SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Republican senators condemned the Biden administration’s decision to suspend the shipment of some weapons to Israel while its troops are on the outskirts of the populous town of Rafah.
The Biden administration last week announced a pause in sending 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs as President Joe Biden said the United States would stop sending weapons offensives if Israel advanced toward Rafah, where many Palestinians displaced by earlier fighting in the more than six months of conflict have fled.
Although the shipment of bombs – worth an estimated “tens of millions” of dollars, according to congressional aides – has been suspended, billions of dollars worth of weapons are still on the way from the United States .
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney released a statement on social media after the break was announced.
“We support our allies, we don’t question them,” the senator said. “Biden’s hesitation on Israeli weapons is bad policy and a terrible message for Israel, our allies and the world.”
The state’s senior senator, Mike Lee, forcefully criticized the policy over the weekend, telling Fox News that the decision could impact the president’s re-election chances.
“This is simply reprehensible,” he said Sunday. “You take a group of people who were victims – remember there were thousands of people killed, innocent people who were killed in Israel; men, women, children, even babies, and They are the victims – now they are being re-victimized by, among others, the United States of America.”
Lee was referring to the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and hundreds taken hostage. Nearly 35,000 Palestinians were killed in the ensuing war in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Lee said he opposed the recent tranche of war aid passed by Congress for Ukraine and Israel because he was “worried that the aid might not actually reach Israel.”
“Well, lo and behold, a lot of it doesn’t go to Israel, or at least it’s conditioned on Israel not being able to defend itself,” he said. “It’s inexcusable, and I really don’t know how Joe Biden can survive this. I think it’s another indication that it’s time for change in the White House.”
He called Biden’s decision a “mistake,” saying it “demonstrated to the American people and people around the world that we are flawed, that we are inadequate, that we have ineffective and irresponsible leadership in of the White Party. House that must end. And that will happen, I believe, when Americans go to the polls in November. »
Romney and Lee, both Republicans, have staunchly defended U.S. support for Israel throughout its war against Hamas.
The White House said Friday that Israel’s use of U.S. weapons in the war likely violated international humanitarian law, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the United States could withhold all military aid if Israel launches a “major military operation in Rafah,” according to the New York Times.
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