By James Sinkinson, JNS
If Biden wants to be re-elected, he’d be smart to stop pandering to a tiny minority of extremist voters who want to see Israel wiped off the map.
In a deceitful attack on Israel, the United States failed to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Israel stand down against the Hamas terror group in Gaza. This action by the Biden administration not only betrayed America's strongest ally in the Middle East, it also weakened U.S. standing worldwide and strengthened the hands of our enemies—especially Iran.
Such U.S. treachery exposes Biden as irresolute against the world's bullies and an unreliable friend to those fighting against them.
The greatest shame of this misadventure is that Team Biden appears motivated not by a desire to help the Palestinians—or the world—but rather by a desperate fear of losing the next election should he disappoint his progressive, anti-Israel Democratic base, comprising a tiny minority of American voters.
Biden’s attempt to discredit and abandon Israel began two weeks ago, with an orchestrated slander against Israel's democratically-elected prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, voiced by Sen. Chuck Schumer. Vice President Harris then piled on with her amateurish assertion that Palestinians have no way to flee Israel’s next attack on Hamas.
The disastrous coup de grace came last Monday when the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an Israeli cease fire with no counterbalancing condemnation of Hamas—or conditioning of the ceasefire on the release of Israeli hostages—while the U.S. conspicuously sat on its hands.
First, Sen. Schumer’s accusations against Netanyahu were blatantly false. Contrary to Schumer’s claims, Netanyahu is conducting the war against Hamas the way most Israelis—not just right-wing extremists—want him to. Polls in Israel consistently show overwhelming support for resolutely toppling Hamas in the Gaza Strip. A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) indicates nearly two thirds of Israelis also agree with Netanyahu on the need for an offensive in Rafah. Furthermore, like Netanyahu, some 55% of Israelis reject Palestinian statehood.
Schumer’s speech was a cheap attempt to scapegoat Netanyahu as cover for Team Biden’s later treachery. The senator was clearly acting for the White House, as part of a plan to discredit Israel in the lead-up to the following week’s betrayal at the United Nations. No wonder Biden immediately praised Schumer’s defamatory diatribe.
Schumer threatened that the United States would interfere in Israel’s domestic politics to get what it wants. He also repeated Secretary of State Blinken’s warning that the Jewish state faces “isolation” if it invades Rafah. This is perhaps the first time in history a high-ranking U.S. politician has called for regime change in a democratic country. And not just any democratic country: He attacked the State of Israel—one of America’s greatest allies and the only democracy in the Middle East.
Harris a few days later falsely asserted that there is no way to safely evacuate civilians from Rafah—one more attempt by Team Biden to discredit Israel. To drive the spike deeper,Harris comically designated herself an expert on protecting civilians in war after she “studied the maps” of Gaza. Harris knows Israel’s military experts know those maps intimately, have fought on that land, and have already proven they can safely evacuate Gazan civilians.
Harris, in fact, has no military expertise. But John Spencer does. He is a retired U.S. Army major and chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute. According to Spencer, Israel has done more to protect the lives of civilians than even the United States in its Middle East wars. In a Newsweek article, Spencer wrote, referring to Israel’s Defense Forces, “I've never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy's civilian population.”
Team Biden’s abstention from the UNSC vote was the final blow: a flagrant betrayal of America’s staunchest Middle East ally.The resolution did not condition a ceasefire on the release of hostages, nor did it condemn Hamas. In fact, it compromised ongoing hostage negotiations, that subsequently broke down. It also prevents—or at least delays—what Israel must and will do: Invade Rafah and dismantle the remaining four battalions of Hamas.
Following the Security Council vote, Seth Mandel, senior editor of Commentary magazine, wrote, “Today, the Biden administration declared Russia to be correct. Let the hostages rot or else Joe Biden may lose a few thousand votes in Michigan.”
Team Biden’s campaign of Israel-bashing, meant to please left-wing, anti-Israel Democrats, is counterproductive.While Muslim votes in places like Michigan—and ultra-left votes nationwide—were crucial to Biden’s 2020 election win, polls also show that today some 80% of Americans support Israel’s fight against Hamas, and nearly as many oppose a ceasefire without release of the hostages. By trying to win the votes of Hamas supporters, Biden is bound to lose the votes of tens of millions of staunch Israel-supporters, both Christian and Jewish.
Biden’s treachery against Israel shows our enemies that America lacks the commitment to fight back. The administration has long shown timidity in opposing Iran’s blatant aggression, instead rewarding the Islamic Republic with cash payments of billions of dollars. This latest failure to let Israel finish off Iran-proxy Hamas makes Biden look even weaker in the face of Middle East terror groups like Hezbollah, the Houthis and Islamic State. Even more alarming, this example signals to America’s most formidable enemies, like Russia and China, that the United States hesitates and fears to defend its global interests.
If Biden wants to be re-elected, he’d be smart to stop pandering to a tiny minority of extremist voters who want to see Israel wiped off the map. The vast majority of Americans support the Jewish state and expect the same from him. Surely most voters would also prefer an administration with a stiffer backbone and a more determined defense of U.S. interests globally.
Originally published by Facts and Logic About the Middle East.
