PIERRE S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) Recently, President Biden “paused” arms sales to Israel over that country’s incursion into Rafah in their war on Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Senator Rounds says that the Biden Administration’s leak of confidential conversations between the United States and Israel is shameful. Rounds also says this “pause” is counterproductive on a number of levels.
First, the United States was going to provide precision weapons which would allow Israel to limit civilian casualties. Hamas imbeds their military facilities and infrastructure within civilian areas and populations so collateral damage is inevitable. Since Israel is going to pursue their war on terror regardless of US policy, Rounds maintains that US precision weaponry is essential to reducing civilian casualties in a war against Hamas, who has a policy of hiding behind innocent “human shields”.
Second, this “pause” sends the wrong message to our allies in general but to Ukraine and Taiwan in particular Rounds says. Senator Rounds points out that this action by the Biden Administration plays into the hands of Hamas as well as advances Russian and Chinese interests which are adversarial to those of the United States.
Third, this action will cause those the United States wish to ally with or bend to the will of the US on foreign policy in the future to doubt the word and resolve of the United States. That only creates opportunities for the enemies and adversaries of the United States, in Rounds’ opinion.
Rounds says the US should sell Israel the tools to defeat the Hamas terrorists as quickly and precisely as possible. He says the current policy towards Israel by the Biden Administration is a mistake and one that will ultimately cost even more lives than if the US had sold these precision weapons to Israel in the first place.