CNN commentator Van Jones sharply criticized Abdul El-Sayed’s position on Israel and U.S. foreign policy, arguing that El-Sayed’s support for a complete arms embargo would prevent Israel from purchasing defensive weapons used to intercept incoming rockets.
Jones said he knows El-Sayed through their work at CNN and drew a distinction between El-Sayed’s position and other proposals from Democrats seeking restrictions or conditions on U.S. military assistance to Israel.
“These people are incredibly dangerous. Abdul, who, you know, I work with at CNN, I know Abdul, his positions on Israel and foreign policy are insane. They’re not reasonable reactions to anything,” Jones said.
Jones acknowledged that some Democrats have called for conditioning military assistance based on objections to Israeli actions in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. While he did not endorse that approach in his remarks, he described it as a position Democrats could reasonably defend.
“Look, some Democrats are going to say that we should condition military aid, that, you know, Israel’s gone too far in Gaza and in the West Bank and in Lebanon and we got to we got to put some conditions on you. I think that’s a defensible position if you’re a Democrat,” Jones said.
He stressed that El-Sayed’s position goes further.
“That’s not Abdul’s position,” Jones said.
Jones also addressed the argument that the United States should stop providing Israel with military assistance altogether and require the country to finance its own defense.
He said he could understand the reasoning behind that position even though he considers it indefensible.
“There are people who say we shouldn’t be paying for any of the military, we shouldn’t we shouldn’t be giving military aid. Now, I think that’s understandable, but I think indefensible because it’s not charity,” Jones said.
Jones argued that U.S. support for Israel also benefits the American defense industry and advances Western strategic interests in the Middle East.
“We’re building a strong defense sector here and Israel is protecting a lot of Western interests in that region, but I can I can I can get why you would say, No more aid, they got to pay their own way,” Jones said.
Once again, Jones said that does not accurately describe El-Sayed’s proposal.
“That’s not Abdul’s position. Abdul’s position is a total and complete arms embargo against the State of Israel, including defensive weapons. That’s an insane position,” Jones said.
Jones focused much of his criticism on defensive interceptors.
He argued that a complete embargo would prevent Israel from purchasing equipment designed to stop rockets launched by Iran, Hezbollah or Hamas.
“That says if Israel wants to pay for interceptors to stop a rocket coming from Iran or coming from Hezbollah or coming from Hamas, an interceptor, we should deny them the right to buy the interceptors to knock down rockets going at Israeli children, women, men, babies,” Jones said.
“That’s an insane position.”
Jones then invoked former President Barack Obama and his administration’s support for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
He said El-Sayed’s position conflicts with an approach backed by the former Democratic president.
“And by the way, it offends me because that’s you know Barack Obama was a part of creating that Iron Dome, Barack Obama was a part of creating those interceptors,” Jones said.
The United States provided substantial financial support for Iron Dome during Obama’s presidency, and Jones pointed to that history as evidence that support for defensive systems has previously been embraced by Democratic administrations.
“Barack Obama thought that the Israeli people were in such a tough neighborhood, they needed to be able to knock down rockets,” Jones said.
Jones concluded by directly challenging El-Sayed’s foreign policy judgment and questioning why Israel should be prevented from obtaining weapons intended for its defense.
“So you’re telling me you’re smarter than Barack Obama, you have better ideas about foreign policy than Barack Obama, and you want to de-plug and de-fund and take away Israel’s and half the world’s Jews ability to defend themselves,” Jones said.
WATCH:
!function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src="https://rumble.com/embedJS/u1vds3"+(arguments[1].video?'.'+arguments[1].video:'')+"/?url="+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+"&args="+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, "script", "Rumble");
Rumble("play", {"video":"v7csq5y","div":"rumble_v7csq5y"});