President Joe Biden’s CNN interview threatening to cut off offensive weapons transfers to Israel if Israel invades Rafah drew quick criticism from Israel-backing Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, and from mainstream Jewish and pro-Israel organizations across the country.

Robert Satloff, the Segal executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said the move “runs the risk of lengthening the fighting, causing more civilian casualties, undermining chances for a hostage/ceasefire deal, running out the clock on a Saudi agreement AND extending the Gaza fighting so long that it hurts [Biden’s] reelection chances. It is not easy to come up with a lose-lose-lose-lose policy option but I fear this is it.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told Jewish Insider before Biden’s interview, addressing previously disclosed moves by the administration to pause certain arms sales, that Hamas has little incentive to agree to a hostage deal.

“The hope by now is that we would have gotten to a ceasefire and the Rafah operation would not have been necessary in exchange for at least some hostages. But the problem is there’s no pressure on Hamas,” Moskowitz said. “If Hamas is watching American television, which I guarantee you they are, they’re seeing more division and their power growing in this country, which means less pressure on Hamas… The only pressure that is left is the military pressure.”

Moskowitz said that delaying arms sales is “not helpful to get us to a ceasefire” because it shows Hamas “we don’t need to rush, there’s no pressure.”

He said he’s hopeful that Israel will be able to carry out “surgical and strategic” ground operations rather than a large-scale bombing campaign, but that he currently does not see “any world pressure, whether from the U.N. or anyone else, trying to get Hamas to a deal to save Palestinian lives.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), speaking to JI moments after the Biden interview, emphasized that funding appropriated by Congress for Israel legally “has to be spent, has to be obligated, has to go.”

Sherman said the administration has latitude to “slow things down for a while,” but emphasized, “[Biden] came to this Congress and he said pass legislation… you can’t come to members and get them to vote for your bill, your package, and then throw away part of the package.”

Sherman said he’s ultimately “sure” that Biden will “follow the law and honor the package that he got people to vote for.”

He added, “Biden seems to be communicating his displeasure, and I regard these statements as a communicative act, rather than a strategic act.”

Sherman said he found the administration’s delays in sending the guided munitions and guided munitions kits, known as JDAMs, particularly concerning.

“How in the hell do you criticize Israel for being imprecise in its bombing and then refuse to deliver them what they’re willing to pay for to make the bombs precise?” Sherman said. “I mean, my god.”

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) called Biden’s threat “terrible.”

“I support Israel’s desire to destroy Hamas in Gaza. They attacked brutally on 7 October, and Hamas has to be destroyed in Gaza to the best that they can,” Bacon said. “To stand in front of that, that means President Biden wants Hamas to continue to exist in Gaza, which is a continuous threat to Israel. It’s wrong.”

He also alluded to former President Donald Trump’s impeachment over his decision to withhold arms sales to Ukraine, demanding that Ukraine investigate Biden for Trump’s political benefit.

“We passed the bill, and they should deliver the stuff immediately,” Bacon said.

Another House Democrat, who voted against aid to Israel, seemed skeptical that Biden’s policy change would hold.

“Let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow,” the Democrat told JI on condition of anonymity. “I don’t know whether this is Biden going off script, or if tomorrow his staff will go, ‘Oh well what he meant to say is,’ and reverse course.”

The lawmaker said they explicitly instructed their press secretary not to draft a statement responding to Biden’s comments on CNN for a few days, noting that the president could have spoken off the cuff and might send his surrogates to correct the record in the media. 

Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ), said he hadn’t yet seen Biden’s comments, but said, “certainly, having just passed the supplemental, which is designed to help Israel in this war against Hamas, it was clear what Congress had to say about that, and that was we’re going to support our friends and allies.”

He insisted, however, that he doesn’t think the comments will embolden Hamas and its allies in Iran or make them question the U.S.’s willingness to defend Israel.

Other progressive Democrats who’ve been urging Biden to suspend or condition U.S. arms sales to Israel praised the announcement.

“[Biden] has long warned PM Netanyahu that invading Rafah would be a “red line” — it would result in untold civilian death & destruction, and undermine our efforts to return the hostages,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said. “I applaud him for making clear today that the U.S. will not be complicit in this suffering.”

Biden also acknowledged in the interview that he had already delayed a previous arms shipment — reportedly consisting of 3,500 bombs — to Israel.

The sale in question dates back to 2015, according to a source familiar with the situation, and is unrelated to the recently passed national security supplemental bill. It includes both large and small munitions, some of them guided bombs. The source told JI that the sale was on the verge of heading to Israel — having been loaded onto Air Force planes to ship to Israel — but was subsequently offloaded.

Furthermore, an official with knowledge of the issue told JI the delays extend beyond that one shipment. Public reports have indicated that two other sales dating back to at least January, including 6,500 guided munitions and tank ammunition, military vehicles and mortar rounds are also delayed.

Multiple lawmakers indicated that key Capitol Hill leaders had been left entirely in the dark about the delays until press reports earlier this week brought the issue to light.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) urged caution before rushing to judgment on the situation, pointing to Austin’s characterization of events at Wednesday’s appropriations hearing.

“We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin said at a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. “But that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah.”

“Sec. Austin said basically they are reviewing a shipment that was long ago halted,” Coons told reporters in the Capitol shortly after Austin’s testimony. His comments came before President Biden told CNN that he would cut off aid if Israel proceeded with a Rafah invasion. 

Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee told JI he hasn’t been briefed or otherwise notified by the administration about delaying arms shipments to Israel.

“I want to get Hamas, but I don’t want any more innocent people dying also, or to completely minimize that,” Meeks said, explaining that he’s had concerns about Israel’s use of large 2000 pound bombs — which were included in the delayed sale — to Israel.

But Meeks also said nothing in the operations in Rafah so far has crossed a line.

“Thus far this seems to be minimal innocent lives [lost],” he said. “If you can get Hamas without collateral damage of human lives, innocent people dying, then you will never hear me complain about that. I will complain though, if in fact innocent lives are lost and humanitarian aid cant’ get in to people who are now moving back and forth from one point to the other.”

Norcross said he’s not familiar with the details of the delay, but “making more of it than what it is, I think is sending the wrong message — we clearly stand with Israel. Period.”

Republicans, meanwhile, are continuing to raise hell over the delays.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned while questioning Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman C.Q. Brown that any efforts to block military aid to Israel would come with consequences for the United States.  

“If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price,” Graham told Brown and Austin after asking if they would have supported the U.S. in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. “This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose. This is Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.”

Graham also plans to introduce a resolution on Thursday condemning the Biden administration’s moves, with Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Roger Marshall (R-KS). A few other GOP senators are considering joining the group but have not yet confirmed that they’ll cosponsor the resolution or participate in the subsequent press conference. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sent a letter to Biden on Wednesday condemning his administration for the holds and demanding answers on the reviews being conducted. 

The Republican leaders alleged in the letter that they only learned “that ‘a review of a specific weapons shipment’ was underway” as a result of “public press reports and subsequent engagement by our offices” with Biden’s staff. This was “despite regular engagement on security assistance to Israel, and repeated assurances from the most senior officials over the past several months.”

With Democrats in control of the White House and Senate and Republicans only in control of the House, it remains unlikely that the GOP can force Biden’s hand without members of the president’s party joining the effort. 

“There’s not really much we can do beyond raising hell,” one senior GOP senator who serves on McConnell’s leadership team told JI. “We have more than sufficient numbers to pass a bill that would compel the president to be sympathetic to Israel, but Democrats are not willing to weigh in on that. They’re dealing with a real political challenge here. On the one hand, if something bad happens with Israel, it’s on them. On the other hand, they’re worried about Michigan.”

“I think they’re trying to have their cake and eat it too, and I don’t think it’s going to end well,” the senator said. 

Biden’s interview has also prompted backlash from the mainstream Jewish community.

AIPAC said that it is “dangerous and counter to American interests to deny our ally the weapons necessary to remove Hamas from power and prevent it from ever attacking Israel again,” calling on Congress to “now send a clear message to the Biden administration that America must continue to stand by Israel and supply what she needs to defeat this terrorist army.”

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch, a former Democratic member of Congress, said that the threatened move would be detrimental to Israeli security.

“President Biden should not take steps that could impair Israel’s ability to prevent Hamas from attacking it again and again — as its leaders have promised,” Deutch said. “The U.S. knows that defeating Hamas is critical to Israel’s long-term security and to defeating the global threat posed by the Iranian regime and its proxies.”

He further highlighted that Hamas continues to refuse hostage deals, threaten Israeli and Palestinian lives, steal humanitarian aid and launch attacks on Israeli soldiers.

“With thousands of Hamas terrorists still in Rafah, Israel must be able to prevent 10/7 from happening again,” Deutch continued.

Democratic Majority for Israel CEO Mark Mellman said that DMFI is grateful Biden has approved more than 100 weapons transfers to Israel since the start of the conflict and other support for Israel.

“At the same time we are deeply concerned about the Administration’s decision to withhold weapons now and potentially impose further restrictions,” Mellman continued. “A strong U.S.-Israel alliance like the one President Biden has created, plays a central role in preventing more war and making the path to eventual peace possible. Calling the strength of that alliance into question is dangerous.”

Abe Foxman, the former director of the Anti-Defamation League, characterized Biden as sending conflicting messages in the CNN interview and a Holocaust memorial event the day prior.

“There seem to be [two] Bidens, one that spoke at the Holocaust event, who flew to Israel during war [against] Israel. moved military/financial support,” Foxman said. “And the political Biden who engages in [party] politics — telling Israel it has [a] right to defend itself-but we will tell you when and how.”

Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, said that Biden’s announcement will make a hostage deal harder to achieve.

“Now, the president is giving Hamas leverage and hope — by publicly threatening to withhold weapons and resources from Israel,” Diament said. “It puts a deal to free hostages — including American hostages — further out of reach and does the same to other goals the President has claimed to have.”