President Joe Biden is prolonging the suffering in Gaza with his threats to refuse Israel the weapons and by prematurely demanding answers about when Israel plans to end the war and about the Palestinians' future government, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Newsmax Sunday.
"His position should have always been, I stand with Israel. They are the good guys. Hamas are the bad guys. They're the enemy. They're the enemy of the United States," Friedman, who served under Trump, said on Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "He's done the opposite, and he's prolonged this battle and prolonged the suffering of the people living in Gaza. The quicker this war is over, the quicker the people in Gaza can begin to rebuild."
Instead, Biden is calling for answers about the future, which Friedman conceded are "important," but he said it is premature to be seeking those answers when Israel is in the "middle of the battle for their lives."
"[With] the battle in the south, where there are four battalions with over 4,000 armed terrorists and the leadership of Hamas, they're [Israelis are] trying to win this very delicate fight and move the civilians out of the way," said Friedman. "I think three-quarters of the civilians have been evacuated already.
"This is tough stuff, tactically extremely difficult. So what I would say is to leave them alone for a few more weeks. Let them win the war. Then, of course, all these issues will come up."
Meanwhile, Biden's initial threat to withhold weapons, only to propose a billion-dollar weapons deal, isn't a "flip-flop," but "just politics, said Friedman.
"This billion dollars of incremental aid that Biden is talking about has to get approved by Congress, and then it has to get, all packaged and designed," he said. "They won't get to Israel for two years, and it literally has no effect whatsoever on Israel's prospects for this war."
In contrast, Biden was holding back weapons that were immediately needed, including bombs that could destroy Hamas' underground tunnels, said Friedman.
"They have the ability to take dumb bombs and make them smart to fight the war with more surgical precision and to avoid civilian casualties," said Friedman. "This is what Biden is denying Israel right now. I think what Biden is trying to do is give and take and try to appear as if he's balanced, and it's an unthreadable needle."
Meanwhile, Friedman also commented on Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz's call Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to a plan for the Gaza conflict, including the stipulation that a plan be formed by June 8 that would include specifying who would rule the region after the war with Gaza ends.
"This is all being orchestrated by Biden and his team," Friedman said. "They don't like Netanyahu. It's clear that they were giving him a very hard time."
The "public spat" is unfortunate, but it's at the behest of the United States, he added.
"America has been micromanaging this war since it began and doing an absolutely terrible job of doing it," Friedman said. "They've prolonged the war. They've made it more difficult for Israel to win the war and they've made it very difficult for Netanyahu to lead."
Gantz has threatened to withdraw his centrist party from Netanyahu's broadened emergency coalition, but Friedman said that won't stop Netanyahu.
"Netanyahu added him to the war cabinet to get some depth and to have some strategic strength," he said. "It would be unfortunate for Gantz to leave. I think it will be unpatriotic. But if he does, life will go on, and Netanyahu will continue to be the prime minister."
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