The Washington Free Beacon discovered that President Joe Biden’s administration issued a sanctions waiver, allowing arms sales to Lebanon and Qatar…the day before it announced it would withhold weapons from Israel.
Qatar is a Hamas ally. Iran controls Lebanon, home of the Iranian-funded terrorist group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets at northern Israel since October. This is ridiculous:
On Tuesday—just a day before President Joe Biden threatened to withhold key weapons deliveries from Israel if the country moves forward with an incursion in the Gaza Strip’s Rafah neighborhood—the State Department informed Congress that it intends to bypass laws that bar the United States from selling weapons to nations that boycott Israel, according to a copy of the notification obtained by the Free Beacon.The Biden administration, which has waived these sanctions in the past, said in the notification that it intends to extend the waiver through April 30, 2025, allowing weapons to be sent to a host of nations that work closely with the Hamas terror group and other Iran-backed terror proxies.While the administration determined that these countries engage in Israel boycotts, a condition that triggers American anti-boycott laws, bypassing these restrictions remains “in the U.S. national interest” to maintain regional stability, according to the waiver. But this justification is drawing scrutiny on Capitol Hill as the Biden administration threatens key arms shipments to Israel in a bid to force it into abandoning its campaign to eradicate Hamas.
I could never do communications because I cannot BS like this State Department spokesman did to the Free Beacon:
A State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon that the department “remains committed to Israel’s security and defense.” While current law “prohibits leases and sales of defense articles to certain countries that maintain a boycott of Israel,” the president reserves the right to waive these restrictions if it is “in the national security interest,” the spokesman said.”The United States has routinely exercised that waiver for years to permit continued security cooperation between the United States and regional partners and to enable U.S. officials to continue to work closely with those partners to eliminate further instances of boycott requests,” the spokesman said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress the administration chose to withhold weapons from Israel to assess Israel’s plan to invade Rafeh, Hamas’s last stronghold.
Don’t forget that Hamas has FIVE American citizens.
Earlier this week, Hamas fired rockets from Rafah, the terrorist group’s last stronghold, toward the humanitarian crossing from Gaza into Israel. The rockets landed near civilian shelters, injuring several people.
Hamas boasted about hitting the humanitarian area. Israel had to close the crossing, stopping trucks from delivering aid.
Biden confirmed the move on CNN on Wednesday night:
BIDEN: “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers. I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven‘t gotten to Rafah yet — they go into Rafah, I‘m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem. We‘re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks like came out of the — least recently. But it‘s just wrong. We‘re not gonna supply the weapons and artillery shells used — that have been used — “
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the world that Israel won’t back down.
In the address that Netanyahu shared, which he made on Sunday at the ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem, the Prime Minister stated: “Eighty years ago, in the Holocaust, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against those who sought our destruction. No nation came to our aid.“Today, we again confront enemies bent on our destruction.”Netanyahu continued: “I say to the leaders of the world, no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum, will stop Israel from defending itself.”He concluded by pledging: “As the Prime Minister of Israel – the one and only Jewish state – I pledge here today from Jerusalem on this Holocaust Remembrance Day: If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. But we know we are not alone because countless decent people around the world support our just cause. And I say to you, we will defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is now!”
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