Biden has made ‘really inappropriate comments’ on Israel-Hamas war, says former Ambassador David Friedman.
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman accused the Biden administration of “hampering” Israel’s war effort against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking with Channel 12 on Monday, Trump’s envoy to the Jewish state decried Biden’s call for Israel to transition the ongoing war to “low-intensity combat,” calling such comments “inappropriate.”
The president, Friedman said, is “to some extent hampering the war effort by this desire to force Israel to engage in I think what he refers to as ‘low-intensity combat.’”
“That’s sort of the kind of messaging that America has been giving Israel.”
The former ambassador also railed against the Biden administration’s push for Palestinian statehood following the October 7th massacres, calling the White House’s messaging “tone-deaf.”
“I think he has really made some inappropriate comments. He spoke about indiscriminate bombing that Israel engaged in, which I think is an outright lie.”
“I think that he speaks continuously about this need to impose a two-state solution, which I think is tone-deaf right now.”
Turning to the future of Gaza after the current war, Friedman expressed his concern with the Biden administration’s plan to position a reformed Palestinian Authority to take over the coastal enclave.
“They’re the best of the worst – but they are still pretty bad,” Friedman said of the PA. “They pay terrorists to kill Jews, they’re corrupt, they engage in all kinds of malign behavior, and they are not suited to run Gaza or to run Judea and Samaria.”
Later on Monday, Friedman responded to reports from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal revealing an Israeli dossier which found some 10% of employees in the UN relief agency for the Palestinians are affiliated with terrorist groups, and at least a dozen took part in the October 7th atrocities against Israelis.
“I’m sure that the Israeli dossier on UNRWA is damning, but UNRWA’s failings were common knowledge during the Trump Administration,” Friedman tweeted.
“UNRWA perpetuated and facilitated most of the malign activity and training that gave birth to a generation of Gazanazis. That’s why Trump cut them off and why I will never understand why Biden restored their funding.”
President Trump ended U.S. funding for UNRWA in 2018, in a move that was later reversed by his successor, President Biden, in 2021.