July 23rd 2024
By Mychael Schnell and Laura Kelly
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) are pressing the Biden administration to show strong support for Israel as it fends off attacks from Hezbollah, a call that comes on the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial address to Congress.
The Republicans — who on Tuesday sent Biden a letter, which was obtained by The Hill — labeled the administration’s policy towards the conflict on Israel’s northern border as “ambiguous at best,” arguing that the U.S. “should not be neutral when it comes to the conflict between Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, and Hezbollah, the Iranian regime’s most lethal terrorist proxy.”
“Israel should not have to live under constant fear of aerial attack and has the legal right and moral obligation to defend its sovereign borders and its people,” the pair wrote. “We urge you to unequivocally support Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah’s attacks, and to provide in a timely manner the support necessary to restore peace and security.”
Stefanik, the chair of the House GOP conference, and Hagerty zeroed in on the administration’s May decision to hold back sending heavy bombs to Israel, contending the posture has empowered Hezbollah.
“These decisions have exacerbated perceived tensions and divisions between the United States and Israel, empowered Hezbollah terrorists, and impeded Israel’s efforts to defend itself,” they wrote. “A failure to fully support Israel’s right to self-defense in both word and deep undermines U.S. national security interests and risks breaking faith with our nation’s ironclad commitment to Israel.”
They posed a series of questions to Biden: If he agrees that Israel has a right to self-defense, if he thinks Hezbollah should stop all attacks on Israel, if he will lift pauses on the delivery of heavy bombs and what the administration is doing to help enforce U.N. Security Resolution 1701 – a 2006 resolution that calls for the demilitarization of southern Lebanon and that Hezbollah is in violation.
The Hill reached out to the White House for comment.
The increased pressure from Stefanik and Hagerty comes one day before Netanyahu is set to deliver an address before a joint meeting of Congress, a controversial speech that has fractured the Democratic Party and put Biden on defense, with the Israel-Hamas war emerging as a key vulnerability for the president.
The speech — the latest flashpoint in the long-running Democratic tensions over the Middle East — is pitting staunchly pro-Israel Democrats against pro-Palestinian liberals who are incensed at the growing number of humanitarian deaths in the Gaza Strip.
A number of liberals are planning to boycott Netanyahu’s address on Wednesday. Asked how many Democrats she expects to skip the speech, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) — the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who is boycotting the event — said she expects a “substantial number” to do so.
Republicans have sought to put a spotlight on the Democratic divisions over Israel.
“Democrats always seem to have an excuse for boycotting the Chamber when Israel’s Prime Minister addresses Congress,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on X.
Israel has been engaged in a back-and-forth of armed strikes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon over the course of more than nine months of its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah is part of the so-called axis of resistance headed by Iran, but says it operates independently of Tehran. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has threatened to open up its significant rocket arsenal against Israel but has so far-resisted triggering a full-out war.
The Biden administration is working to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip which they say will relieve pressure on Israel’s other fronts, with a senior Hezbollah leader telling the Associated Press earlier this month that “if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, we will stop without any discussion.”
The Biden administration has also sought to calm tensions in the region by reportedly sending warnings to Hezbollah that it would not be able to rein in an Israeli invasion into southern Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces in June said it had approved battle plans for southern Lebanon, signaling it only needed the approval of the government to launch an operation against Hezbollah.
Stefanik in a statement slammed the Biden administration for its posture towards Israel.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has completely failed to stand with our most precious ally Israel,” she wrote. “The U.S. must clearly support Israel’s right to defend its sovereign borders against Hezbollah’s persistent attacks which have killed dozens of Israeli civilians and decimated the agricultural production of northern Israel.”
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ failure to support the only democracy in the Middle East undermines America’s national security interests and has emboldened the violent Iranian regime,” she added.
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