Welcome back, More empty promises. The White House is claiming
the US is committed to standing with Israel and its
war against Hamas,
despite President Biden threatening to withhold weapons to Israel if
it invades Rafa.
Here's White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan yesterday.
No president has stood stronger with Israel than Joe Biden.
His commitment to Israel is ironclad.
Ironclad doesn't mean you never disagree.
Means you work through your disagreements,
as only true friends can do.
As a very good friend of Israel,
we are going to stand with them as they work
to defeat their determined enemy.
But we're also going to offer our advice and make
clear where we stand on these issues as well.
A
lot of talking points there for Jake Sullivan.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns the,
quote, perception of tensions between the US and Israel over
Rafa is making it harder to reach a hostage deal
with Hamas.
Joining me now is Fox News Senior strategic analyst and
the chairman of the Institute for the City of War,
General Jack Keane. Back with me.
General, great to see you.
What do you think? I think that makes some sense.
If if if there's a perception that the US and
Israel are at odds,
doesn't that embolden Hamas? Doesn't that in fact make it
harder to reach a deal to get hostages released?
Yeah, there's no doubt about that.
I mean, ever since the Biden administration
publicly began to criticize Israel and the IDF for how
they were conducting tactical military operations
that from the start began to undermine Israel and strengthen
Sinwar's hand, who's the head of Hamas inside of Gaza?
And he has been steadfast in not budging on the
fact that
yes, hostage release is on the table,
but for that he wants an end to the military
fighting and a complete withdrawal
of Israel from Gaza, which obviously is not in Israel's
interest to do at this particular time.
And and it also I think,
helps inflamed the protests around the world because it's playing
right into their hands.
It it doesn't make any sense to me
that on the one hand,
you know, we can claim
that President Biden is the
best and strongest supporter ever of Israel.
And there's certainly noteworthy things that the amount of ammunition
we've provided,
the emotional and moral and passion and support the president
has provided.
The fact that we LED AUS coalition for the first
time in history to help defend Israel against a fuselage
of missiles pouring into
into Israel, that certainly is all strong support.
But this other thing that has taken place is really
hurting Israel.
And they're not willing to step up and and and
indicate that they're defending themselves.
And I think somewhat sheepishly saying,
well, these are just disagreements and friends have disagreements.
No, no, this is very high stakes.
What's going on here? We've got
130 hostages at stake. We've got the existential threat of
Israel at stake.
My point is, every time President Biden talks about Israel,
he's got the remind the people in the United States
and the people worldwide that this is an existential threat
dealing with Israel and Hamas this and and the Iranians
are behind all of that with their proxies.
This is the survival of the state of Israel.
That's at stake. That's right.
And and and threatening that you're not going to send
a weapon shipment in the middle of their fight for
survival doesn't do that,
frankly. And I I think the administration was taken aback
by the reaction they got
from that statement. I mean,
I spoke with voters and independents,
liberals, liberals who were very upset.
They said that's my red line.
You stop sending weapons, you halt weapon shipments to Israel
in the middle of its fight for their life.
I'm done. That's my red line.
So I think now they're trying to walk it back
a little and soften it up.
Because of this reaction from voters,
they're now worried that this is a political issue.
I want to know where China is on all of
this because Russian President Vladimir Putin replace his defense minister
and longtime ally with an economist yesterday shaking up military
leadership in Moscow. As you know,
Putin's decision to elevate the former Deputy Prime Minister is
seen as a way to tighten control over military spending.
But the Kremlin today confirmed to Fox that Putin is
traveling to China Thursday for a state visit and meeting
with President Xi Jinping.
So we can't forget the China element in all of
this,
can we general?
Oh, no, absolutely not. I mean
listen the the collaboration and cooperation China and Russia is
very significant.
It's comprehensive, it's wide scale.
And add to that Iran and North Korea,
these four nation states are working together to undermine the
United States and and democracy like countries in the world.
They want to replace this international system and they see
weakness on the part of the United States.
They know the United States military is and what it
should to be and it's trying to to catch up
to get to a place where it needs to be.
And they they recognize fully that
the United States has a lot on its hands dealing
with the war in Europe,
dealing with the war in the Middle East and certainly
dealing with President XI's aggressiveness in the Indo
Pacific region and the the replacement of the the Russian
minister.
They put in an economist and I think it's pretty
much he's got no military experience whatsoever,
nor did his predecessor interesting enough,
but I think it has to do with the widespread
corruption in the Ministry of Defense.
They brought this guy in to clean that up and
strengthen their defense industrial base.
But to the point here,
it's not surprising that Putin and she are having another
meeting right after Putin has been anointed again for another
six year term to solidify that relationship.
I mean the fact is
China has helped bail Russia out of the sanctions.
There's no doubt, no doubt about that
$240 billion worth of trade,
26% increase in in 2023,
China trading with Russia to bail them out and that
that has really been quite comprehensive.
They don't provide the weapons and state the platform itself,
but they provide a lot of the components for it.
And to keep an army on the battlefield requires a
lot of things other than weapons in China.
Is strengthening Russia's defense industrial base to support that army
on the battlefield.
Well, what about all these Chinese corporates who are suppliers
of Russian aggression and they're still trading on our exchanges?
I mean, there's so many holes in all of this
as we watch Russia and China get emboldened and,
you know, further unite in all of this.
How worried should the US be?
Well, you know, this administration has been very reluctant to
go after China in terms of sanctions.
There's plenty we can do with the companies to shut
them down that are providing this support to Russia.
And the same thing with Iran.
I mean, China, China is bailing Iran out as well.
And there's so much that they we could do
against China and secondary sanctions.
And you know what happened in the Trump administration?
Iran was back on its heels because of the sanctions,
and this administration has eased up those sanctions.
We have been reluctant to confront China.
We talk about competing with China.
We should win that competition.
And part of winning that competition is imposing sanctions on
them when it's against our national interests.
And clearly, that's what's happening here with China and Russia
and China and Iran.
So do you believe these efforts here this morning?
I mean, we're talking about potential tariffs,
increased tariffs on Chinese imports.
We don't know if they'll actually materialize,
but certainly now Biden is trying to talk tough.
And in the Financial Times,
there's an article that says Joe Biden orders Chinese crypto
miner to sell land near U.S.
military bases. Again, I don't know if all of this
is going to materialize,
but now President Biden is trying to look like he's
doing something against China.
Yeah, well, this is a political year,
and a lot of that may be tied to
the expectations here. So I share your skepticism
about whether this policy actually turns into
executable policy. Exactly. And and becomes a reality.
We'll see. All right. Well,
we'll be talking about this for sure.
General, always a pleasure. Thanks very much.
Yeah, Great talking to Maria.
We so appreciate you, General Jack Keane joining us.