JFNA says withholding US arms for Israel encourages Hamas, endangers the hostages

The Jewish Federations of North America also comes out against US President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold additional armaments for Israel if it launches an offensive in Rafah, calling what he did “wrong.”

“Daylight between the US and Israel on military matters emboldens Hamas and other Iran-backed forces in the region, encourages their delay tactics, and endangers the hostages by weakening Israel’s negotiating hand at a critical juncture,” the umbrella group says in a statement.

It also says Biden’s “comments regarding civilians and humanitarian aid only serve to reinforce the false narratives that anti-Israel and antisemitic extremists are violently spreading in campus protests,” in an apparent reference to the US president responding in the affirmative when asked during a CNN interview “have those bombs been used to kill civilians in Gaza.”

“These outcomes go against the laudable aspirations President Biden enunciated this week, that ‘there is no place on any campus in America, any place in America, for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind, whether against Jews or anyone else,'” the JFNA statement adds.

“Even the strongest of allies sometimes disagree, but their mutual support should never waver.