President Biden’s threat to halt offensive weapons shipments to Israel is prompting a wave of backlash among the House GOP, as progressive Democrats take a victory lap to celebrate the move.
Republican lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital accused Biden of caving to pressure brought on by widespread anti-Israel demonstrations across the U.S. Leftists, meanwhile, praised student activists protesting on college campuses, and encouraged them to keep going even as tensions at some of these events have already erupted in conflict between police and protesters.
“First it was using Hoosier tax dollars to cancel student loans, now he’s bowing to the demands of Little Gazas on Ivy League campuses,” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital. “It’s very clear Biden cares more about blue-haired gender studies majors than he does farmers, police officers, truckers, or the millions of other Americans who work hard to make our country great.”
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Republicans like Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., are accusing President Biden of caving to the left on Israel, as progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., take a victory lap. (Getty Images)
Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., suggested to Fox News Digital that the president was motivated by threats to his re-election bid from the progressive left.
“Joe Biden is putting his fear of a hundred thousand progressives in Michigan ahead of the security of the U.S. and Israel. This is politics at its worst and sends a disgraceful message to our allies,” Waltz said.
Biden’s announcement also caught heat from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who called it a “dangerous mistake.”
“This shortsighted move will call into question U.S. reliability around the world,” he said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital by the committee.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said President Biden was acquiescing to pressure from the college campus protests across the country. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
And the No. 4 House Republican, GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said: “Joe Biden is prioritizing appeasing the pro-Hamas base of the Democrat Party over returning American and Israeli hostages and supporting Israel’s right to exist.”
On the other side of the aisle, members of the far-left “Squad” suggested Biden’s harsher stance on Israel was due in part to the campus protests.
“This is what young people across the country were protesting for and finally the needle has moved in a significant way. I hope we see more progress, but don’t ever let people tell you that your voices are meaningless and your actions are worthless. The arc of what is possible is always within us to bend,” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., wrote on X, along with a portion of Biden’s CNN interview warning Israel not to invade Rafah.
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Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on buildings near the separating wall between Egypt and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. (AP/Ramez Habboub)
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., said on X, “We have to keep standing for what is right. Organizing is working. Protesting is working.”
The college protests here have garnered bipartisan criticism from virtually all Republicans and a significant number of Democrats, but progressives have continued to show strong support for the students and other activists on campus.
Comments by Omar, for example, referring to some Jewish students as “pro-genocide,” have earned her a GOP-led censure resolution, filed by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., on Tuesday. She made the remarks during a recent visit to Columbia University’s anti-Israel encampment.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to [email protected]
