Hamas terrorists just blitzed into Israel, targeting high-ranking personnel while waging a campaign of terror across the small country, in what might be that nation’s greatest ever failure of military intelligence. Notably, the attacks come shortly after the Biden Administration unfroze $6 billion for Iran in exchange for getting back five American hostages, a fact with which Trump bashed Biden in a Saturday statement.
As background, the unfrozen dollars were, according to the Biden Administration, only able to be used by Iran for humanitarian purposes. Ignoring that that would, in any case, free up other dollars to be put toward military or terroristic ends, Iran insisted at the time that it would use the money for whatever purposes it pleased.
President Raisi of Iran, commenting on the unfrozen money, said, “This money belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and naturally, we will decide, the Islamic Republic of Iran will decide to spend it wherever we need it.” He added, “Humanitarian means whatever the Iranian people [need]. So, this money will be budgeted for those needs, and the needs of the Iranian people will be decided and determined by the Iranian government.”
Separately, President Biden’s Administration began sending aid to Palestine again in 2022, restarting a program started by Trump. Speaking on that at the time, an administration official said, “There was really no connection whatsoever, no discussions with the Palestinians when the new administration team took over. We have worked to re-establish a lot of those connections.”
Now, just weeks after the Biden Administration unfroze the billions for Iran, Hamas has launched its bloody and extensive lightning strike into Israel. Former President Donald Trump tore into the Biden Administration for the unfrozen money decision in a statement, saying that it was imprudent and that the region is devolving into chaos under Biden.
He said, “These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force. Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration.”
Continuing, the former president went on to add that peace in the region had seemed cemented by his Abraham Accords but is now disintegrating under the Biden Administration, saying, “We brought so much peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, only to see Biden whittle it away at a far more rapid pace than anyone thought possible. Here we go again.”
Similarly, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said, “Just weeks ago, the Biden administration handed over $6 billion to Iran, and today, innocent Israelis were murdered by Iran-backed terrorists. We must continue to support our strongest ally in the Middle East and their right to defend themselves against these unprovoked, horrific attacks.“
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller insisted, contrary to what Republicans like Trump and Blackburn are arguing, that the money provided for Iran’s “humanitarian” use was not used to attack Israel, saying, “Let’s be clear: the deal to bring U.S. citizens home from Iran has nothing to do with the horrific attack on Israel. Not a penny has been spent, and when it is, it can only go for humanitarian needs like food and medicine. Anything to the contrary is false.”
That statement ignores, however, that millions were given to the Palestinians, which could have been the taxpayer money to which Trump referred in his statement.
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