Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday that President Joe Biden’s handling of Iran’s attack on Israel has encouraged Iran and Hezbollah and that Israel does not require US assistance or authorization to respond in accordance with its own military doctrine and interests.
Rubio discussed Iran’s unprecedented airborne attack on Israel, which included drones, ballistic missiles, and rockets launched both from Iranian soil and by Iran’s proxies in other nations like Hezbollah, with anchor Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
In a phone call released to the press on Saturday, Biden discouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from responding to Iran’s attack and stated that the United States would not participate in any strike against Iran.
That reaction enraged Democrats like Sen. John Fetterman as well as Republicans like Rubio, who told Tapper later in the interview that Biden made the statements to “appease” the “so-called peace activists,” who, he added, are actually “antisemite, anti-Israel, pro-terrorist elements.”
However, Rubio also stated in the interview that revealing the call promotes Israel’s enemies.
“It is the continuing part of this public game that they are playing, which frankly encourages Iran and Hezbollah, which we haven’t even talked about, as well as the Houthis and all these other elements that are targeting Israel,” he went on to say.
TAPPER: We’re waiting to see how Israel responds to this attack. Iran is already warning that any Israeli retaliation will be met with a more severe response from Iran. You called this the most dangerous moment for the Middle East since 1973. What do you think Israel should do?
RUBIO: Well, I’m not going to tell Israel what to do, because I’m not the one that was attacked by 300 rockets and missiles and drones. I do know that Israel has a very clear military doctrine, and that is that they respond to attacks, by responding to those with something much more severe. It is how they have survived.
This is a country, a Jewish state, that on its very first hour of existence, was attacked in multiple directions by multiple countries, and it has not stopped since then. They have faced constant existential threats to their existence on a repeated basis throughout their history. In fact, their history is defined by that. And so they have made the decision in their military doctrine that they respond to attacks on Israel disproportionately. And it is the reason why we have not had another 1973 or 1967 situation.
Now, look, this is I imagine, that Israel does not want a full scale war either. And one of the ways they prevented it in the past is through the kind of deterrence that comes from firm attack. So I expect that they will respond. I don’t think they’re going to ask us, nor do they need us to help them in that regard. Ours has been largely a defensive posture.
What I don’t understand is why Joe Biden and the administration would leak to the media the contents of a conversation in which he tells Netanyahu he doesn’t think Netanyahu should respond at all.
It is the continuing part of this public game that they are playing, which, frankly encourages Iran and Hezbollah, which we haven’t even talked about, and the Houthis and, all these other elements that are targeting Israel.
