The Biden administration's policy "has been completely AWOL, absent on duty" and as a result, Iran's tentacles are being felt in Lebanon with Hezbollah and in funding Hamas and the Palestinian terrorists at war with Israel, Rep. Mike Waltz said on Newsmax Sunday.
"Hamas does not fire a squirt gun without Iran's permission," the Florida Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "This is 100% about a failed appeasement Iran strategy, so we'll see how that plays out at the United Nations."
Waltz added that the United States needs to lean into the situation with its diplomatic muscle, but at the end of the day, the response will be about supporting Israel through hardware on the battlefield, and "that's where Congress will step in to give Israel the support that they need to replenish the stockpiles that they are going to need to be replenished."
But the main way the United States will need to aid Israel is with intelligence sharing, said Waltz.
"I'm on the Intelligence Committee," he said. "I haven't been briefed yet, but this was clearly a massive intelligence failure, and we need to get to the bottom of it. We need to respond first, but we need to quickly get to the bottom of what capabilities Hamas and Hezbollah now have that we apparently weren't aware of to be able to launch this type of coordinated attack at this type of scale."
Meanwhile, Egypt is often seen as a mediating force in such conflicts, and this time it will also be critical, said Waltz.
"Egypt controls a lot of the access points into Gaza," including access from the sea, where Gaza smuggles ammunition, weapons, and other contraband, Waltz said.
However, Egypt has also been tied down with the civil war in Sudan, Waltz pointed out.
"What we're seeing right now is a world increasingly on fire because our adversaries smell weakness in the White House," he added. "They believe they can get away with it from there, and I point everything to the Afghanistan withdrawal and that chaotic disaster. But this is why we have to have strength in the White House.
"This is why America has to lead. This is why America has to be feared and respected by our adversaries, and that is just not the case right now."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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