Blinken blasted for 'lecturing' Israelis, as John McCain's 2014 warning about diplomat resurfaces

Secretary of State Antony Blinken came under fire this week for what one combat-veteran lawmaker characterized as "lecturing" Israel's war cabinet, as the Biden administration faces pressure from its left flank to facilitate an end to fighting against Hamas in Gaza.

Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a decorated retired Green Beret, told FOX News that Israel will end up in a surrender if it continues to follow "President Biden's edicts."

"I think that will be a green light for Hezbollah, for the militias in Syria and their masters in Iran to realize their dream before they even get a nuke, of genocide in Israel and wiping Israel off the face of the Earth."

He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows he and his forces must remain firm in the face of calls to back down, because terrorists like Hamas only understand strength, not diplomacy or otherwise.

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"I have sat across the table, whether it's the Taliban, ISIS, Al Qaeda or Hamas, they all see the world the same way -- And what they understand are bullets and bombs on foreheads, period."

He said liberals who continue to cry foul over Israel's response to the October 7 civilian massacre by Hamas ignore the difference between those attacks on civilians and the collateral casualties caused by the IDF's response in Gaza – later adding the administration is "pandering" in a "disgraceful" way.

As for Blinken, Waltz criticized the longtime Democratic official's recent caution to Israel's war cabinet, which an Israeli official told the Times of Israel included a warning that Israel does not have very long to continue its war amid pressure from the Biden administration and other western concerns.

At the meeting, Blinken reportedly received pushback from Israeli officials, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying Israelis are fully behind their country's response and its mission to eradicate Hamas no matter the timeline, according to the Times of Israel.

"Life, Liberty & Levin" host Mark Levin, a former Reagan Justice Department chief of staff, went on to remind Waltz of how the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who eviscerated Blinken on the Senate floor for more than 25 minutes while he was up for confirmation to be then-President Barack Obama's deputy Secretary of State.

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"These are ideologues out of these poison ‘ivy’ colleges... [McCain] was pounding this guy, and yet they're never held to account," he said.

McCain lambasted Blinken, calling him "not only unqualified" but "one of the worst selections of a very bad lot [Obama] has chosen."

The moderate Republican later added he didn't often object so vociferously to even Democratic nominees but that he found Blinken "actually … dangerous to America and to the young men and women who are fighting and serving it."

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McCain went on, with a statement that Biden's critics later called prescient after the U.S.' disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, referencing a reported claim by Blinken that Afghanistan's war would be finished by 2014 and that the timetable "would not change."  

"This is why I’m so worried about him being in the position that he’s in. Because if they stick to that timetable, I’m telling my colleagues that we will see a replay of Iraq all over again," McCain concluded, which the Biden critics later said was borne out in 2021.

Levin said left-wing diplomats writ-large are rarely held accountable for their foreign policy failures, and are running a "rogue foreign policy," and issuing their own edicts to the sovereign foreign government of Israel.