Breitbart News’ Joel Pollak asked Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman on Wednesday if Israel believed that U.S. President Joe Biden’s threat to stop weapons shipments met the dictionary definition of the word “treachery.”
Pollak’s question came amid reports that the Biden administration had withheld a large shipment of bombs in an effort to deter Israel from attacking the last Hamas battalions in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The following exchange ensued:
POLLAK (via moderator): One Israeli analyst described the Biden administration’s withholding of munitions from Israel by saying that the Biden administration is tying Israel’s hands and preventing it from defeating Hamas. Do you agree?
HYMAN: Joel, thank you very much for the question. I’ve obviously seen these reports, reports coming out from unnamed sources on the American side. I can refer you to statements made this morning by the IDF CHief of Staff. I could refer you back to the Americans if they, indeed, have or are making these statements. I personally, as the Israeli government, do not have anything to add on these reports.
POLLAK (via moderator): The dictionary defines the word “treachery” as a “violation of allegiance of faith or confidence.” Would you describe the withholding of arms in wartime, from an ally, as a form of treachery?
HYMAN: Joel, again, I appreciate that was the same question, asked in a different way. My response remains the same.
Later in the day, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed the reports, and Biden expanded the threat to include artillery rounds.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
