President Biden leaked a sensitive phone call with Israel on Saturday in which he made it clear the U.S. would not support a counterattack to Iran's missile assault. 

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) accused Biden of conceding defeat to an American adversary in order to cheaply win votes from "anti-Semitic" leftists who are outraged by Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

According to Rubio, Biden leaked the phone call to distance himself from Israel ahead of its all but inevitable counterattack.

Biden CAVES

Israel intercepted most of the hundreds of drones and rockets fired by Iran on Saturday.

"You got a win. Take the win," is what Biden reportedly told Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday.

Biden made no mention of his warning to Israel in a public statement about the phone call, which merely conveyed that Biden expressed his confidence in Israel's ability to defend itself.

"Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks — sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel," Biden said.

Playing it both ways

Senator Rubio suggested that Biden sources leaked the call to appease progressive "anti-Semites" who are unhappy with Biden's foreign policy.

"They know that Israel's going to respond – they know that for a fact," Rubio told CNN's State of the Union. "So, why would the White House leak it?"

"There's only one reason they leaked that," Rubio added. "And that is that so when Israel does respond, the White House can say, 'We told them not to do it,' and at least somehow in some way, appease these so-called peace activists."

Biden has sought to distance himself from Israel for months, as pressure mounts for a cease-fire in Israel's war with Hamas.

The deaths of Palestinian civilians have outraged Democratic voters who accuse Biden of supporting "genocide," and fury over Israel is threatening to turn the Democrats' convention in Chicago this summer into a chaotic spectacle.

Biden's delicate if not contradictory position was made clear over the weekend when he voiced "ironclad" support for Israel - even as he sent a more nuanced message to Netanyahu in private.

Biden's waffling toward Iran has faced criticism mostly on the right, but he has faced some pushback from vocally pro-Israel Democrats like John Fetterman (PA), who said "we should have Israel's back in this situation."