ACLJ Files Urgent FOIA To Expose President Biden's Latest Betrayal of Israel, Halting Critical Military Aid Needed To Defeat Hamas Once and for All

Despite public claims of support for Israel, behind closed doors, the Biden Administration is playing a very dangerous game. We just took urgent action to expose it.

President Joe Biden just admitted he was halting a supply of weapons and ammunition to Israel as it attempts to defend its people and its interests against deadly violence. Biden claims that his support of Israel is “ironclad,” yet his actions tell a different, more treacherous tale.

In fact, this latest initiative to hamper Israel’s ability to defend itself was reportedly kept quiet until after the President’s seemingly disingenuous remarks regarding his support for Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

During the press conference, Biden stated:

To the Jewish community, I want you to know I see your fear, your hurt, and your pain. Let me reassure you, as your president, you’re not alone. You belong. You always have, and you always will. And my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad.

But sadly, it would appear that even as Biden stood before the world claiming his support for Israel, there may have been 30 pieces of silver weighing heavily in his pocket. A day after the well-publicized media event, Biden spoke with CNN and struck a much more imperious tone, stating:

We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently. . . . But it’s, it’s just wrong. We’re not going to – we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.

With all due respect, Mr. President, you don’t get to dictate how and when Israel gets to defend itself. Even worse, you are literally preventing Israel from defeating Hamas once and for all. Israel is our greatest ally in the Middle East, and its people are suffering. We all watched the October 7 attacks in horror. Israel was violently attacked, and 1,400 souls were barbarically murdered in unthinkable ways at the hands of Hamas terrorists. Don’t say you support Israel but then cut her off at the knees in favor of the very enemies that committed those atrocities. It’s insulting to the Israeli people, Jewish Americans currently fearing for their safety here at home, and anyone who stands against violent terrorists.

As ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs (and former U.S. Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo wrote in his article at ACLJ.org:

This is a shameful betrayal of our closest ally in the Middle East that will only make Americans less safe. It also displays deplorable hypocrisy, as the Biden Administration is now doing exactly what far-Left leaders once falsely accused the Trump Administration of doing with respect to Ukraine. Joe Biden should stop caving to terrorist sympathizers at home and stand with our friend, Israel.

And now it appears President Biden is upping the stakes in his conditional “support” of Israel. According to new reports, the Biden Administration has dangled crucial intel on Hamas leadership over Israel’s head, stating they can have it if they promise not to invade Rafah. This is not how you treat an ally. You don't dangle a carrot over Israel’s head and say if you want this, do what we say. If the U.S. has legitimate information on the evil extremists who orchestrated the barbaric attacks last fall, it is our moral obligation to provide it – not to use it as leverage over our ally. That behavior is simply deplorable. It’s time that President Biden be held accountable for his Administration’s duplicity. 

The ACLJ just sent an urgent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Biden State Department and Department of Defense to expose and defeat Biden’s latest betrayal of Israel. Our request asks for any and all records from the departments ranging from January 1, 2024, through the date our FOIA was filed pertaining to the decision to halt the artillery shipment to Israel.

Our FOIA specifically names Biden Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, as well as Col. Michelle Agpalza and Kenneth Morris, Commander and Deputy Commander, respectively, of the Defense Logistics Agencies, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), and the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM).

And we explicitly requested all records or correspondence containing words like “Israel,” “Rafah,” “paused shipment,” “IDF,” “Netanyahu,” and “2,000 pound bombs.”

It’s bad enough that President Biden did this to Israel. But it’s imperative that the American people know how and why he did it. What could possibly be the motivation to hurt our ally?

In his article, Sec. Mike Pompeo offered one compelling but, if true, disturbing explanation:

The reality is that delaying shipments of weapons has little to do with pressuring Israel and everything to do with kowtowing to the ultra-radical Left held up in “student” tent-cities on college campuses. Biden is stopping military aid for political purposes. In doing so, he is teaching our adversaries a bad lesson: Generate political pressure in the U.S., and Joe Biden will cave to you. He did this in Afghanistan, in Iran, and now with Hamas.

If the Biden agencies do not respond to our FOIA in the required time period, we are prepared to take further legal action, including filing a lawsuit against the Administration. We will continue to keep you up to date on this case as it develops.

Denying Israel the ability to defend itself and shut down the terrorists who threaten its safety and still hold hundreds of its citizens hostage is not showing ironclad support. It’s betrayal at the highest level – essentially empowering Hamas and other terrorist groups by leaving our ally vulnerable to further attack – and it must be exposed and stopped immediately.

UPDATE: 05.16. 2024 - Just a few days after we filed our FOIA demanding answers as to why President Biden chose to betray Israel by stopping the shipment of weapons and military supplies necessary to defend itself, the President has done another about-face. The Biden Administration just announced it will be sending $1 billion in artillery and tactical vehicles to aid in Israel’s defense against Hamas. 

That being said, it seems this decision may not be so helpful to Israel’s current plight, given that Representative Greg Meeks (NY-5) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee reportedly said the shipment of arms will be delivered “in the next two to three years.” Israel may not have that kind of time. 

Our FOIA stands. Israel needs our help, and all these holds and delays are only making her more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The ACLJ will continue to pursue the true motivations behind Biden’s actions to hamper our ally Israel, leaving the Israeli people in a dangerous position.