Rep. McCaul: US Shouldn't Ban Israel From Finishing Its War

Telling Israel that it can't have U.S. weapons to attack Rafah, "the last step in the completion of their military objective," is like blocking U.S. troops from finishing out World War II, Rep. Michael McCaul said Sunday.

He pushed back against President Joe Biden's threats to withhold high-payload bombs out of concerns over a humanitarian catastrophe if a major operation takes place.

"Now, of course, you want the conditions with humanitarian [aid] to be in place," the Texas Republican told ABC News' "This Week."

"For us to step in and say, No, you can't go into Rafah and finish the job, I think, is tantamount to an arms embargo. It's also very similar for us to say, in World War II, like my dad's generation, You can invade all the way up to Berlin, but you can't go into Berlin to finish the job."

McCaul also argued that the weapons Biden wants to ban Israel from using are precision-guided, meaning they would help avert civilian casualties in Rafah, where more than a million civilians have taken refuge since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.

"We also passed an appropriations package," the Texas Republican said on ABC News' "This Week. "What we're worried about is a sort of defiance of congressional intent here — that we have passed these weapons out of Congress, and now the president's holding them back."

However, McCaul said that it would be hard to handle an enemy like Hamas, which embeds itself with civilians, using them as human shields.

He added that he objects to saying "point-blank that we are not going to give weapons to Israel if they invade Rafah."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to enter Rafah, which the country considers to be a Hamas stronghold, with or without the U.S. weapons, but McCaul said he's concerned about what Biden's actions would signal to the rest of the world.

"The signal and the message we're sending the rest of the world [is] that you can't count on the United States, you can't trust the United States," he said. "If our allies and friends see this as a trust issue, if the Saudis say part of this peace deal, they want to buy military equipment from the United States, how are they going to trust us?"

The congressman conceded that the situation in Gaza is "heartbreaking."

"You know, war, as they say, is hell," McCaul said. "War is messy. But Israel didn't start this war. Hamas started this war, and Israel's going to finish this war ... I saw a video today of Hamas killing their own people, Palestinian children trying to get food out of the trucks."

But until Hamas is eradicated, there won't be a peaceful solution to the situation, he said.