Sen. Ted Cruz Pans Biden over ‘Snubbing’ PM Netanyahu: ‘Most Relentlessly Anti-Israel’ Admin Ever

“He has been funneling cash into Hamas, into Hezbollah; into the terrorists,” he stated, noting that Biden “and the cronies around him are actively funneling billions of dollars into Iran to help them develop nuclear weapons that could well be used to murder millions of Israelis and millions of Americans.” 

“To say it is backwards would be a massive understatement,” he added.

Having “gotten to know Netanyahu quite well” over time, Cruz claimed that “of all of the world leaders I’ve met at this point … I don’t think there is another who has impressed me more with the seriousness of his mission” than the Israeli prime minister.

“Benjamin Netanyahu understands that he has a responsibility to protect the safety of the citizens of Israel from forces that surround Israel that would drive them into the sea and I have told him this before but I believe … Netanyahu has a Churchillian steely-eyed gaze on the threats facing Israel and America — in particular, the threat of a nuclear Iran,” he stated. 

Cruz also slammed President Biden for drawing a “false equivalency” between Israel and its enemies when “he says the terrorists who strap on a suicide vest and go into shopping malls or children’s schools and murder women and children and infants — they’re just exactly the same as the Israeli soldiers who are trying to protect those women and children and infants.” 

“It is shameful; it is disgraceful,” he stated.

Noting that many Democrat voters “believe rightfully that America should be a strong and resolute ally with Israel,” Cruz asserted that one “cannot look at the Biden administration‘s record and conclude anything other than this White House is adamantly opposed to standing with Israel.”

“If you’re a Democrat who actually thinks America should stand with Israel, what do you think of the fact that Joe Biden publicly snubs the elected Prime Minister of Israel?” he asked.

He claimed the fact was most recently manifested in a “new policy that was announced from the Department of State that targets Israeli Jews, who live in the Golan Heights and live in Judea and Samaria and in fact, who live in parts of Jerusalem — the capital of Israel; to ban bilateral scientific and technological cooperation.” 

“The State Department distributed it to all the relevant U.S. government agencies, and it is effectively Joe Biden implementing a policy of BDS — boycott, divest and sanction,” he stated, adding, “it is targeting Israel [and] explicitly targeted at Israeli Jews” and is “antisemitic.”

“So when Joe Biden says, well, no one stood stronger with Israel than he has — well, holy cow, with friends like that who the heck needs enemies,” he added.

U.S. President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid at a hotel in Jerusalem on July 14, 2022. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Cruz also accused the current administration of having been “granular in how they work to undermine Israel,” and of “funding millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority while they continue what are called ‘pay-to-slay’ policies.” 

“If you’re a Palestinian terrorist and you strap on a suicide vest and you murder a bunch of children, the Palestinian Authority will send a check every year for the rest of your life to your widow and your children. They will pay you to murder innocent children,” he explained.

Though Cruz noted that he supported legislation passed through Congress that bars payment to  government entities that “pay terrorists and reward terrorism,” he noted that the Biden administration is “actively circumventing it.”

Referencing President Biden’s meeting with the “socialist anti-American leftist” leader of Brazil Lula da Silva in February, Cruz noted that Biden “happily welcomed him in with open arms and bear-hugged him.”

“If you hate America, the Biden White House loves you; but if you are the elected leader of Israel, you are not welcome in the Biden White House,” he noted.

Biden has refused to offer the customary invitation to Netanyahu, who was elected democratically six months ago, though he met with both of the Israeli prime minister’s predecessors, who led governments formed by minority party coalitions.

Though Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition won the November election with a collective, decisive majority, and despite his posturing as a defender of democracy, Biden continues to deny Netanyahu the treatment of a legitimate leader and as one of America’s closest allies.

In March, Biden declared he would not meet with Netanyahu even after the latter suspended his judicial reforms, though the declaration contradicted U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides, who had promised a meeting as an incentive.

As Biden continues to snub the democratically elected Israeli government, China has moved to take advantage of the current administration’s hostility to long-term U.S. allies, with Netanyahu accepting last week an invitation to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping.

This was not the first time the Biden administration took heat for its attitude toward the current Israeli government.

Last month, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman described President Biden’s refusal to meet the Israeli prime minister since the latter’s election in November as “despicable.” 

“This idea that Biden can get away with not meeting with Netanyahu…,” he said. “On the one hand, we preach about democracy and how important it is, and [yet, on the other,] we refuse to meet with Israel’s democratic leaders.”

In May, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) vowed that if President Joe Biden continues to isolate Netanyahu, the U.S. House would invite him to Washington, regardless, noting that Netanyahu is “a dear friend, as a prime minister of a country that we have our closest ties with.”

More recently, former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman slammed the Biden administration for its having yet to invite the Israeli premier to the White House while accusing it of “strengthening” the otherwise “weak” Iranian regime. 

Lieberman demanded an immediate invitation for Netanyahu and called to make the Islamic Republic of Iran “more afraid” of the U.S.

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.