On Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, responded to the Biden administration’s condemnation of Israel and suggestion that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration may be changing the “status quo” by visiting the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem, Israel.
The statement came in response to State Department Spokesperson Ned Price saying that a member of the Israeli government would be violating the “status quo” by visiting the Temple Mount, and that the Biden administration would “take actions” to deter actions that “exacerbate tensions” like “high-profile visits to” the Temple Mount.
“The Biden administration’s pathological obsession with undermining Israel is endangering the national security of America and our allies,” Cruz said in a statement. “A visit by a minister from Israel’s government to a site inside Israel is not a change in any status quo arrangement, and it should not be controversial for a Jew to visit the holiest site in Judaism.”
“The statements from the Biden White House and State Department, which suggest otherwise, will further destabilize the Middle East and risk inciting terrorism,” he continued. “They convince Palestinian officials that compromise is unnecessary because Democrat administrations will coerce our Israeli allies into making dangerous concessions.”
“The Biden administration has consistently sought to undermine Israel’s security and sovereignty over its territory,” he added. “It prohibited even mentioning the ‘Abraham Accords,’ sought to open a Palestinian consulate in Israel’s capital Jerusalem, unleashed the FBI against the Israeli army, and publicly ostracized parts of Israel’s democratically-elected government. Meanwhile, the administration is pouring over a billion dollars into Palestinian areas and bringing officials from the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization to Washington, D.C. Now it is doubling down on these disastrous policies.”