Republicans are warning that the terrorism threatening Israeli citizens could come to the United States’s shores if the country does not get a better handle on who crosses its southern border.
The militant group Hamas has killed more than 1,000 people since invading Israel on Saturday, a conflict that has morphed into full-scale war as Israel bombs the Gaza Strip in retaliation. So far, 900 Palestinians have also been killed, according to local authorities.
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The conflict is unique to Israel’s perilous place in the Middle East, as hatred for the Jewish state combined with its claim to contested land has spawned decades of rocket attacks, suicide bombings, and other acts of terrorism. Hamas gunmen in this incursion have mowed down hundreds of civilians.
But Republicans see a through line in the violence that has direct implications for U.S. national security. Beyond the Americans killed or captured in the war — the death toll stands at 14, as of this writing — Republicans worry about the intelligence failure by U.S. and Israeli officials that allowed Hamas to mount a surprise attack.
Terrorists could exploit similar intelligence gaps to target the U.S. homeland, ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) warned in a Monday press conference, arguing that a porous border makes the threat, while hypothetical, all the more grave.
“Looking at our own intelligence failures, we have to look to our border,” he told reporters, citing the more than 150 people on the FBI’s terror watch list apprehended by border agents this year.
“Why are they coming to America, what do they have planned, and who are they communicating with?” he asked.
Lawmakers from both parties want answers on the intelligence lapse in Israel. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Washington Examiner he expects senior lawmakers will receive a classified briefing on the matter once the threat from Hamas is contained.
But the conflict has inevitably taken on a partisan dimension as Republicans portray President Joe Biden as a weak leader unable to meet the challenges of the moment, whether at home or abroad.
The U.S. is experiencing an unprecedented influx of immigrants at the border, straining not only processing centers but also the sanctuary cities that have pledged to house them.
The GOP has in recent weeks highlighted the frustration among Democratic mayors and governors calling on Biden to intervene. The attack by Hamas, one of Iran’s terrorist proxies in the region, has shifted that border messaging to the threat of a domestic attack.
“The evil, baseless, and unprovoked attacks by Iran-backed Hamas on Israel is further proof that America and its allies are less safe with Joe Biden as president,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
“Not only has he appeased Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, and other brutal regimes across the globe, he has created an open border where scores of terrorists and criminals have been able to enter our country,” he added.
Biden, seemingly cognizant of the political repercussions as he pursues reelection, has taken new steps to secure the border this year. He has imposed asylum restrictions and even backtracked on his promise to halt border wall construction.
His tack to the right, however, has so far not stemmed the flow, with Republicans dismissing the actions as too little, too late to confront a crisis they say has fueled thousands of drug overdose deaths and opened the U.S. to infiltration by terrorists.
“He hasn’t learned anything,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said of Biden. “He refuses to see what’s happening. The southern border is open to some of the most dangerous people on earth — people who want to kill or poison Americans. We have to stop them.”
“There’s no doubt about it, Biden’s open southern border is a national security threat,” added Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chairman of Senate Republicans’s campaign arm.
The prospect of an attack on the homeland is described in largely amorphous terms, with Republicans emphasizing the unknown number of watch list suspects who cross the border undetected.
“Even one is too many,” Scott said. “Joe Biden must stop his appeasement of these killers before American lives are lost and terrorism comes to America.”
Lawmakers like McCarthy suggest an emboldened Iran could plot or finance such an attack. The country, through its proxies in the Middle East, has targeted U.S. troops and military installations and is believed to have offered bounties to assassinate American officials, such as former national security adviser John Bolton, on U.S. soil.
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Regardless, Republicans say Biden has “blood on his hands” for the terror inflicted on Israel, suggesting the administration helped finance Hamas indirectly by unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian assets as part of a prisoner swap last month.
The State Department says “not a penny” of that money, placed in a restricted account that can only be tapped for humanitarian purposes, has been spent, but Republicans argue the dollars are fungible.
Emily Jacobs contributed to this story.
