Haley, Pence, warn Israel not to rely on Biden, bipartisanship

“Make no mistake about it, President Joe Biden has turned his back on Israel,” Pence told the RJC.

By Aryeh Savir/TPS and Tobias Siegal/WIN

“Israel should not count on Biden to stop the Iran nuclear program,” Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, warned, calling on Israel to defend itself.

“The Iranian nuclear threat is existential for Israel. If Israel makes the grave decision that its security depends on removing that threat, it should not wait for an American green light that might never come,” she stated, while addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) annual conference in Las Vegas over the weekend.

Haley’s criticism extended to AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group. “Why do they invite politicians to their conference who strongly support the Iran nuclear deal?” she asked at the beginning of her speech, drawing applauds from the crowd.

She argued that AIPAC and other bodies that support Israel are taking the principle of bipartisanship too far, losing sight of the very thing they are fighting for.

“I want all Democrats to support Israel as much as Republicans do,” she said. “But if you make bipartisanship the whole reason for existence, then you lose sight of the policies you’re fighting for in the first place,” she continued.

Haley’s warning is joined by that of former Vice President Mike Pence who cautioned that President Joe Biden has “turned his back on Israel.”

“Make no mistake about it, President Joe Biden has turned his back on Israel,” Pence told the RJC.

Biden has “restored funding for the Palestinian Authority, announced his intention to rejoin the Iran Nuclear Deal, and now the Biden administration is planning to open a consulate in Jerusalem for the Palestinian people,” Pence said, noting that the consulate opening “is an unlawful step and it’s time for Congress to act to deny President Biden from opening a consulate in Jerusalem.”

The Biden administration is seeking to reengage Tehran in talks on a new nuclear agreement, while Europe is seeking to salvage the one signed in 2015, which the U.S. under Donald Trump left.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price state Thursday that the Biden administration “remain[s] interested to determine whether we can achieve a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).”

“We continue to believe that a mutual return to compliance is the most effective means by which to put Iran’s nuclear program back in the box that it was in for several years after the deal was implemented in 2016. So that is the first step,” he added.

And yet, the administration’s commitment to diplomacy has been met with opposition time and time again. Last week, Seventeen Republican members of Congress, led by Rep. Bryan Steil (Wis.), accused Biden of ignoring Iran’s increasingly aggressive attacks on U.S. troops and its allies in the Middle East, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

In a letter send to the White House, they urged Biden to reconsider the path of diplomacy with “the largest state sponsor of terrorism,” arguing that the “administration is setting the wrong priorities by working to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal.”

Israel has warned that the Iranian nuclear program has reached a critical stage and is weeks away from accumulating the material needed for a nuclear bomb, requiring action.

AIPACBipartisaniran nuclear programIranian threatJoe BidenMiddle EastMike PenceNikki Haley