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Biden Betrays Israel and Allies with Iran
Most of us were not surprised when Joe Biden began to back away from his support of Israel in the Gaza War. We assumed he was responding to the demands of his far left, to the Muslims in Michigan, and to the pro-Palestinian protestors. His focus is on the elections in November, and he believes that betraying Israel is his path to his success. And he’s acting accordingly.
The latest blow to the U.S.-Israel alliance has arrived in two parts. First, Biden has refused to send specific weapons to Israel if they invade Rafah (which they are certain to do). He has said that Israel must have a plan to reduce civilian casualties. Ironically, the weapons he is withholding are targeted weapons which reduce the damage and losses. The fact that Israel is publicizing locations for the Palestinians to avoid the fighting, through text messages, fliers and other promotions are apparently not satisfactory efforts to reduce casualties. The fact that Biden has not explained how Israel must respond to reduce victims is telling.
But he has also essentially said that he will withhold intelligence from Israel about the locations of tunnels and Hamas leaders in Gaza if they proceed into Rafah. He apparently doesn’t realize (or doesn’t care) that his statement is actually confirming that they have already been withholding information. Israel is supposed to assume that they will receive the information if it doesn’t conduct a full-scale invasion of Rafah.
Some people are realizing that Joe Biden has already switched sides. When Iran proxies were conducting attacks against our military bases in Iraq and Syria, his response was pathetic; he even warned some of the IRGC leaders that he was coming for one of the U.S. responses. His response to Iran’s attack on Israel was lukewarm; after all, they weren’t really successful. Although sanctions have been levied on Iran, Republicans are saying that Biden is not enforcing the existing measures.
What would Iran and the U.S. have to gain by becoming allies? For one, it’s no secret that the U.S. has tried to find a way out of involvement in the Middle East for years. Why not let Iran take over? They already are close to having a nuclear bomb, so any efforts to stop them from using it are futile (as they were from the start). Although Arab leadership was beginning to show some promise in the area with the Abraham Accords, Biden tried to ignore the agreement; he has avoided referring to it by name, since it was an achievement of Donald Trump. Also, I suggest that they might have secretly been hoping that rather than a collection of Arab countries sharing a leadership role, they were rooting for Iran to step in.
Remember the JCPOA and Robert Malley? Negotiations with Iran were abandoned even before the Gaza war. I suspect that they realized they could align with Iran without a formal agreement in place, especially since they’ve given up on stopping Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon.
The message is clear and becoming clearer every day:
The U.S. and Iran have become allies; Israel, you’re on your own.
Published in Foreign Policy
The Iranians are too crazy to be peace partners even if the US gives in on all fronts.
The Iranian option was first concocted by James Baker when Bush was looking for a way out of the quagmire in Iraq. The panel of alleged experts led by Baker said we should bugger out of the Middle East, hand the keys to Iran and to mollify the Arabs horrified at Iranian hegemony, cut ties with Israel. After that, the US would have no reason ever to back and the region (except Israel) would love us.
Bush wisely rejected that advice and went with “the surge” idea of Kagan and Keane to try to create a stable situation from which to depart.
Obama revived the Baker plan less for geopolitical strategic reasons than to fulfill his image as the vaguely anti-American transformative world leader with a soft spot for anti-American regimes in general and Muslim anti-Americans in particular. The bizarre fetish of crafting a deal, any deal with Iran even at the expense of American and global interests with idiot-boy Kerry as the ‘architect’ was an embarrassment.
That Biden sought to revive that nonsense is a testament both to his absence of judgment, character, and lack of control over his own foreign policy authority.
The mullahs are too far into the tank for their nutball theocratic fantasies to even pretend to be peaceful partners. If the USA were to advance actual Western interests we are the Great Satan. if we capitulate to whatever Iran wants, we are still the Great Satan but a weakened one that merits further attack.
Great response, OB! Since they are all nutballs (on our side and theirs), the possibilities are endless for what they might try.
It is bad enough to be a nutball who claims the right to kill everyone with different beliefs but to be another kind of nutball who says that is OK even if a likely target of the first kind of nutball… I have more respect for the Iranian version of nutballism than that of their lunatic cheer squad in the West on the basis of internal consistency alone.
It all makes sense, if you consider Obama to be the puppet master. Obama did all he could to strengthen Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood when officially president. President Biden (wink wink) started his term by lifting sanctions on Iran and now his support for Hamas over Israel is just a continuation.
But even so, I didn’t see his abandoning Israel. And I don’t think he’ll get away with it, based on surveys of our own citizens and those supporting Israel in Congress.
That is a fascinating question which it is hard for someone with a classical liberal or conservative mind to contemplate. It involves assumptions about our own national leadership and powers that be that are so alien to our own thinking. One doesn’t need to be an Arabist to not want what the current power in Iran would bring to the region. It is nihilist, and anti-human.
I hope that doesn’t mean that I’m starting to think like them!
No, but it certainly one that did not occur to me. Your insight into the Beast is better than mine. Sometimes that is a gender phenomena. Women can sense danger when men, who might not feel as vulnerable, don’t.
Someone should ask Joe if we would pitch in to help protect Israel from another missile and drone attack from Iran.
Pity we don’t have a dedicated group of journalists in the White House to pose such questions.
Since he’s already done it once, and he’s so worried about appearances, he may do it again. One of the most concerning facts is that it’s nearly impossible to predict what he’ll do next. Except that it won’t be good.
I agree it is awful that would threaten to withhold information about the tunnel locations or those of terrorist leaders. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have been doing so already. Perhaps we have real-time location on Sinwar through some technical means. We may have been feeding that to Israel but they have chosen not to act thus far because hostages are around him or because he is in a secure location that Israel cannot access without a ground assault. Biden might be threatening to stop giving Israel the real-time feed.
Or more likely we learn his location from time to time, and it is only good until he moves to a new location. We are threatening to stop supplying Israel with that information as we develop it.
Biden said we would defend Israel from another attack originating from (some mysterious location in) the Middle East. He seems unwilling to go on offense to destroy terrorists and protect Americans.
All possible. But likely?
Thinking like them leads to understanding them, which leads to finding a way to beat them . . .
It is actually worse than that, apologies to the Commentary guys for stealing their tag, the U.S. has become an ally to the Houthis, Iran, and Hamas this is true. Unfortunately the converse is not the case. They are still implacable enemies of the U.S. and the West. Biden has promised to be nice to them and won’t effectively act against them attacking Americans or American interests; however, he will however shield them from the actions of others. This is an extension of the Obama rule in foreign policy. “Treat your allies badly, and Your enemies well” I suspect that in the end it is because Obama is actually running Biden’s foreign policy and his [Obama’s] objective was always to weaken the U.S.
A statesman would put a set of demands on Hammas, something like:
Biden is only a sock puppet. His puppet masters only consideration is winning politically in November with no concern of the loss of credibility for the US as an ally. Biden has made it clear that we are weak and can’t be trusted.
While I believe deliberately targeting civilians may be immoral. I also believe that the Palestinians need to lose their stomach for fighting. That is going to take some hardships before they are going to be willing to seek peaceful solutions.
Hardships, possibly deaths. If they’re willing to die for Hamas, then “you don’t win a war by dying for your country; you win a war by making the other bastard die for HIS country.”
Via Instapundit:
Any chance such a thing could actually be beneficial? If only “real” Hamas people (“fighters,” whatever) were killed, the remaining people, crazy as many of them seem to be, could easily create and populate a new Hamas.
Bill, I’m very touched by your list of demands that show your clear support of Israel. I can’t help saying, though, that I’m just not sure they are realistic, although you may feel they have symbolic value. Hamas would just ignore the first request; they have no interest in giving up their leverage and no need to do so. Regarding UN supervised elections, I can’t support Hamas being in the running; they have given up their opportunity to rule with Oct. 7. It’s interesting you mention using the said of US special forces; Israel has never invited in a foreign force to fight with them. I suspect their own special forces were trained by the US, so they are likely well-trained. I am in full agreement with your comment about Biden. I’m embarrassed to have him “leading” us. Thanks so much.
The reason we should insist on Israel allowing our participation is because Hamas took American citizens hostage. That makes this our fight as well. If we know where Hamas’s leadership is we should be taking them out ourselves. I agree this is mostly an Israeli fight, but it isn’t exclusively an Israeli fight.
The fact there are American hostages makes Biden’s action even more perfidious.
I don’t think Biden is trying to ally the US with Iran or its terrorist proxies. Instead, he’s trying to walk a fine line wherein he helps Israel defend itself, placates the pro-Hamas crowd, and doesn’t antagonize Iran.
The best, perhaps only, defense for Israel is a good offense. They cannot tolerate being surrounded by existential threats. But Biden has only acted to help Israel defend itself, for example, against that missile attack from some unknown source in the Middle East. And he’s done the defense but no offense against Houthi attacks on shipping.
He’s trying to placate an implacable pro-Hamas crowd in order to win the must-win state of Michigan. But he fails to realize that being a leader would get him more votes than weakly kowtowing to terrorist sympathizers.
There is a strand of US foreign policy that has come to the fore over the last decade that believes that Iran can be integrated into the Middle East economic and security architecture IF we will meet some of their demands. Sort of like Germany demanding its “place in the sun” before World War I. But just like Germany, “a place in the sun” will never be enough for the clerical class that runs Iran. Every time we give in to them, they will sense weakness and demand more.
Biden fails to understand that the US is the dominant power in the Middle East and doesn’t have to walk a fine line. Other nations have to walk a fine line when they deal with us.
You’re right. But of course, Biden didn’t want any part of the warfare.
I wish that were still true. I think our credibility and reputation have taken a nosedive, especially after Afghanistan.
I think you give Biden and Obama much more credit than either deserves; however, I am very cynical when it comes to this two. I may not be giving them the benefit of the doubt.
During previous outbreaks of war involving Israel or Western powers, we heard much about the “Arab street”, which was rising in anger against the Jews and/or the foreign interlopers. That street seems to be rather quiet now – not even an occasional “day of rage”.
Could it be that the Persians and their proxies aren’t so popular with their neighbours?
The hard power reality that we are the dominant power is still true. But our unwillingness to stand and fight (and to take the fight to the enemy) has caused a severe blow to our credibility and reputation. Fortunately, we still have the economic and military power to create a quick turnaround in our credibility.
Biden is a fundamentally weak person. He doesn’t really want to be part of any conflict. He spent months basically negotiating with himself in Ukraine. He had a cowardly retreat in Afghanistan. He has done the bare minimum with respect to retaliation for attacks on US troops or ships, and he is trying to bring an end to the Israeli-Hamas conflict where Hamas isn’t really destroyed, which in effect is a Hamas victory. He didn’t even want to kill Osama bin Laden.
Quite likely! Does anyone like Iran?! (maybe Syria…)