Posted on 03/01/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
Attorney Marc Zell, Chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, spoke to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News.
On the shift in US support for Israel during the current war in Gaza, going from 100% support from President Joe Biden to pressures and demands, Zell says that “those of us who understand what's going on with the Biden administration said very early on that Joe Biden and all of his strong support for Israel, that may have been his personal view. But the people that run Joe Biden, that is the Obama folks that run the White House and Obama himself in his basement near Washington or wherever he happens to be, have a different view about Israel. They were never friendly with Israel."
He continued, "You remember the Obama administration. So, when the Americans expressed shock after October 7th, that was something we understood. But remember what they said. They said ‘we will do what is necessary to let Israel defend herself. We have her back.’ There were statements like that. What they didn't say at the time was ‘we support Israel's war objectives to go in, smash Hamas, take them out for all time, return the hostages and then make Gaza a place with which Israel can live in peace in the future.’ That is not what the Americans ever said.”
Zell continued, “They opposed the ground operation in October from the very beginning. They opposed Israel's objections to sending humanitarian aid or limiting humanitarian aid to Gaza and they have put on pressure now and insisting that whatever happens after the war includes, incredibly, the establishment of a Palestinian state with the very people who committed the atrocities on October 7th.”
On the understanding that the result of October 7th may be a Palestinian state, Zell questions, “How do I explain a Palestinian state? Because that has been the policy of the Democratic party and the progressives for years. That's what they believe in. That's what they're trying to accomplish. It has a domestic political angle as well, because the Democrats need the state of Michigan. It's one of the six or seven swing states for the presidential election in November. They need Michigan terribly. They won it in 2020. They lost it in 2016 and if they don't take it in 2024, there's a very good chance they won't be able to keep the White House or the Congress."
"So they are doing whatever they can to persuade Michigan and who do they need to persuade in Michigan? The thousands and thousands of Arab Americans, many of whom are Palestinians, who live in Michigan and who in the primary election that was just held two days ago, on Tuesday, in Michigan, 16% of the Democrats who voted in the primaries, voted uncommitted, that is they didn't support Biden because of this. So they are eager to persuade Michiganders and the Arabs who live there to vote their way. This is one of the ways they do it,” he explained.
To the question of who is better for Israel in the White House, Zell replied, “I think it's obvious. I think everybody in Israel knows who's the best for Israel and that's the Republican party. That's been the case for the past decade or more. And in the Trump administration, we know that we have 'all the receipts' – proof, like the Embassy going to Jerusalem, the recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, the breaking off of the Iran nuclear deal, support for Israel strategically and diplomatically, the cutting off of aid to the Palestinians and to UNRWA and everything else. This is what happened in the Trump administration."
"When the Democrats came in, literally the next day they changed all of that. When October 7th came in, there was a big slap in the face for them, they had to react to the realities, the horrors of October 7th, but they never really gave up on their underlying goals, which is not necessarily in Israel's interest. The Palestinian state, we all know here is something that's completely out of the question at the moment and the idea of allowing Hamas to come back and to reestablish itself in Gaza, practically every Israeli you talk to would understand how stupid that is. But that is the American position.”