Joe Scarborough Floats Withholding Israel Aid Unless Netanyahu Is Ousted: ‘We’re Not Going to Throw Money Down a Rat Hole’
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough toyed with the idea of the United States withholding aid from Israel until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is removed from power on the heels of a bombshell New York Times report Friday morning.
On Thursday evening, the Times revealed that the Israeli government had received warnings about the kind of terror attack launched by Hamas on October 7 over a year ago, but ultimately “dismissed the plan as aspirational” and “too difficult for Hamas to carry out.”
After a discussion about the revelation, Scarborough suggested that the United States might be wise to withhold aid from Israel until Netanyahu is replaced.
“We mourn the terror attack as a nation and we support the Israelis. At this point, we still support the Israelis. But this idea that we’re going to continue supporting Netanyahu’s government and have them saying, ‘Well, you know, we’ll get to it when we get to it.’ The United States could say that after 9/11, because the United States was fighting that war,” argued Scarborough. “And we had allies, but we were funding the overwhelming majority of it. The Israelis know it, certainly our enemies across the Middle East know it: We are the primary funder of Israel and we are propping Israel up so they can continue this fight not only against Hamas, but for their very existence.”
He continued:
You see something like this [the Times report], you keep looking at the mistakes the Netanyahu government makes, and let me add: You look at the chaos in the West Bank that I lay all at the feet of Benjamin Netanyahu and his policies over the past ten years. People, listen closely, I didn’t, I didn’t blame his policies for the attack in Gaza, but the chaos in the West Bank that threatens any peace process moving forward and also threatens another, a second front in this war, possibly a third front in this war.
The United States has the right to say, “If we’re going to continue propping up your government, if you don’t have faith in this guy who knew this was coming a year away, we need a better partner.” And Benjamin Netanyahu is not that partner. When do we get to that point? Because if I were in Congress, this is what I’d be saying, and if I’m saying it as one of the biggest supporters of Israel, then there have got to be a lot of other people saying it. We’re not going to throw money down a rat hole for a government that knew this was coming for a year and didn’t do anything.
Watch above via MSNBC.
