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

[mystery-ak]

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

Ian Hanchett 9 May 2024

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.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/05/09/top-house-armed-services-dem-on-biden-israel-threat-white-house-needs-to-clean-it-up-or-it-emboldens-hamas/

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.”

[mystery-ak]

Top House Armed Services Dem: ‘Huge Problem’ White House Says Biden’s Israel Threat ‘Not Really the Admin.’s Position’

Ian Hanchett 9 May 2024

On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) stated that President Joe Biden’s statement to CNN on weapons to Israel “is not really the administration’s position” according to people in the White House he’s spoken to, he’s “frustrated by that”, and such misstatements are “a huge problem.”

Host Blake Burman asked, “You know some of the divisiveness around this, whether it’s on the left or on the right, you just heard from the Israeli prime minister there. I wonder where you stand on this, sir, and what you made of the President’s comments last evening.”

Smith answered, “I think they lacked clarity, and what the President said there is not really the administration’s position. He gave the distinct impression that if Israel goes into Rafah in any way, we will cut them off entirely. And I have spoken with John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, Steve Ricchetti, a senior adviser to the President, as well as several other people last night and today. That’s not actually the position of the administration. The position is that if Israel goes into Rafah with an aggressive bombing campaign, then we will restrict the sale of those types of weapons. He’s not meant to say that if they go into Rafah at all, in fact, Israel’s already in Rafah, as we know. So, my main criticism of the administration and the President right now is they just haven’t been clear on what their policy is. It is not the policy of the Biden administration that they’re going to cut off Israel entirely if they go into Rafah.”

Burman then asked, “So, why the differences? Look, you’re the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, you get to speak to folks that most everyone else doesn’t get to talk to, … but it’s obviously — what you’re saying is different from what the President said last night. So, I wonder why then did the President say that?”

Smith responded, “I am frustrated by that as well. Look, the short answer to that question is the President thought he was expressing one thing and he said it in a way that didn’t make that clear. Look, we’re human beings. We express thoughts. They don’t always come out in the detail that we would like them to. During the course of this interview, I’m sure I’ll say something that, after it’s done, I’ll go, gosh, I didn’t really make that clear. But this is a huge problem.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/05/09/top-house-armed-services-dem-huge-problem-white-house-says-bidens-israel-threat-not-really-the-admin-s-position/