Biden says ‘vast majority’ of Americans are devoted to Israel’s security

President Biden on Thursday told Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid that the “vast majority” of Americans are committed to Israel’s security in remarks that came after Biden said that Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. who are critical of Israel are “wrong.”

“I think the vast majority of the American public, not just my administration, is completely devoted to Israel’s security,” Biden told Lapid during a bilateral meeting between the two leaders in Jerusalem.

Biden is set to hold a press conference with Lapid later on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Biden sat for an interview with N12 News in Israel and was asked about Democrats who have called Israel an “apartheid state” and called for an end to unconditional aid for Israel.

“There are few of them. I think they’re wrong. I think they’re making a mistake,” Biden said. “Israel is a democracy. Israel is our ally. Israel is a friend, and I think that I make no apologies.”

Biden and Lapid on Thursday also discussed integrating Israel into the Middle East.

“I talked about how important it was from my perspective for Israel to be totally integrated into the region,” Biden said. 

Their meeting comes ahead of an expected joint declaration later on Thursday on military cooperation and preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

“We discussed the Iranian threat,” Lapid said. “There will be no nuclear Iran. This is not only a threat to Israel, but to the world, and we discussed some other issues we are going to keep to ourselves.”

Biden is set to travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday, which was also discussed during the bilateral meeting between the president and Lapid. 

Lapid after the meeting called Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia “extremely important to Israel.”