U.S. President Joe Biden is harming Israel’s efforts to demilitarize the Gaza Strip by demanding that Jerusalem scale back its military offensive against the Hamas terror organization, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Channel 12 on Monday.
Biden 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,” Friedman said in an interview with Channel 12‘s Yonit Levi.
“I think he has really made some inappropriate comments. He spoke about the 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,” the former envoy continued.
In an Oct. 12 post on X, Friedman had stated he was “deeply grateful” for Biden’s support in the aftermath of Hamas’s brutal massacre of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in Israel’s northwestern Negev region.
“In Judaism there is an obligation of ‘Hakarat Hatov’—saying thank you to those who perform good deeds. While I have been, and remain, deeply critical of the Biden Administration, the moral, tactical, diplomatic and military support that it has provided Israel over the past few days has been exceptional,” he tweeted at the time.
“I feel less that way now, and I was concerned then that the president’s commitment would fade as Biden tries to balance his various political interests,” Friedman told Channel 12 on Monday.
Friedman served for four years under the Trump administration, which delivered a number of moves hailed by Israel and its supporters, including pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.