President Joe Biden was likely told by his advisers not to mention Israel in his speech opening the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., former Israeli consulate ambassador Ido Aharoni told Newsmax on Wednesday.
“I think he’s just following the advice of his advisers who are telling him Israel is divisive,” Aharoni said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” adding that Biden was likely told that Israel is controversial and that he has a problem with younger voters when it comes to supporting the United States ally.
“It’s a mistake,” said Aharoni. “A recent study by Harvard University, a Harris Poll, a recent study by Pew, a recent study by Axios, they all indicated close to 80% of the American people put the blame squarely on Hamas. So panicking because of a few campus protesters is the wrong conclusion.”
In his speech Tuesday, Biden announced plans to supply new air defenses to Ukraine, vowing that “the United States will make sure that when we export critical air defense interceptors, Ukraine goes to the front of the line,” reports CNN.
Meanwhile, Aharoni would not comment on whether he believes Biden is capable of serving another four years in office.
“I’m not even an American citizen,” he said. “I don’t want to get involved in this. I can say that the Israelis, pray for America to be able to produce the best leadership it can. I think that’s the most appropriate thing to say.”
Former President Donald Trump, he added, was “very popular in Israel,” because “he did things that no other president had done before, like moving the embassy, recognizing Israel’s sovereignty on the Golan Heights, and so on.”
Still, even presidents who had strained relations with Israel eventually became popular, because “the Israelis see the president of the United States as their leader as well,” Aharoni said.
Cease-fire talks are continuing between Israel and Hamas, and Aharoni said that while he believes it’s important to remain optimistic, the fact remains that the hostages Hamas continues to hold are their leverage, and it seems like they have no intention of giving them up.”
“We’ve seen this before,” he added. “Hamas, if they wanted to end the war, if they wanted to see the IDF outside of the Gaza Strip, all they had to do was release the hostages.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in addition, has said that Israel will keep fighting until its goals are met, which includes the destruction of Hamas, and Aharoni said he agrees that Israel “cannot live like this when you have an armed, deadly cult on our border with massive military capacity.”
This means that at some time, together with international support, Israel will have to end the threats to its north and south, he said.
“Benjamin Netanyahu has said time and time again that he will not leave Gaza until he wipes out all of Hamas, and as we know, there are still many terrorists inside Gaza,” said Aharoni.
He noted that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that Israeli forces have killed or wounded 60% of Hamas’ combatants.
“This is the most complex case in modern urban warfare because you can’t tell the difference between Hamas terrorists and civilians,” said Aharoni. “It really is presenting the IDF with a hugely complicated challenge.”
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