Senate GOP Affirms Support For Israel

Members of Congress are going out of their way to pledge full support for Israel, while also calling out Iran for what many see as that nation’s clear complicity in Hamas’s October 7 surprise attack.

Republicans, in particular, are pointing the finger at Iran, and on Wednesday, a group of Senate Republicans held a news conference to affirm their support for Israel while also criticizing the administration for, they believe, enabling Iran's bad behavior.

"The administration can no longer wish away the Iranian threat or attempt to appease the Iranians as they have," Sen. Jim Risch, the Idaho Republican and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

"It has to happen now," said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), "the Biden administration's appeasement policy of Iran has to stop."

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford participated in the news conference, first noting that the entire civilized world condemns the actions of the Hamas terrorists.

"This kind of brutality, simply because someone is Jewish," Lankford (R-OK) said, "is not only heinous and horrible, but should be deplorable to everyone in the world, regardless of your faith, background, community, or country that you’re from."

Lankford says Iran has gained about $60 billion since President Biden lifted the sanctions that had been imposed under the previous administration's 'maximum pressure campaign.'

"That’s allow them to be able to funnel money to Hezbollah and Hamas," Lankford said in an interview, "so, what President Biden is doing now to be able to say we stand with Israel is positive, but he needs to back that up by also putting pressure back on Iran to make sure that stops."

Lankford also wants to stop the spread of disinformation, such as the initial claim, he says, that Israel was to blame for Tuesday's deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza.

"We now know factually that's not true, as the information has come out," said Lankford."It wasn’t Israel bombing the hospital, it was actually terrorists directly launching rockets toward civilians in Israel, but one of the rockets instead went straight down into Gaza and killed all those people."

The Senators all support providing additional aid to Israel, and Oklahoma's Markwayne Mullin says the conflict won't be over quickly, so aid will definitely be needed.

"We are going to financially be pumping money into Israel before long," Sen. Mullin (R-OK) said in an interview Wednesday, "so, we’re saying, let’s get ahead of this."

Capitol observers say the question is not whether, will Congress support sending additional help to Israel, it's can the House elect a Speaker in time to approve the aid that members are so determined to provide.