Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the Biden administration to keep its concerns about Israel private as the Jewish state prepares retaliation against Iran for its unprecedented missile attack last week.
Rice argued conversations between Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not be “read about in The New York Times” during “America’s Newsroom,” as the pair is expected to discuss what the next steps against the Islamic Republic will look like.
“The most important thing is I don’t think we ought to have those discussions in public,” Rice told Dana Perino on Wednesday.
“It doesn’t help anybody to speculate on what the Israelis might do against Iranian oil facilities or against nuclear sites. We would have been pretty, pretty ticked off if during our attacks on Afghanistan to dislodge al-Qaeda, we had somebody all day talking about what we might do, so I hope this call goes well.”
“The Israelis are in the middle of a war. I think you support your allies in the middle of a war,” she continued. “When you have concerns, it’s fine to tell the ally that. We had a lot of concerns in 2006. We did not want them to go in on the ground in Lebanon. President Bush was on the phone with Ehud Olmert. Steve Hadley was on the phone with… the deputy national security adviser. I was on the phone, but you never read about it in The New York Times, and so this is a time to absolutely apprise the Israelis of our concerns.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden are expected to hold a call Wednesday to discuss Israel’s anticipated retaliatory attack against Iran following its massive missile strike on Israel last week, reported Israeli news outlets.
The Biden administration has grown increasingly frustrated with Israel over its withholding of security details and had previously urged it not to launch an incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah over concerns it could prompt a broader regional war.
The White House has urged Israel not to hit Iranian nuclear or oil facilities and to keep its retaliation “proportionate,” though the administration has not specified what this type of attack would look like.
This comes after Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday that the Pentagon was informed Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had postponed his trip to Washington, D.C. as escalation in the Middle East continues to ramp up.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, she noted, has a “great relationship” with Gallant, and the two have spoken in the neighborhood of 80 times.
“They remain in constant communication, whether it be an in-person meeting here, or, you know, meetings, phone calls that need to be done remote,” Singh explained. “That relationship still maintains and can be done…at any time, any place in the world…”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday that Hezbollah’s intended replacement of its former leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed late last month, has also been “taken out.”
“Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it has been for many, many years,” Netanyahu said in a message tailored directly to the “people of Lebanon.”
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities, we took out thousands of terrorists, including [former Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah himself, and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of his replacement.”
“I think what the Israelis have achieved thus far with Hezbollah is remarkable,” Rice said. “Both their intelligence penetration of Hezbollah, their intelligence penetration of Iran, which is now very clear… If you’re an Iranian leader, you really don’t want to be in your own guesthouse at this point with the killing of Haniyeh.”
“You have to decapitate terrorist organizations,” she continued. “We learned that with al-Qaeda… so I think this is a smart strategy… Hezbollah rebuilt over the last several years, threatens the Israeli border, and so I think it makes sense that Israel is going to do everything they can to weaken Hezbollah, and by the way, in doing so, they also weaken Iran.”
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
