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‘Put a sock in it’ – Bolton blasts Biden’s suggestion to Israel

‘Just incompetence’ – Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton excoriates President Biden for urging Israel not to strike Iran’s oil facilities.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, who also served as America’s ambassador to the United Nations, excoriated President Joe Biden over the weekend, after Biden publicly urged Israel to limit its response to a massive ballistic missile attack last week.

On Tuesday, Iran launched roughly 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel, the Islamic republic’s second large-scale ballistic missile attack on the Jewish state this year.

Israel’s prime minister and defense minister vowed the IDF carry out a major reprisal, and are reportedly considering striking either Iran’s nuclear program, or its oil facilities.

Biden suggested Friday that Israel refrain from attacking Iran’s oil industry.

“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields.”

Hours later, Bolton told CNN that Biden was “making a huge mistake talking about any of Israel’s possible options,” saying the president should “put a sock in it.”

“Iran is an enemy of the United States. It has been a state sponsor of terrorism since the Reagan administration.”

“What the president is doing is publicly telling an enemy what he thinks an ally should do. He should put a sock in it and stop talking about it.”

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Bolton accused Biden of trying “to put pressure on Israel” by going public with his position, rather than speaking privately to Israeli leaders.

On Sunday, Bolton doubled down on his criticism of Biden, telling NewsNation he attributed the president’s comments to cognitive decline.

“My first reaction was, it was just incompetence, or maybe it was mental capacity, or lack thereof.”

“I just think it’s wrong for an American president to speak publicly about what an American ally might do to an American enemy.”

Bolton, a Republican who served in the George W. Bush and Trump administrations, publicly repudiated President Donald Trump after leaving the administration in 2019. In 2020, he refused to endorse either Trump or Biden, instead casting a write-in ballot for former Vice President Dick Cheney.