In an unprecedented letter on August 2, 2024 that was signed by an extraordinary 48 Republican Senators, the Senators delineated and blasted the Biden Administration’s partial arms embargo against Israel. They noted that the Biden partial arms embargo had been enforced despite bipartisan approval of providing the weapons in question to Israel, especially during times of war.
The letter states: “We write once again to protest your administration’s partial arms embargo against Israel. The actions of the Biden-Harris administration run counter to our long history of robust military cooperation with Israel and cast doubt upon the reliability of the United States as a long-term security partner. Your actions also violate the will of Congress as expressed in the recent supplemental that funded emergency military support to Israel."
“When Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly raised the weapons hold in June, your administration adamantly denied the accusation (as Hochstein and McGurk are again doing now)," the letter continued. “All the while, you were deliberately delaying the delivery of weapons, ammunition, and equipment to Israel. These include 120 mm tank ammunition, 120 mm mortar ammunition, light tactical vehicles, air-to-air missiles, F-15s, F-35 engines, joint direct attack munition kits, 2,000-pound bombs, rifles and guided missile systems." The letter referenced 10 weapons and equipment sales and shipments that have allegedly been delayed, and points to four instances in which the administration “ignored congressional inquiries."
The reaction to Prime Minister Netanyahu telling the truth about a partial Arms Embargo against Israel during the Biden Administration was a ridiculous denial from Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk. Hochstein and McGurk were both top advisors to President Biden.
Hochstein claimed that Netanyahu was being “ungrateful" to the former president. “Netanyahu is both not telling the truth and ungrateful to a president that literally saved Israel at its most vulnerable moment," the former official told Axios. In a separate post on X, Hochstein charged that after $20 billion in U.S. military support to Israel, the deployment of two aircraft carriers to the region and efforts to help repel Iranian missile and drone attacks, the “only acceptable response" to Biden and America was “thank you."
McGurk, who told Axios, “That statement by Netanyahu is categorically false."
“Biden left office with a ceasefire in Gaza and hostages coming home, a ceasefire in Lebanon with Hezbollah defeated, Iran in its weakest position since 1979 after two failed missile attacks thanks to the deployment of US military forces and a coordinated response that destroyed Iran’s air defenses. His commitment to Israel’s security to include US military assistance was unwavering throughout the crisis," McGurk said of Biden.
However, what Netanyahu was discussing was exactly what was described in the 48 Senate Republican letter.
It is noteworthy that neither Hochstein or McGurk discuss the actual specifics of the partial arms embargo as described in the Senate Republican letter or attempt to refute it. Instead, they talk about Biden's laudable actions at the beginning of the war to support Israel and the U.S. help to repel Iranian ballistic missile attacks.
That was not what Netanyahu was discussing.
It is important to note that at the time of the letter there was no specific refutation of the points raised by the Republican letter because it was accurate.
The partial arms embargo cost Israeli lives.
The success of Israel’s fight against Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran was not because of the Biden Administration but in many cases was done in opposition to the views of the Biden Administration.
*The Biden Administration opposed Israel going into Rafah, the operation which led Israel to kill Sinwar and stop Hamas from smuggling arms in from Egypt.
*The Biden Administration opposed Israel killing Nasrallah as it is reported that Biden’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin swore at Israel’s Minister of Defense when he was told of Nasrallah’s killing.
*The Biden Administration kept telling Israel to not attack Iran in response to Iran’s attacks on Israel and Israel took out their missile defense system on their own in response to the Iran attack despite the Biden Administration wanting Israel not to respond to the attack.
Israel waited until President Trump was President to crush Iran’s ballistic missile program and with U.S. help their nuclear program as well.
There really is no issue of fact concerning the partial arms embargo as it was delineated in the Republican Senator letter. The issue is why would Hochstein and McGurk deny the reality? Do they not care about their credibility? Apparently not. Their enormous dislike of Netanyahu could be heard through their comments. It is not forgotten that the Biden Administration tried to replace Netanyahu as Israel’s leader during the war. Senate majority leader Schumer’s unprecedented March 14, 2024 speech calling for Netanyahu’s removal as the leader of Israel in the middle of the war would not have happened without the Biden Administration’s approval. Schumer himself said the speech went through many drafts over many weeks before it was given.
The Trump Administration quickly and decisively ended the partial arms embargo and supplied Israel with all the weapons they needed to fight. They further joined Israel in their efforts to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapon program. It is very important to note that all of the hostages have been returned and this only happened (although Israel, of course, did its best) because of the Trump Administration support for Israel bringing the war to Gaza city and it is obvious that the Biden Administration would never have supported Israel taking this action. Hochstein and McGurk should retract their embarrassing statements that the evidence clearly shows to be false.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly and publicly said that Israel has had no better friend than President Trump and the contest is not even close. There simply is no comparison as to which Administration has been a better friend to Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked the Biden Administration for their help but the partial arms embargo did cost Jewish lives while President Trump’s actions bought back the remaining hostages and saved countless Jewish lives.
Farley Weiss is the past President of The National Council of Young Israel and an intellectual property attorney for the law firm of Weiss & Moy. Read more about him here.