Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton on Wednesday blasted the Democrats for their attacks against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Noting that "there is one foreign leader for whom the Democratic Party seems to reserve special scorn.
Cotton highlighted that prominent Democrats have called the Israeli Prime Minister a “reactionary,” a “racist,” and an “ethno-nationalist,” and have also accused him of committing “war crimes” and of leading an “apartheid state.”
Cotton also blasted President Joe Biden for calling him "extreme" and saying that they don’t agree on “a damn thing.”
"Were the Democrats talking about Vladimir Putin? Or Xi Jinping? Or perhaps Ayatollah Khamenei? No, they were referring to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and one of America’s best friends," Cotton said in a statement on his website.
"Once again, these Democrats have proven their tendency to coddle our enemies and condemn our friends," he added.
He accused them of not stopping "at mere words."
"They’re working right now to undermine Bibi and his government," he alleged.
Cotton pointed to a Washington Free Beacon report that the State Department is funneling tax dollars to Netanyahu’s domestic opponents. Since 2020, State has sent more than 38,000 dollars to something known as the “Movement for Quality Government” for so-called “democracy education.”
"So, what is the Movement for Quality Government and how good is this “democracy education”? This 'movement' is an activist group that’s fomenting unrest against the Israeli government and demanding Netanyahu’s resignation," Cotton said. "In recent days, left-wing demonstrators associated with this group have protested the government’s proposed judicial reforms. Last week, hundreds of protesters harassed Netanyahu’s wife, forcing police to intervene and escort her to safety."
Cotton also criticized Secretary of State Tony Blinken and some Democratic senators for not remaining neutral in Israel's deomestic affairs, with Blinken lecturing Netanyahu "about the judicial reforms to his face, tacitly siding with the demonstrators."
"The State Department doesn’t even deny it’s funneling money to these left-wing activities," Cotton said. "Which is troubling, because it’s a clear violation of the usual State Department policy against funding foreign partisan organizations. Not only is this U.S.-funded organization subverting a foreign government, it’s subverting the government of one of our closest allies. Secretary Blinken should immediately apologize to the Prime Minister of Israel, demand your money back, and open an investigation into how this happened."
According to Cotton, the Democratic Party has been "meddling in Israeli democracy to undermine Benjamin Netanyahu" for over 25 years.
He noted that "by his own admission, President Bill Clinton intervened in the 1996 Israeli election to support Netanyahu’s opponent, Shimon Peres. Clinton met with Peres, dispatched his own campaign advisers, dangled policy shifts to Israel, all to get Peres across the finish line. Netanyahu prevailed, nevertheless" and that Clinton again intervened in the 199 election, sending political advisors to Ehud Barak.
Cotton charged that the "Obama State Department was, if anything, worse than Clinton’s, funneling hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars to a group called the OneVoice Movement. Not coincidentally, OneVoice partnered with an organization running anti-Netanyahu ads that was advised by, you guessed it, a top Obama campaign operative."
"Of course, Democrats will insist they’re innocent of these charges and aren’t meddling in Israel’s democracy. But Israelis know the truth. Obama’s meddling was so pervasive that an astounding 62 percent of Israelis thought he was interfering," Cotton remarked.
He accused Biden of "simply following in Obama's footsteps by trying to sabotage Netanyahu."
He highlighted that "in 2021, the Biden administration reportedly pressured the United Arab Emirates to cancel an Abraham Accords Summit – all to deprive Netanyahu of a diplomatic victory ahead of that year’s election. And after Netanyahu won the 2022 election, the Biden administration immediately sought to undermine his coalition government by trying to veto key cabinet appointments."
Cotton said that the most recent controversy is therefore "not an aberration. It's the de facto policy of the Democratic Party... to beat Netanyahu" which according to him as been in place for a quarter of a century.
"It does provide more evidence yet again for the old saw, that while it’s dangerous to be America’s enemy, it can be fatal to be America’s friend – at least when Democrats are in charge," Cotton said.
He continued: "Instead of trying to topple the democratically elected government of Israel, I would suggest we should support it. Israelis are more than capable of managing their domestic affairs without Democratic meddling. But they need our help to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, they need our help to achieve peace with their neighbors, and they need our help to defeat the terrorists threatening both our nations.
"Yet they don’t get that from the Biden administration, either. Iran is racing toward a nuclear breakout while the president dithers. His administration can barely utter the words 'Abraham Accords.' And President Biden is breaking US law to subsidize the Palestinian Authority’s support for terrorism," Cotton said.
He demanded that the Biden administration stop treating Netanyahu as if he’s "a rival or even an adversary and start treating him as he is – a war hero, a courageous patriot, a towering figure of modern Israel, and most important for us, a great friend of America."