There’s a bipartisan proposal in the House of Representatives, co-sponsored by more than 15 lawmakers, to give Israel an extra $2 billion for its Iron Dome defense system. The co-sponsors include Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who also wrote a letter to President Biden urging him to use all available resources to evacuate Americans from Israel.
Straight Arrow News’ Political Correspondent Ray Bogan spoke with Smith about both topics. Smith began by strongly criticizing the Biden administration’s policy regarding Iran, which he called the “grand puppeteer” of the Hamas attacks.
This transcript has been slightly edited for clarity.
Smith: Our commander in chief has been, I think, terrible in his vision. He’s embraced Iran as if somehow you can work with them. They put on their missiles when they’re testing their ballistic missiles, “Death to Israel,” “Death to America,” why don’t we believe it and don’t enable it? They need regime change. And many times when there’s been attempts to do it locally, we weren’t supporting those brave Iranians who are trying to get a more democratic and open society there.
Bogan: You’re calling on President Biden to use any means necessary to get Americans out of Israel. What are the resources that should be used for that? Should there be evacuation flights?
Smith: There should be evacuation flights. I think there needs to be a very aggressive accounting of where the Americans are, who wants to leave. More people needed to be deployed. There is a hotline number, it’s based here in the United States, but it is a hotline number. They have to make sure that’s adequately staffed so that you can work these individuals so that they can get on a flight.
And I didn’t hear anything from the president about an evacuation plan, which I think there needs to be. We’ve had about 200 calls to my office, 200, and it’s going up by the minute of people who have loved ones there, have kids who are there, young adults who are there, who want to get out. Now, some want to stay. I ran into a number of Israeli non-Israelis, Americans who are Jewish, who want to go there and fight. They’re very brave and very courageous. They want to go defend Israel from this horrible attack by Hamas.
Bogan: You’re co-sponsoring the bipartisan bill to give Israel an extra $2 billion for its Iron Dome system. Can that be passed without a speaker? Should it be priority number one once a speaker is elected?
Smith: There’s a sufficient drawdown authority right now that the Pentagon has to get all of the Iron Dome weaponry there to protect against these incoming missiles. But we need to make this sustainable, we need to significantly increase the $3.3 billion that we give, plus more money for Iron Dome, to Israel.
So if $2 billion is the right amount, we think it might be, we just need to do it immediately and make sure it’s deployed ASAP. Because if anything, Hamas is testing to see how many weapons or missiles can penetrate the Golden Dome. You can only stop so many. And if Hezbollah with its 150,000 missiles all given to them by Iran, again, the grand puppeteer of this terrible, terrible carnage, that’s a lot of missiles to intercept in flight. Israel absolutely needs this right now so they can act knowing that it’s coming. We don’t want to find out that all of a sudden that they’re short. So, I do think we will be responsive.
Bogan: You’ve criticized the administration. Their official stance right now is that Iran has been complicit with this attack, but they have not seen evidence that they knew about it or helped plan it. So then, at a minimum, what should the punishment be for the complicity?
Smith: It’s more than complicity. And again, none of this happens without Iran. The missiles all come from there, the wherewithal, the capability to wage terrorism comes from Iran. So you don’t think they’re going to be up to their gills involved with the planning of this very sophisticated blitzkrieg attack on the innocent people of Israel?
