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JERUSALEM — President Biden was noncommittal Tuesday when asked about his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it’s “like it’s always been.” Yet many, including former President Trump, claim Biden is deserting Israel.
Asked earlier in the day by “Fox and Friends” anchor Brian Kilmeade if he believes Biden is “in the process of abandoning Israel,” Trump said, I “do believe that.”Â
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have seemingly ramped up pressure on Israel over the last few weeks to accept an immediate six-week cease-fire with Hamas in exchange for the release of the over 130 hostages held in Gaza.Â
“Biden has been advancing a policy that prevents Israel from winning — and so guarantees Israel is defeated — almost since the outset of the war,” Caroline Glick, an Israeli-American expert on the Middle East told Fox News Digital.
Egyptian army special forces soldiers deploy near the gate of the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip in the east of North Sinai province Oct. 20, 2023, during a visit by the United Nations secretary-general to oversee preparations for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian enclave. (Kerolos Salah/AFP via Getty Images)
Egypt said Tuesday the cease-fire talks have largely collapsed. Hamas has refused to provide a list of the hostages and rejected the proposed cease-fire package.
“Biden has been advancing these policies, which are effectively pro-Hamas and hostile to Israel, primarily because his administration’s policies are crafted by officials who hate Israel and have a history of support for Hamas,” Glick claimed.
Road sign showing the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem (Hillel Maeir/TPS)
Adding to the friction between Biden and Netanyahu, Israel’s main opposition leader and war cabinet member, Benny Gantz, met with Secretary of State Blinken on Tuesday in Washington, where according to a State Department readout, the two discussed the hostages, humanitarian aid and the implementation of a humanitarian plan by Israel before any IDF operation into Rafah should occur. Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had not approved Gantz’s trip to Washington and was said to be infuriated by it.Â
During Tuesday’s State Department briefing, spokesman Matthew Miller reiterated the administration’s support for “Israel’s objective of defeating Hamas militarily.” He also underlined the Biden administration’s support for a two-state solution, noting that, “We believe the ultimate way to resolve the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with real security guarantees for Israel, and that’s what we’re working to try to achieve.”
Thousands of people arrived at the Western Wall Plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem on the eve of the new Jewish month of Shevat to a mass prayer for the peace of the State of Israel, for the peace of the security forces and for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem, Jan 10, 2024. (Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS)
David Wurmser, a former senior adviser for nonproliferation and Middle East strategy for former Vice President Dick Cheney, told Fox News Digital that “deep down, Biden still has some residual liberal views of Israel that are generally favorable.”
Wurmser, a keen observer of the personnel factor within the Biden administration’s Mideast policy, said, “Biden is swayed by people around him” and that he is a “pliable” person. Â
“The real issue is everybody else,” he warned. “Staffers who are not pro-Israel and would sell out Israel.”Â
Wurmser noted that progressive control of the Democratic Party’s structure “is convincing the political leadership of the Democratic Party to abandon Israel or at least distance itself from Israel. The administration is moving toward throwing Israel under the bus.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital questions by publication time.
