Republican senator says Biden's 'weakness' on Iran encouraged Israel attack 

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said President Biden was wrong for telling Israeli leaders not to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, blaming the president's "weakness" on Iran for the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

“The president has no right to tell Israel how it's going to defend itself. In fact, this president has just had an appeasement-first policy with Iran, and it's his weakness that has encouraged Iran to attack our ally Israel,” Ricketts stated during an appearance on "The Hill on NewsNation."

The Foreign Relations Committee member reflected on Iran’s launch of 180 missiles toward Israel on Tuesday in response to their invasion of Lebanon in hopes of finding top leaders of the militant group Hezbollah.

“What we need to be doing is saying, 'Hey, we are going to support our ally when they retaliate for this brazen attack that violates all international norms by attacking Israel directly,'” Ricketts explained. “The only thing, frankly, that these dictators understand is force, and that's what has to be used back on them. We need to support Israel when they do this.”

He claimed that former presidents like Ronald Reagan handled American conflict with Iran better than Biden.

“Frankly, you know what? We've been through this before. Ronald Reagan knew how to handle it when the Iranians were trying to sink our Navy ships. He started sinking their Navy ships,” the senator said. “And guess what? They figured it out. They backed off. That's what Israel needs to do."

“Iran has been able to generate a lot of oil money they have used to be able to fund groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. And that's why they're so brazen, because we don't do anything about it,” he later added, suggesting the U.S. should sink their ships in the Red Sea. 

“We need to start striking back and let Israel decide how they're going to handle this and then support them.”

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