Now That Harris Has Lost, Let Israel Win
For months the Biden-Harris administration has sought to restrain Israeli military operations by blocking or delaying the delivery of weapons—far more weapons than has been reported. This policy has failed, and with the election over, it’s time to reverse it.
It is widely known that the White House has blocked the delivery of 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs to Israel, despite Congress’s approving their transfer. But Israeli officials have told us that the list of affected weapons is far more extensive. They told us that the Defense Department is slowing the delivery of thousands of 1,000-pound MK-83 bombs, 500-pound MK-82 bombs, and the Joint Direct Attack Munition kits that convert those bombs into precision-guided munitions. The State Department’s slow approval process has also stalled thousands of Hellfire missiles, tank and mortar shells and more than 100 armored bulldozers. Israel has requested expedited purchase of Apache helicopters, which the Defense Department has yet to approve.
Some of these delays may be for legitimate reasons—such as U.S. shortages—but others are intentional. The Biden administration has drawn from the Obama playbook, using bureaucratic processes to avoid or slow delivery of weapons without technically blocking them. During the 2014 war in Gaza, President Obama delayed but didn’t block the transfer of Hellfire missiles and other munitions to Israel to restrain its military operations.
Although President Biden has helped Israel defend itself—deploying U.S. military assets, which have helped shoot down Iranian projectiles—he has held back from helping Israel win. Israel seeks to dismantle Hamas, degrade Hezbollah and defang Tehran’s nuclear program. The Biden administration by contrast has sought to end the war immediately, for political expedience and out of strategic shortsightedness.
The politics of withholding weapons has failed. Mr. Biden and Kamala Harris seemed to think they could win Michigan, with its ample Arab-American population, by being tough on Israel. Ms. Harris lost Michigan to Donald Trump and did especially badly in the Arab-majority city of Dearborn, a hotbed of anti-Israel sentiment. The administration’s policy toward Israel may have contributed to Ms. Harris’s loss in Pennsylvania, where far more Jews voted for Mr. Trump than in 2020.
The policy also backfired on the war front. Delaying weapons to Israel has dragged out the war, worsening humanitarian conditions and undercutting U.S. interests.
In its inevitable confrontation with Hezbollah, the Israeli air force planned to hit 3,000 targets a day to degrade the Iranian proxy’s capabilities within a week. Instead, Israel’s lightning successes against Hezbollah in September slowed by the first week of October partly owing to insufficient U.S. weapons deliveries. Israel is conducting roughly 1,000 strikes a week, and its operations in Lebanon are entering their ninth week. Fewer airstrikes forced Israel to conduct more ground operations than planned to destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure. In Gaza, targets that might have been hit by artillery or from the air now require ground troops to clear. The result is more casualties among Israelis, Lebanese and Gazans.
A well-armed Israel could press Hezbollah to agree to proper cease-fire terms. And even though major operations have mostly ended in Gaza, Israel still needs American weapons in case that theater reignites.
Israel also needs to be fully armed to take the fight to Iran—to retaliate if the regime strikes again, or to attack its increasingly dangerous nuclear program. If Israel crushes the Iranian axis, it would be a boon for U.S. interests. Iran and its proxies kill America’s troops, plot to assassinate its politicians and civilians, and meddle in its elections. Tehran’s nuclear program remains one of America’s greatest strategic threats.
Mr. Trump seems to understand this. In October he criticized Mr. Biden for dissuading Israel from retaliating for an Iranian attack by hitting Iranian nuclear facilities: “The answer should have been to hit the nuclear first and worry about the rest later.” The new administration will likely unblock the delivery of weapons if Mr. Biden doesn’t.
Perhaps the expiration date of Mr. Biden’s policy is already dawning on the president. The State Department last week determined that it won’t carry out its threat made in a letter to Jerusalem last month to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip or else be subject to an arms embargo. The administration should now go a step further: providing Israel with the weapons it needs to defeat the Iranian axis that threatens the free world.
Messrs. Makovsky and Misztal are, respectively, president and vice president of policy for the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.
Originally Published in the Wall Street Journal.