Blinken laments rev­e­la­tion of threat to with­hold weapons from Israel

Sec­re­tary of State Antony Blinken lament­ed the rev­e­la­tion that Pres­i­dent Joe Biden had threat­ened to with­hold some arms ship­ments to Israel amid a wider debate about whether such con­di­tions help Hamas.
“Leaks are an unfor­tu­nate part of the busi­ness that we’re all engaged in,” Blinken said dur­ing a Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions hear­ing on Tues­day. “It’s real­ly regret­table, but it hap­pens.”
That lament was how Blinken respond­ed when asked whether the threat to with­hold weapons from Israel over a dis­pute about a poten­tial mil­i­tary oper­a­tion had “strengthen[ed] Hamas’s hand.”
Blinken seemed to acknowl­edge that down­side but defend­ed the sub­stance of the pol­i­cy debate behind closed doors.
“We have one weapons sys­tem that we have been hold­ing back, pend­ing dis­cus­sions with Israel, about how and where it would be used because of the con­cerns that we’ve clear­ly expressed over many months about t …