Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy defends Israel amid Iran’s drone attack and criticism of IDF’s military action in Gaza: ‘There is no country that is consistently attacked by their enemies and then told to use restraint’

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is coming to Israel’s defense as the country fends off drone attacks from Iran.

“There is no country that is more consistently attacked by its enemies and then told to exercise restraint in defending itself (despite a superior military) than Israel,” Portnoy, 47, wrote in a post on X.

Portnoy stressed that he hopes for a peaceful solution in the region, while defending Israel amid widespread criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military action in Gaza.

“I want peace for all innocents in the Middle East,” Portnoy wrote. “I also fully support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.”

Portnoy previously spoke out in support of Israel in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, which resulted in more than 1,160 civilian deaths, according to Agence France Presse’s February count. In total, more than 34,000 people have been killed in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, including at least 33,000 Palestinians, 224 humanitarian workers, 179 United Nations staff and 95 journalists.

Portnoy hopes for a peaceful solution in the region while defending the State of Israel

Although he was born into a Jewish family in Swampscott, Massachusetts, Portnoy insists that his support for Israel is not based on religion or his ethnicity, but rather on his belief that the country has a right to exist.

“People keep asking me to speak out about the terrorist attacks in Israel because I am Jewish,” Portnoy wrote in a Barstool op-ed in October. “(For the record, I talked about it almost immediately, by the way) but it shouldn’t matter that I’m Jewish.

“This is a fundamental human rights issue,” he wrote in October. “Everyone should be outraged. It shouldn’t matter what religion or race you are. Whenever innocent men, women and children are brutally murdered, raped and kidnapped in broad daylight, the entire world should be outraged.”

Hamas has denied any sexual abuse of the 1,200 Israelis killed or the 253 captured on October 7, although a team of United Nations experts found compelling evidence that some degree of sexual violence took place .

“Hamas has once again proven that they are a terrorist organization that will never make peace with Israel or the West,” Portnoy continued. ‘In that respect they are no different from Isis or Al Qaeda.

“Unfortunately, Israel now has no choice but to defend itself in the strongest possible way, just as the United States would do if this were to happen on our soil.”

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip

Palestinians gather on Al-Rashid Street to head to northern Gaza after rumors spread that children and women under 14 were allowed to cross north into Gaza City, Gaza

Iran launched the latest strike in response to an attack widely blamed on Israel on an Iranian consular building in Syria earlier this month that killed two Iranian generals. Israel said Iran has launched 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles.

Israel on Sunday praised its successful air defense in the face of an unprecedented attack from Iran, saying the country and its allies had thwarted 99 percent of more than 300 drones and missiles launched on its territory. But regional tensions remain high amid fears of further escalation in the event of a possible Israeli counterattack.

President Joe Biden said he would convene a meeting of the Group of Seven advanced democracies on Sunday “to coordinate a unified diplomatic response to Iran’s brutal attack.” The language showed that the Biden administration does not want Iran’s attack to escalate into a broader military conflict.

Israeli forces intervened with gas bombs against Palestinians trying to cross north

On Sunday morning, Iran said the attack was over and that Israel had reopened its airspace.

The two enemies have been engaged in a shadow war for years, marked by incidents such as the attack in Damascus. But Sunday’s attack, which set off air raid sirens across Israel, marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military attack on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Israel has over the years — often with the help of the United States — established a multi-layered air defense network that includes systems that can intercept a variety of threats, including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones and short-range missiles.

That system, along with cooperation with US and other military forces, helped thwart what could have been a much more devastating attack, at a time when Israel is already bogged down in its war against Hamas in Gaza and engaged in fighting on low level in northern Gaza. border with the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are supported by Iran.