President Joe Biden has endangered U.S. troops and “emboldened” terrorists in the Middle East by impeding military aid to Israel, 48 Republican senators said in a letter to the White House on Friday.
The lawmakers accused Biden of “accommodating Iran and its terrorist allies” by delaying some shipments of military supplies to the Israeli military in recent months. His administration previously said it was concerned that Israel would use the weaponry in densely populated areas while fighting Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Republicans, however, stressed that the threat of Iran-backed groups such as Hamas has grown since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when the Islamist group invaded Israel and committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
“While your administration delays,” the lawmakers wrote, “Hamas continues to wage war against Israel, the Houthis continue to attack in the Red Sea, and Hezbollah continues its onslaught in northern Israel.”
“This [past] weekend, Hezbollah fired Iranian-made missiles into northern Israel, murdering 12 children and injuring dozens in the single deadliest attack on that part of the country since October 7,” the senators noted.
“Your stalling tactics are endangering our greatest ally in the Middle East and jeopardizing the lives of our American service members stationed in the region,” they charged. “We urge you to use every available emergency authority to expedite the physical delivery of all weapons and ammunition to Israel that have been approved by Congress.”
The White House did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment before publication.
The letter, signed by all but one of the 49 Senate Republicans, comes amid fears of military escalation in the Middle East and retaliation against Israel for the killings this week of two top terrorist leaders. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has previously taken positions opposing U.S. aid to Israel, was the lone Senate Republican not to sign the letter, the Jewish News Syndicate reported.
Israel assassinated Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon with an airstrike on Tuesday, less than a week after the Lebanon-based group fired missiles into an Israeli-occupied region of Syria and killed 12 children on a soccer field.
On the same day, Israeli intelligence detonated a bomb in Iran’s capital, Tehran, that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The assassinations prompted the two terrorist groups and Iran to vow revenge against the Jewish state. The White House reacted to the news of Haniyeh’s killing on Wednesday by lamenting that it won’t “help” its chances of securing “a cease-fire deal.”
“We’re obviously concerned about escalation,” National Security Council communications adviser John Kirby told reporters.