RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/15/biden-turns-on-netanyahu-ahead-of-2024/

A few weeks ago, I predicted that after giving Israel a few weeks to end its war with Hamas, President Biden would turn on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024 because of growing and outspoken opposition to the war by Mr. Biden’s anti-Israel progressive base.

I was wrong. President Biden began vilifying Netanyahu and his government this week.

This included President Biden making the very damning public statement that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza.

The President also this week called for Netanyahu to “change his government” to expel hardline ministers who oppose a two-state solution peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians and criticized Netanyahu’s administration as the “most conservative government in Israel’s history.

President Biden’s criticism comes at a pivotal time when Israel is facing growing global opposition to the war and a recent nonbinding UN General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire that passed overwhelmingly.

Although President Biden has described his support for Israel after the horrific October 7 terrorist attack as “rock solid,” his support has been accompanied by public criticism and statements on how Israel should conduct the war. For example, the President conditioned his October 19 visit to Israel on an explicit commitment from Netanyahu to open Gaza for humanitarian aid. He has called on Israel to respect international and humanitarian law, implying that it has not done so. President Biden and his senior officials also have repeatedly stated that the Palestinian Authority must govern Gaza after the war concludes and that Israel cannot occupy Gaza.

Over the last few weeks, Biden Administration officials told the Israeli government they want the war wrapped up in weeks, not months, and want a process to place Gaza under the administration of the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu has rejected calls for a cease-fire or an early end to the war, pledging on December 13, “We are continuing until the end, there is no question. I say this even given the great pain, and the international pressure. Nothing will stop us, we will continue until the end, until victory, nothing less.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20221/houthis-iran-empowered

The Houthis have been fortunate to have, as a powerful patron and sponsor, Iran. Their backers in Tehran will not let them run out of ammunition and the Biden administration will not let the Iranian regime run out of funds.

Iran has been employing every political and military tactic possible — including racing toward nuclear weapons capability — to complete its objectives of annihilating Israel, driving the United States out of the Middle East, and establishing an Islamist caliphate.

Does anyone seriously think that if Iran finally acquires a nuclear bomb, they will not use it — or at least threaten to?

To deter further escalation, the US needs seriously to target the real source of this mayhem — the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its IRGC. Perhaps the US might try incapacitating the Iranian ports that are used for oil exports, or take out a few IRGC facilities — or maybe just send every IRGC officer a picture of his home?

Thanks to the Biden administration’s alarmingly misguided officials and their counterproductive policies of appeasement towards Iran and its proxies, the Iranian regime’s militia and terrorist group in Yemen, the Houthis, has ratcheted up attacks on ships in the Red Sea, and escalated the launching of missiles and attack drones at Israel. Now, the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah (“Partisans of Allah”), are threatening to attack any ship headed to Israel, regardless of its nationality or ownership. Why not just replace their flags with American ones?

The current problem with the Houthis began almost three years ago, when the Biden administration, after less than a month in office, reversed yet another policy of the Trump administration. On February 12, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken officially revoked the designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20207/stopping-iran-mullahs

Not surprisingly, billions from the West have enabled the Iranian regime to help plan, finance and support, among other aggressions, the invasion of Israel and genocidal massacre of Jews perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. Western money gifted to Iran is also helping the regime advance its nuclear weapons program to near-completion by “a few weeks or less, after which they can make as many bombs as they like.

The Biden administration’s policy towards the expansionist regime of Iran has been anchored in appeasement policies, including handing over billions of dollars in a seeming effort to bribe Iran’s mullahs not to cause even further trouble in the Middle East before the US presidential election on November 5, 2024.

Not surprisingly, billions from the West have enabled the Iranian regime to help plan, finance and support, among other aggressions, the invasion of Israel and genocidal massacre of Jews perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. Western money gifted to Iran is also helping the regime advance its nuclear weapons program to near-completion by “a few weeks or less, after which they can make as many bombs as they like.

The more money the Iranian regime is handed, the more trouble it causes.

Compared to the tens of billion the US delivers to Iran, the US government’s annual $3.8 billion investment in Israel — which invariably inspires extensive howling from some quarters — is proportionately bus fare.

It is high-time for the Biden administration to learn from previous administrations — inconveniently for them, Republican — that only economic and military pressure work on rogue and predatory regimes such as Iran. Appeasement, regrettably…. just ignites conflict.

https://aclj.org/israel/president-biden-must-stop-caving-to-far-left-ceasefire-calls-and-instead-stand-firm-with-israel

As Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza this week, calls for a long-term ceasefire from inside the United States – particularly within the Democrat Party – have remained strong.  Indeed, many had pushed for the previous short-term pause in fighting, which allowed the release of hostages held by Hamas, to remain in place indefinitely.  While we should celebrate the return of innocent Israeli civilians being reunited with their families and loved ones, we must recognize that a long-term ceasefire would play right into Hamas’ hands.  Such a ceasefire would not remove Hamas from Gaza, and it would only encourage future attacks on Israel.

Make no mistake: A long-term ceasefire is exactly what Hamas wants.  In the immediate aftermath of  Hamas’ barbaric acts on October 7, Israeli leaders pledged to wipe out the terrorist organization and the Israeli military has since begun an effective campaign to do just that.  In the face of utter annihilation, Hamas decided to use the hostages it took to ensure its own survival, helped especially by the Biden Administration’s pressure on the Israeli government to allow for a ceasefire.  With the vast majority of Hamas’ forces still intact, there are signs that the Biden Administration is now pushing Israel to accept a long-term ceasefire.

Think, for a moment, of the long-term consequences of such a decision.  The attacks on Hamas were the worst acts of antisemitic violence perpetrated since the Holocaust.  Pressuring Israel to now sign a long-term ceasefire would only encourage future attacks like those we saw on October 7.  It would be a green light to Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies that America will not have Israel’s back, making the region far less safe for Israelis and Americans alike.

Yet this would be perfectly in step with Team Biden’s broader approach to the region.  Its weak, ineffectual responses to the attacks on our own military bases in the region – now totaling over 70 – have further emboldened the Iranian regime.  Biden’s decision to issue a sanctions waiver earlier this month, granting the regime in Tehran access to more than $10 billion, will only fuel more attacks on America and raise the risk faced by Israel and our other allies and partners in the region.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/us-efforts-to-extend-gaza-truce-are-objectively-pro-hamas-john-bolton-5540240?utm_source=News&src_

‘I think Israel’s best judgment here is simply to proceed militarily to achieve the objective it says it wants, which is the elimination of Hamas.’

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Saturday criticized the Biden administration for its attempts to extend the truce in Gaza, calling them “objectively pro-Hamas.”

“I think with the initial pause now behind us, I think Israel’s best judgment here is simply to proceed militarily to achieve the objective it says it wants, which is the elimination of Hamas,” Mr. Bolton told News Nation.

“I think the second-guessing by the Biden administration, the efforts to prolong the pause to turn it into a full ceasefire, are objectively pro-Hamas because it denies Israel the self-defense right it has to eliminate the terrorist threat.”

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Israel’s war with the Hamas terrorist group resumed on Friday after a weeklong truce brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, during which Hamas freed 110 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
A day before the truce ended, Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged for a longer truce on Thursday. He said, “Our immediate focus is working with our partners to extend the pause so that we can continue to get more hostages out of Gaza and more assistance in.”
Also on Friday, the White House blamed Hamas for ending the truce. “It’s because of Hamas that this pause ended,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, per USA Today.

“They were just simply unable, failed to produce a list of hostages that could help enable that pause extending,” Mr. Kirby added. “The onus is on Hamas to be able to produce a list of hostages that that they can get out so that we can try to get this pause back in place.”

https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/01/the-floor-is-falling-out-from-under-bidens-ukraine-policy/

Just two weeks ago, President Biden again likened Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hamas. In a November 18 Washington Post op-ed titled “The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas,” he made this comparison and said America will stand against these aggressors to prevent them from wiping neighboring democracies off the map.

I have major concerns about how committed Biden is to Israel in its war against Hamas after its barbaric October 7 terrorist attack, given his lecturing to the Israeli government on how it should conduct the war and increasing anti-Israel pressure against Biden from his progressive supporters. I expressed my concerns about Biden going wobbly on his support for Israel in an October 27 American Greatness article. Unfortunately, this problem is now getting worse.

But let’s talk about Ukraine, a conflict that has been pushed off the front page by the Israel-Hamas War. You know that President Biden’s Ukraine policy is in trouble when MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show hosts panels, like one held on November 21, to discuss why the war is unwinnable, explain why Ukraine needs to change its strategy to protect the 80% of the country it controls, and encourage Ukraine to pursue a cease-fire with Russia.

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and his guests also reluctantly admitted what many members of Congress have long realized: the Biden strategy to arm Ukraine “for as long as it takes” but not send the weapons it needs to win is not a strategy.

Although Scarborough and others in the mainstream media won’t admit it, they now recognize something else about the Ukraine War: that the highly vaunted 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive that was supposed to turn the tide of the war failed to reclaim a significant amount of territory and may have lost ground to Russia.

As a result, many experts on the right and left have concluded that this conflict has become a stalemate and a war of attrition that Ukraine will eventually lose because Russian forces are dug in and Ukraine is running out of soldiers.

The New York Times reported in August 2023 that Ukraine’s war casualties were estimated at up to 70,000 killed and 120,000 injured. Russia’s estimated casualties of up to 120,000 killed and 180,000 injured were significantly higher, but Russia can more easily absorb these losses since its population is three times larger.

Resistance to the Biden Administration’s Ukraine policy is especially strong in the House of Representatives, where many members have demanded the Biden Administration provide a clear strategy for ending the conflict and reaching a cease-fire instead of just sending weapons to Ukraine. Many House members are also concerned that the Ukraine conflict is consuming advanced weapons that the U.S. cannot quickly replace that may be needed elsewhere, such as to defend Taiwan.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/antony-blinken-iranian-tool/

Under George W. Bush, U.S. foreign policy was nothing to write home about. White House advisors who sought to use 9/11 as an excuse to remake the Middle East – but who had absolutely no understanding of Islam – got us into deadly, expensive wars that ended up accomplishing nothing. Bush himself kept insisting that we weren’t at war with Islam – which he called, either foolishly or dishonestly, a “religion of peace” – but with “terror,” a meaningless formulation that doomed us from the start.

But at least Bush and his people weren’t actively trying to subvert America. Under Obama and again under Obama’s puppet, Biden, things have been different. Obama’s grotesquely fawning praise of Islam in his 2009 speech at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University set the tone. So did his scandalous bow, in the same year, to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The previous year, quoting the Muslim call to prayer – including the Islamic profession of faith – Obama had called it “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

So Obama’s enthusiasm for such otherwise inexplicable initiatives as the Iran deal made sense. Ditto his palpable hostility toward Israel.

One of the Obama administration’s top foreign-policy figures was Antony Blinken, who during Obama’s first term served as Biden’s national security advisor and, during Obama’s second term, was deputy national security advisor and then deputy secretary of state. His pedigree was striking. In a 2021 article for Commentary, the estimable Ruth R. Wisse wrote about Antony’s paternal grandfather, M.H. Blinken, a proud Jew and ardent backer of Israel, and about M.H.’s two sons, Donald, who became ambassador to Hungary, and Alan, who became ambassador to Belgium. According to Wisse, Donald and Alan’s devotion to American and Jewish interests gave way over the years, alas, to a more internationalist disposition.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20177/hostage-deal-hamas

Seven weeks into Israel’s military offensive to destroy Hamas as a military and political entity, the Biden administration now seems to be adopting a very different stance, one where it appears ready to scale down its commitment to supporting Israel’s right to self-defence, and destroying Hamas, in favour of a ceasefire deal that would essentially gift victory to Hamas.
Netanyahu has made no secret of his personal reservations about the hostage deal, arguing that any pause in Israel’s military offensive would simply allow Hamas to regroup. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in particular, had been opposed to the deal because they wanted to maintain the pressure against Hamas on the ground in Gaza.
Indeed, Washington’s willingness to impose ceasefires on Israel when its forces have clearly established a military advantage on the battlefield against their enemies has been a constant feature throughout Israel’s 75-year existence.
The Israelis will certainly be concerned at the role played by Qatar, which is one of Hamas’s main military backers, in the negotiations. While the Qataris like to claim that they are simply using their contacts with Hamas to defuse tensions, the fact that Ismail Haniyeh, who masterminded the massacres, directed the attacks from his five-star hotel in Qatar, where he has been granted a safe haven, means the Israelis have every reason to be wary of Qatar’s motives.