Media mogul Haim Saban sent an email to top White House aides criticizing President Joe Biden‘s threat to withhold arms shipments to support an Israeli military invasion of Rafah.
In the email — reported by Axios and Israeli media outlets — Saban, a longtime major Democratic donor, called Biden’s threat a “bad…bad…bad decision on all levels. Pls reconsider.” The email was addressed to Steve Ricchetti and Anita Dunn, two of the president’s top aides.
“Even beyond Israel, this sends a terrible message to our allies in the region, and beyond that, we can flip from doing the right thing to bending to political pressure.”
He added, “Let’s not forget that there are more Jewish voters who care about Israel, than Muslims [sic] voters that care about Hamas.”
Saban co-hosted a fundraiser for Biden at his Beverly Park home in February, although he missed the event after he tested positive for Covid. Saban also hosted Biden in 2022 for a midterm fundraiser, and hosted a 2020 virtual event that raised $4.5 million.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment. Saban and his spokesperson also did not immediately comment.
Biden made the remarks in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday. Per Bloomberg, John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, told reporters that Israel is “still getting the vast, vast majority of everything that they need to defend themselves.” He said that the administration has paused a shipment of 2,000 pound bombs over Biden’s concerns over a Rafah invasion.
