House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday accused U.S. President Joe Biden of turning against Israel to appease the far-left flank of the Democratic Party.
“Democrats are weak on Israel as well, and it’s their support for Israel. It’s rather stunning to us that there’s this dramatic shift. Hamas is holding more than 130 hostages, as you know, including Americans,” the 52-year-old Republican said at a press conference in Washington.
“These people are languishing at the hands of barbaric terrorists, and Joe Biden is meanwhile giving ultimatums to Israel, not Hamas. And shamefully, since Oct. 7 Joe Biden has transformed into an anti-Israel president,” the congressman continued.
Biden is “more concerned with placating the antisemitism in his base than standing with our historic and vitally important ally.”
Johnson also slammed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for “meddling in Israel’s elected leadership,” alluding to Schumer’s widely panned speech on the Senate floor last month calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an “obstacle” to peace and suggesting that Israel should hold unscheduled elections.
The House Speaker said the hostility to Israel extends beyond Biden and Schumer to other elected Democrats, citing 50 House Democrats recently calling for Biden to withhold arms transfers to Israel as the Jewish state fights a war in the Gaza Strip against Hamas. Jerusalem is also battling on other fronts, including Hezbollah to its north, another terrorist proxy of Iran.
“It’s wrong and it’s dangerous, and it shows that Democrats are losing their moral clarity on the issue,” he said.
While supportive of the Jewish state early in the war effort, the Biden administration has taken an increasingly critical stance towards Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.
In a pre-recorded interview that aired on Tuesday on the Spanish-language television network Univision, Biden criticized Netanyahu.
“I think what he’s doing is a mistake,” Biden said. “I don’t agree with his approach.”
