On Friday's Morning Joe, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough unsubtly suggested that the U.S. should cut off funding for Israel until Benjamin Netanyahu was deposed as prime minister:
"Israel needs U.S. funding . . . I'm not so sure that Congress and the President want to approve even more money for Israel until we know that there's actually somebody running Israel that even the Israelis support."
Scarborough obviously detested Netanyahu and, in his tirade, accused him of ignoring the dangers in Gaza, focusing instead on the West Bank.
But regardless of Scarborough's opinion, Netanyahu was and, at least for the present, remained the duly elected prime minister. So, how would things play out if Scarborough's suggestion were adopted, and US funding for the Israeli war effort were cut off?
Surely there would be much rejoicing in Gaza and among the terrorists of Hamas at the prospect of a weakened Israel, deprived of vital resources needed to defend itself and take the fight to Hamas. The terror group's incentives to release more hostages would also be diminished since it would not be facing the same level of military pressure from Israel.
Scarborough's foray into regime-change power politics might inflate his ego, but the results could be disastrous if implemented.
For that matter, such a strategy could backfire on Bibi-haters like Scarborough. In the U.S., Trump's multiple legal travails had strengthened his support. If there's one thing that might cause the independent-minded Israeli populace to rally around Netanyahu, it could be a heavy-handed attempt by the US to dictate Israel's internal politics.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MSNBC's Morning Joe
12/1/23
6:09 am ETMIKA BRZEZINSKI: So let's go into the "why" here a little deeper, into the New York Times report that Israel knew that Hamas was planning a wide-scale assault a year before the October 7th terrorist attack—one year.
According to the Times,"Israeli officials obtained an approximately 40-page document which they code named, as Ed said, Jericho Wall. It outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people," probably many more.
The Times writes, "Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out."
Earlier this morning, Israeli defense forces responded to the report, writing in a statement, quote, the IDF is currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organization, Hamas. Questions of this kind will be looked at into a later stage.
And I will say, Joe, that has been the answer from Benjamin Netanyahu and his people every step of the way. We'll talk about this later.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: The problem with that is, and we're going to talk to Jackie [Alemany] about this very soon --
MIKA: And the reporter behind this piece.
SCARBOROUGH: Right. The problem with that is Israel needs U.S. funding. We need to know what we're funding. Are we funding Benjamin Netanyahu? Are we funding his designs to stay in power? Are we funding an operation where we have to look and guess, okay, well, is this in the best interest of the Israeli people, or is this in the best interest of a prime minister who deliberately focused on the West Bank? Deliberately turned a blind eye to this plan for a year? A year, where it's specifically laid out.
So, I'm not so sure that Congress and the president want to approve even more money for Israel until we know that there's actually somebody running Israel that even the Israelis support. The Israelis don't trust Benjamin Netanyahu. The region doesn't trust Benjamin Netanyahu. Political leaders in the United States don't trust Benjamin Netanyahu. So there's not really a "later." Later is now.
