The narrative that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is committing genocide took hold because President Joe Biden didn't support Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, Sen. Peter Ricketts, R-Neb., told Newsmax on Monday.
Ricketts said on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren," "If [Biden] had come out right away and said 'Israel has been attacked, we're going to support them no matter what they need to do to destroy Hamas, because Hamas is a terrorist organization, and if anybody else gets in the way, like Iran, we're going to support Israel to destroy them, too.' Guess what, the terrorists would back off, and there wouldn't be all this pushback on Israel if we had just come out for them right away."
Ricketts compared the situation to former President Ronald Reagan's actions after Iran attacked a U.S. Navy ship back in the 1980s. Ricketts said, "Reagan started sinking their ships, and they backed off."
Ricketts also suggested the U.S. end its support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. He said, "I've got a bill to end it because it's basically been described as a branch of Hamas. And we need to make sure that we're supporting our friend Israel and not backing off. And then let's get their sanctions back on Iran again.
"[Former President Donald] Trump knew how to do this. He took Iran's foreign reserves from $122.5 billion, down to less than $14 billion, and Iran did not have the money to support Hamas. Let's do those things. We know how to really hit Iran. Let's do it."
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Kate McManus ✉
Kate McManus is a New Jersey-based Newsmax writer who's spent more than two decades as a journalist.
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