Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday that President Joe Biden is encouraging Iran and Hezbollah with how he has handled Iran’s attack on Israel, and that Israel does not need U.S. help or permission to respond according to their own military doctrine and interest.
On Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN, Rubio joined anchor Jake Tapper to discuss Iran’s unprecedented direct attack on Israel, which was conducted by air using drones, ballistic missiles, and rockets launched both from Iranian soil and by Iran’s proxies in other countries, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In a call on Saturday the details of which were leaked to the press, Biden discouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from responding to Iran’s attack, and said that the U.S. would not join in any strike against Iran.
That response angered Democrats like Sen. John Fetterman as well as Republicans like Rubio, who told Tapper elsewhere in the interview that Biden made the comments in order to “appease” the “so-called peace activists” who, he said, are actually “antisemites, anti-Israel, pro-terrorist elements.”
But Rubio also said in the interview that leaking the call encourages Israel’s enemies.
“It is the continuing part of this public game that they are playing, which frankly encourages Iran and Hezbollah, which we haven’t even talked about, and the Houthis and all these other elements that are targeting Israel,” he said.
TAPPER: We’re waiting to see how Israel responds to this attack. Iran is already warning that any Israeli retaliation will be met with a more severe response from Iran. You called this the most dangerous moment for the Middle East since 1973. What do you think Israel should do?
RUBIO: Well, I’m not going to tell Israel what to do, because I’m not the one that was attacked by 300 rockets and missiles and drones. I do know that Israel has a very clear military doctrine, and that is that they respond to attacks, by responding to those with something much more severe. It is how they have survived.
This is a country, a Jewish state, that on its very first hour of existence, was attacked in multiple directions by multiple countries, and it has not stopped since then. They have faced constant existential threats to their existence on a repeated basis throughout their history. In fact, their history is defined by that. And so they have made the decision in their military doctrine that they respond to attacks on Israel disproportionately. And it is the reason why we have not had another 1973 or 1967 situation.
Now, look, this is I imagine, that Israel does not want a full scale war either. And one of the ways they prevented it in the past is through the kind of deterrence that comes from firm attack. So I expect that they will respond. I don’t think they’re going to ask us, nor do they need us to help them in that regard. Ours has been largely a defensive posture.
What I don’t understand is why Joe Biden and the administration would leak to the media the contents of a conversation in which he tells Netanyahu he doesn’t think Netanyahu should respond at all.
It is the continuing part of this public game that they are playing, which, frankly encourages Iran and Hezbollah, which we haven’t even talked about, and the Houthis and, all these other elements that are targeting Israel.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
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