Of course we should be thankful for the arms that Biden has given Israel. However, we should not lose sight of how we got to the point that these arms are needed. While it's pointless to play hypothetical games and ask what could have been had Trump or someone else been in the White House, it's certainly fair game to take a look at the policy changes that the Biden administration has implemented viz a viz Iran and the Palestinians and ask ourselves whether they have contributed to or hindered Israel's security. Here's just a sample and judge for yourselves:
1) "Just six days after taking office, the Biden administration took a sharp turn in U.S. policy in the Middle East, announcing it will resume contact with Palestinian leaders and restore U.S. contributions to the U.N. agency which provides aid to Palestinians...The remarks signaled a rejection of then-President Donald Trump's policy of the past four years, which overwhelmingly favored the interests of Israel's right-wing government. The Trump administration closed the Washington, D.C., office of the Palestine Liberation Organization; halted contributions to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees and their descendants; moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as Israel's capital; recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights; and presented a peace proposal which left all Israeli West Bank settlements in place." (link)
2) "President Biden will also announce new contributions totaling $316 million to support the Palestinian people. This is on top of the more than half a billion dollars the United States has provided to the Palestinian people since the Biden Administration restored much needed funding to the Palestinians." (taken from the White House's own statement)
3) "The Biden administration has funneled more than $730 million to a United Nations organization for refugee assistance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that harbored personnel who have incited violence against the Jewish people, The Post has learned."
4) "The Biden administration has sent more than $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to a Palestinian relief organization that has previously been accused of providing safe harbor to terrorists in Gaza, drawing increased scrutiny amid Hamas' attacks on Israel." (link)
5) "A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday evening ordered the discovery phase of a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of knowingly providing funds that benefited Palestinian terrorists get underway. America First Legal (AFL) first filed the lawsuit in 2022, alleging that President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken resumed payments to the Palestinian Authority (PA) that former President Trump ended in order to be in compliance with the Taylor Force Act — a federal law that prohibits the government from sending American taxpayer dollars to the PA until it stops supporting terrorism." (link)
6) "The US government will stop funding and participating in research, development, and scientific cooperation projects in Judea and Samaria, three years after Trump approved the cooperation." (link)
7) "President Biden would not commit to inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, a split from previous president’s who have long welcomed the country’s longest serving prime minister." (link)
8) “Because the Biden administration has been eagerly pursuing a nuclear agreement with Tehran, White House officials admitted to Bloomberg News that they have relaxed sanctions on Iran. The impact of that idiocy has been that Iran’s oil exports, which languished at less than 800,000 barrels per day under President Trump, soared to around 1.7 million b/d in August. (Some put the figure even higher, at 2 mb/d.) According to one estimate, that means Iran raked in $30-$40 billion in extra revenues this past year. Forget the $6 billion held by Qatar that Biden’s team recently unfroze; the jump in oil revenues was more than enough to fund the malevolent activities of Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror proxies." (link)
9) “President Biden stressed in a speech after his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem on Friday that a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines with agreed upon land swaps is the best way to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.... Biden's address — the first time as president he laid out parameters for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — was seen as a win for the Palestinians, who were hoping to get a diplomatic achievement from the president's visit in the form of a more detailed U.S. public position on the conflict. His comments brought the U.S. position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict back to the pre-Trump era and close to the position of the Obama administration." (link)
In summation, Biden presidency policy has 1) allowed Iran access to $, which are then used to fund terror; 2) directed the transfer of funds to the Palestinians; 3) funded UN agencies that are hostile to Israeli interests; 4) cut off cooperation with those in Yehuda and Shomron; 5) rebuffed Netanyahu; 6) advocated for a return to pre-1967 borders.
But the other guy did... The other party believes...
Well, ask yourself one question: is whatever he/they did that you disagree with worth your casting your lot in with a person/party that supports these policies?
Biden was no more guilty than Netanyahu for being hoodwinked, for hoping for detente and eventually some kind of understanding. That's why there was such hope in the expanding Abraham Accords. In any case, the US is motivated primarily by realpolitik, and secondarily - and that too is unique among the nations of the world! - out of a sense of justice and decency.
ReplyDeleteThe Chofetz Chaim once said that one fool can do more damage than ten reshaim. Biden exemplifies that statement very well.
ReplyDeleteI am sorely perplexed. Two highly intelligent and even keeled individuals seeing the same thing I am seeing and where I see a tremendous obligation of real hakaras hatov, you are cynical and critical.
ReplyDeleteMost of what Hamas, yimoch shmam v'zichram, did on Shemini Aztzeres costs money. Where did that money come from? Iran. Without Iran, the attack would not have been as tenth as deadly, if it happened at all.
DeleteSince the Obama Administration, it has been the policy of the Democratic party presidents to appease Iran. That includes allowing them to make lots of money. Some of that went to Hamas. (And Hezbollah, which today threatens the north of Israel. Hashem Yerachem, a second deadly front could open up there.)
There were many at the time who protested it. Iran has always been clear about its goal: elimination of Israel, and are on the West. And as Chaim points out, the Trump Administration took a very different approach, which resulted in a much weaker, poorer, Iran. And hence less well-funded Hamas.
Most likely, they were well-meaning but foolish. That's where the Chofetz Chaim's statement comes in.
So what do you do when someone's foolishness creates a big problem, and then he steps in and tries to help repair the damage? True, you need hakaras ha Tov for the latter, but don't lose sight of the former.
I meant "war on the West." Chaim, you need an edit function here.
Delete>>>Chaim, you need an edit function here.
DeleteComplain to Blogger : )
>>> I am seeing and where I see a tremendous obligation of real hakaras hatov, you are cynical and critical.
You are looking at events of the past in the past few days. I've given you the backstory.
Tal put it perfectly when he said, "So what do you do when someone's foolishness creates a big problem, and then he steps in and tries to help repair the damage?"
>>>Biden was no more guilty than Netanyahu for being hoodwinked, for hoping for detente and eventually some kind of understanding.
Biden went far beyond hoping for detante. What he did was provide funding for the enemy, both the PA and Iran. The record is clear on that.
Simple Yes/No: If you had to vote today, are you comfortable casting a vote for a candidate who openly calls for Israel to return to pre-1967 borders?
Just like there are people who will never vote for someone who opposes abortion, I can never support someone who would call for this level of concessions on Israel's part. Those concessions are exactly what Biden embraces as part of his two-state solution, and we have his own words on record to prove it.
Simple Yes/No: If you had to vote today, are you comfortable casting a vote for a candidate who openly calls for Israel to return to pre-1967 borders?
ReplyDeleteNo.
But if it involves "mutually agreed land swaps," maybe. Especially in light of the absurdity of "mutually agreed."
I don't know if the financial benefits from the sums involved made much difference. We're talking about a resource-rich country, with a disciplined and educated population, ruled by religious extremists who are supported by the majority of the people. They would manufacture and share their missiles even if it means starving, and there's always enough to buy missiles.
but reading the entire list is, I admit, distressing. But sending an aircraft carrier, which just now shot down several cruise missiles fired from Yemen, is a big thing. But I see that it can be seen as a way to prevent Israel from a justified extreme reaction.
ReplyDeleteBiden had this to say last night " I also spoke with President Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, and reiterated that the United States remains committed to the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and to self-determination. The actions of Hamas terrorists don’t take that right away."
DeleteIf the atrocities carried by Hamas don't take away their right to enjoy a state, what would? This is called doubling down on stupid.
And does it take a genius to anticipate that if G-d forbid they get a state and use it as a platform for more terror, the response will be that those actions don't represent the people, and there is no reason to wage war, and Israel should show restraint, blah blah blah?
With regard to the funding of Hamas, today's WSJ had this to say: "The Islamist group has raised tens of millions of dollars by skimming off humanitarian assistance and taxing economic activity stirred by a trade opening into its Gaza Strip stronghold, according to independent researchers and current and former Western security officials. "
That is immediately followed two paragraphs later by this: "On Wednesday, President Biden announced the U.S. would send $100 million in humanitarian assistance to provide clean water, food, medical care and other essential needs to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank."
It's not hard to connect the dots here. Again, doubling down on stupid.
This reminds me of the convenient canard of "collective punishment." Dovid hamelech said something we have to remember.
ReplyDeleteבַּת־בָּבֶ֗ל הַשְּׁד֫וּדָ֥ה אַשְׁרֵ֥י שֶׁיְשַׁלֶּם־לָ֑ךְ אֶת־גְּ֝מוּלֵ֗ךְ שֶׁגָּמַ֥לְתְּ לָֽנוּ׃
אַשְׁרֵ֤י ׀ שֶׁיֹּאחֵ֓ז וְנִפֵּ֬ץ אֶֽת־עֹלָלַ֗יִךְ אֶל־הַסָּֽלַע׃
Ms Shine said the misjudgment in the build-up to the Oct 7 attack was not a military one – many of Hamas’s preparations were observed in real time – but a political one.
ReplyDeleteMoney was flowing into Gaza and living standards were improving.
“Everybody was happy with the concept of feed the beast and the beast would remain quiet,” she said. “That was the belief. And I admit it, I too was also believing that… But you know, this is the Western way of looking at life – and it’s a huge mistake”.