During most of the six months of Israel’s war with Hamas, President Biden has given support to our ally with one hand and undercut it with the other.
The approach features both Biden’s quiet supply of munitions to Israel and a near-daily dose of harsh public criticism of its military conduct.
It’s all part of a convoluted plan to formally back the beleaguered Jewish state while also appeasing angry members of the Democrats’ far-left wing, many of whom are antisemites who believe Israel has no right to exist.
The plan is so obviously a political calculation that a popular joke holds that Biden’s talk of a two-state solution isn’t really about Israel and a Palestinian state — it’s about appealing to Muslim-American voters in Michigan and Minnesota!
Jokes aside, that remains the basic policy, but nothing in war or politics is stagnant.
And with each passing day, it becomes more and more obvious that, as Biden’s re-election campaign falters, his administration’s criticism of Israel grows more desperate and strident.
Amid polls showing Donald Trump beating the president in most battleground states, including Michigan, the White House tone has shifted sharply against our ally.
Leak attack on Bibi
Biden went so far last week to actually threaten Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that American support depended on Israel doing more to protect aid workers and civilians in Gaza.
The call was private, but the White House made sure to leak the president’s threat.
Underscoring the point, Biden, in a meeting with Muslim Americans, told them that First Lady Jill Biden favors an immediate cease-fire, saying her view is: “Stop it now.”
Proof that Biden’s re-election bid is a whole-of-government agenda emerged when Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed Israel’s conduct risked becoming “indistinguishable” from Hamas.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
David Friedman, America’s ambassador to Israel during Trump’s term, summed up the remarkable assault this way on X: “In the past month the Biden Administration and Democratic leaders in Congress have leveled more criticism against the Democratically elected government of Israel than against the ruthless dictators of Russia (Putin), North Korea (Kim) Turkey (Erdogan), Venezuela (Maduro), Iran (Khamenei), Syria (Assad) and Hamas (Sinwar) COMBINED. Let that sink in.”
The Dems’ effort to drive Netanyahu out of office has been central to the plan, which became apparent with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s scorching speech on the Senate floor last month.
The White House also made the highly unusual move of inviting Netanyahu rival Benny Gantz to Washington, where he met with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Gantz, a member of the war cabinet who joined the unity government after Hamas’ invasion, last week called for new elections in six months to “renew trust” in the Israeli government.
All this American meddling and criticism, in addition to being far outside the norm, carries real consequences for Israel.
Threatening to cut off the aid supply is especially egregious just as Iran is vowing to retaliate for a deadly Israeli strike against Iran’s terror leader in Syria.
There is also fallout in Gaza, where Hamas keeps rejecting offers of a cease-fire in exchange for a release of all hostages.
The rejection is widely seen as evidence the surviving leaders of the Oct. 7 invasion believe time is on their side and that the offers will get better because of Biden’s pressure.
Iranian blinders on
Additionally, Biden’s demand that Israel limit or cancel its final ground assault in Gaza increases the odds that Hamas will retain control of a post-war government.
These details all reflect the ultimate problem with Biden’s strategy, which is his foolish refusal to see Iran as the central issue.
And that refusal carries serious risks not only for Israel, but also for the United States.
As the mad mullahs have made clear repeatedly, Israel is just the Little Satan, while America is the Great Satan.
They aim to eliminate Israel and drive America out of the region, which would clear the way for Iranian domination.
Despite those aims, Biden, who is notorious for his lousy judgment on national security and foreign policy, continues to embolden and reward Iran.
It is behind nearly all the mayhem roiling the Middle East, and yet the White House refuses to make any policy linkage between Iran and Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Instead, it talks and acts as if each of the terror groups is an isolated problem rather than what they all are–armed, trained and financed extensions of Iran’s quest for power.
In fact, just weeks ago, the administration granted another waiver to Iran allowing it to tap into billions of dollars supposedly frozen by trade sanctions.
A letter from 13 Republican senators called the decision by the Treasury Department “unfathomable,” given the war in Gaza and Iran’s habit of using past freed-up funds for terrorist activities.
The relentless reality of Iran’s objectives is what makes Biden’s public criticism of Israel and Netanyahu dangerous, and why it is already a factor in the region’s power dynamics and will remain so.
Hezbollah’s lil’ helpers
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, even praised the anti-Israel protests in the United States for putting political pressure on Biden.
“Pivoting on our staunch support of Israel has far-reaching consequences that will outlast this current war and the tenure of the current leaders,” Lisa Daftari, editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, told Fox News.
She cites the strategic relationship between the US and Israel as mutually crucial, given the terror groups “fixation” on targeting the West.
“President Biden’s warnings to Bibi are being heard loudest and clearest by our enemies who are relishing in the thought of Israel being abandoned by the US. His remarks made the US that much more vulnerable to such attacks,” Daftari added.
All this would seem self-evident, yet Biden apparently believes he can keep his two-faced policy intact. Part of that belief involves ducking serious interviews where he could be required to defend what is a dangerous ploy to let domestic politics control foreign policy.
Instead, the president limits his explanations to one-line quips he delivers to the media as he walks by their gaggle on the White House lawn, a helicopter waiting noisily nearby.
Asked the other day if it was true he threatened to withhold aide to Israel, as the White House admitted, he responded with a nonsensical and untrue claim that “I asked them to do what they’re doing.”
Then, asked if he was abandoning Israel, he replied only, “Is that a serious question?”
It is and it deserves a serious answer.
The whole sequence lasted less than a minute and recalls a lesson to young journalists who must deal with politicians.
The lesson holds that there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.
And, sometimes, dangerously dishonest answers.
