Biden's hold on Israel weapons shipment stuns retired US general: 'This is a turning point'

Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.) warned that pausing weapons shipments to Israel will be viewed as weakness by U.S. adversaries.

This article was written by Fox News staff.

GEN. JACK KEANE: In terms of the arms themselves, Israel has plenty of weapons systems and ammunition available to complete the operation in Rafah, but it is a major turning point. The administration has been hinting at this for weeks, but still when they made the decision, I still found this shocking. And I just scratch my head and say, ‘Do these guys actually think about what the consequences are of this kind of decision?’ What does it mean for our allies like Ukraine and Taiwan when they see us pulling back on our number one ally in the Middle East, a country we've had the closest relationship with for 75 years, ever since Israel became a state. 

And it comes on the heels of a U.S.-led coalition to help defend Israel against Iranian ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. It is a stunning decision. And our adversaries, I think they look at it much like we did with Afghanistan. And they look at it – the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, walking away from an ally we've been dealing with for 20 years, fighting side-by-side, and helped surrender the country to the enemy. And here we are walking away from Israel? And our adversaries look at that, and they see it as weakness, obviously.