Top Biden aide backs withholding weapons from Israel after opposing policy last year

Former US national security adviser Jake Sullivan says he would back withholding weapons from Israel after opposing such calls during the Biden administration.

“The thing that we were grappling with throughout all of 2024, which is not the case today, is that Israel was under attack from multiple fronts. It was under attack from Hezbollah, from the Houthis, from Syria, from Iraq, obviously from Hamas and from Iran itself. So the idea of saying Israel we’re not going to give you a whole set of military tools in that context was challenging,” Sullivan says during an interview on the Bulwark podcast.

“The case for withholding weapons from Israel today is much stronger than it was one year ago. One, they don’t face the same regional threats. Two, there was a ceasefire hostage deal in place and the ability to have negotiations, and it was Israel who just walked away from it without negotiating seriously. Three, there is a full-blown famine in Gaza. And four, there are no more serious military objectives to achieve. It’s just bombing the rubble into rubble,” he says.

Sullivan then reveals that he has counseled Democratic lawmakers who were weighing how to vote on resolutions last month on withholding weapons to Israel that doing so was a “totally credible position that I would support.”

Chinese officials "were saying, it's very interesting to watch President Trump because we've had a long-term strategy to basically try to weaken and divide America's alliances….President Trump is just doing it for us."

Jake Sullivan joins @Timodc on today's Bulwark Podcast: pic.twitter.com/PVVjVHbYVT

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) August 28, 2025