Congress must do more to fund Israel’s missile defense systems due to Iran’s continued development of ballistic missiles and its commitment to destroy Israel, Sen. Ted Cruz (R – Texas) wrote in The New York Times on Friday.

Cruz, who recently suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for president, criticized the Obama administration for failing to fund the David Sling and Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile systems, which are being jointly developed with the United States.

Noting that Iran has continued to provoke and threaten the United States and Israel, Cruz observed:

The mullahs’ policy is, by their own admission, unchanged. It is the same one that inspired the so-called revolutionaries of 1979 to take 52 Americans as hostages for 444 days, and motivated murderous attacks on Israelis and Americans from Buenos Aires to Beirut to Baghdad over the subsequent decades. The only thing that is changing now is the potential scale of this violence, as they seek to replace truck bombs and roadside explosive devices with the most destructive weapons on the planet and the means to deliver them.

Given the increased threat posed by Iran, especially if their recent claim to have developmed missiles that can reach Israel is true, then “Congress should seize this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to Israel’s security and so [too] our own” by funding Israel’s ballistic missile defense systems, Cruz wrote.

Last month, Cruz declared his support for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights as a buffer against “hostile terrorist organizations ranging from ISIS to Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border.”

[Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr ]