Sen. J.D. Vance slammed President Biden for his handling of the Israel-Hamas war and his failure to secure the release of hostages.
“If you want to get these hostages released, you’ve got to, first of all, enable Israel to actually finish the job,” Mr. Vance, Ohio Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And second of all, put America’s diplomatic weight behind and on Hamas, right? Pressure Hamas to release these hostages. Don’t use America’s leverage to effectively cause the Israelis to pull back here.”
A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press last week that the Palestinian militant group doesn’t know how many hostages are still alive and in Gaza. During a weeklong cease-fire in November, Hamas exchanged 100 hostages for 250 Palestinians held by Israel.
“I think it’s really shameful and shows frankly that a lot of folks don’t respect the United States of America, that we have still have citizens that are being held hostage and our president, instead of focusing on getting those hostages back, is focused on micromanaging one of our allies’ war efforts, I guess, so that he can [placate] these crazy people who are protesting in college campus,” Mr. Vance said.
The United States joined 17 other countries last week in demanding Hamas release all the hostages.
“We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for over 200 days. They include our own citizens,” the joint statement said. “The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern.”
The statement was signed by Mr. Biden, along with the leaders of Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Columbia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and the U.K.
“We strongly support the ongoing mediation efforts in order to bring our people home,” the statement said. “We reiterate our call on Hamas to release the hostages, and let us end this crisis so that collectively we can focus our efforts on bringing peace and stability to the region.”
Mr. Vance said Mr. Biden’s policy on the war makes people “recognize that America with Joe Biden at the helm is unfortunately too weak.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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