fears of a Jewish community that wants Israel to have the tools it needs to defeat Hamas. (Ahmed Zaqout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“There was an arms embargo against Israel, but with great strength of spirit, heroism and unity among us, we were victorious,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew.

The idea of ​​Biden imposing an embargo on Israel infuriated Kirby, who repeatedly stressed that the suspension was limited to a limited class of weapons and that otherwise American weapons would continue to flow to Israel.

Biden “also said yesterday that he will continue to ensure that Israel has all the military advantages it needs to defend itself against all of its enemies, including Hamas,” he said. “He will continue to equip Israel with the capabilities it needs.”

Still, no president has withheld weapons as leverage from Israel in more than 40 years, and some of the most consistent pro-Biden voices in the pro-Israel community were angered.

“We are disheartened that U.S. military support is being partially withheld to Israel while threats from Hamas and other anti-Israel actors are acute and the U.S.-Israel partnership should be at its strongest,” said the Israel Policy Forum, a group which is dedicated to promoting a two-state solution to the conflict and has a board full of Democratic donors.

Michael Koplow, the IPF’s chief policy officer, said Biden’s intelligence team was flat-footed and allowed his rivals to seize the narrative by first breaking the news about the aid suspension and only then saying it was limited to certain weapons be.

“There are too many people talking about this as if there is now a U.S. arms embargo on Israel or even as if the U.S. has cut off all offensive weapons to Israel, which is not even close to the truth.”

The Democratic Majority for Israel, which leads a political action committee that has put Biden’s support for Israel at the center of its advocacy, said it was “deeply concerned.”

“A strong U.S.-Israel alliance, like the one President Biden has created, plays a central role in preventing further war and enabling the path to eventual peace,” it said in a statement. “It is dangerous to question the strength of this alliance.”

The office of New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Joel Rubin, a Jewish Democrat and former senior State Department official who has advised a number of campaigns, said Biden had in mind an American electorate that has been wary of open conflict since the Iraq war debacle 20 years ago.

“What Biden is trying to force the Israelis to do is say, ‘Tell me how this ends,'” he said. “The American people as a whole will reward him at the polls for having a vision that leads us to an end point that leads to stability and calm. “That is the constituency he is targeting overall.”