RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-iran-oil-hamas-israel-gaza-df192c53?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

You’d think the Biden Administration would have realized by now that enriching the Iranian regime is a dangerous mistake. You’d be wrong. Relaxed U.S. enforcement of oil sanctions continued through October, refilling Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s coffers even after the Oct. 7 slaughter and the more than 40 attacks on U.S. troops by Iran’s proxies in the weeks since.

Iran exported nearly 1.4 million barrels of oil per day in October, sustaining its average for 2023. This is up 80% from the 775,000 barrels per day Iran averaged under the Trump Administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy, according to United Against Nuclear Iran, the group of former U.S. Ambassador Mark Wallace and Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose Tanker Tracker generates the best public data we have.

The Iranian surge in oil exports since President Biden took over has brought Iran an additional $32 billion to $35 billion, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The calculations are tricky, but the cause of the Iranian windfall is clear: As part of Mr. Biden’s quiet diplomacy with Iran, the U.S. has curtailed sanctions enforcement. Customers and middlemen have concluded the risk is low and the discount on Iran’s oil is too good to pass up.

This transfer of funds to Iran is cumulatively more significant than the President’s recent $6 billion ransom payment in return for five hostages. And it keeps growing, even as the money fails to moderate Iranian behavior. Instead it finances Iran’s aggression abroad via proxies such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and the front groups in Iraq and Syria that shoot at American bases almost daily.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20133/iran-war-against-israel-us

Sadly, the Biden administration has yet to come out and publicly acknowledge Iran’s role in Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel, in which the terrorist group murdered over 1,400 Israelis and at least 31 Americans, and wounded over 4,500 Israelis. Hamas also abducted more than 240 people and took them back to Gaza, where they are being held as hostages.

Iran provides roughly $100 million a year to Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and $700 million a year to Hezbollah.

Iran and its proxies have clearly been waging a war against Israel, Jews and the United States. It is incumbent upon the Biden administration at least to publicly acknowledge this fact. Or is the US still hoping for some disastrous “nuclear deal” in which the Iranian regime would promise not to use its imminent nuclear weapons — “on my watch” — during just the Democrats’ time in office?

The Biden administration continues to turn a blind eye to Iran’s involvement in the war against Israel, the Jews and in fact all “infidels” — not least of which is “the Great Satan,” the United States.

In recent weeks, Iranian proxies have attacked not only Israel and the Jews, but also at least 41 strikes against US forces in Syria and Iraq, during which 46 US servicemen were wounded and one was killed by a drone; and with more than 83 attacks on US troops since Biden became president.

These assaults came in addition to an attempted assassination on US soil by the Iranian regime of a foreign diplomat in 2012, and threats to assassinate former US officials, complete with a $1 million bounty, in 2022.

The US responded to these attacks by cancelling sanctions on Iran, thereby enabling it to reap close to $60 billion by exporting its oil and gas – and comfortably to finance its terrorist proxy war on Israel and attacks on US forces in the Middle East.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/stop-our-barbarian-boxer-foreign-policy/

The great 4th century B.C. orator Demosthenes, scolding the Athenians for their passive response to Phillip of Macedon’s escalating aggression, said, “You carry on war with Phillip exactly as a barbarian boxes. The barbarian, when struck, always clutches the place; hit him on the other side, and there go his hands. He neither knows nor cares how to parry a blow, or how to watch his adversary.”

Demosthenes’ point was that an enemy must be preempted by anticipating where his next attack will likely come, rather than merely reacting to it––a mistake that for too long has marred our foreign policy.

The news that the Biden administration had ordered nearly a dozen air-defense systems to the Middle East to protect American forces there, made me think of Demosthenes’ simile, and the similar mistakes we are making in dealing both with Hamas’ atrocities against Israel, and with more than four decades of aggression against us by Iran, the world’s most deadly state-supporter of terrorism.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “The U.S. is scrambling to deploy nearly a dozen air-defense systems to countries across the Middle East ahead of Israel’s expected land invasion of Gaza, deploying missile launchers to Iraq, Syria and the Gulf, U.S. officials said. The Pentagon is sending a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, to Saudi Arabia, and Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.”

This decision follows recent drone attacks against our soldiers in Iraq and Syria, killing one contractor and wounding 24 servicemen. Iranian clients and proxies like the Houthi in Yemen are likely behind the attacks, which the Department of Defense expects to escalate: “What we are seeing is the prospect for more significant escalation against U.S. forces and personnel across the region in the very near-term coming from Iranian proxy forces and ultimately from Iran.”

And if that happens, don’t worry: the U.S. will be “responding decisively.” Does anyone believe that the Mullahs in Iran are frightened by this flaccid threat? The Biden administration has been courting them for over two years to rejoin the nuclear deal, and bribing them with billions of dollars that Iran has used to arm the jihadists now firing missiles at our soldiers.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/10/30/a-therapeutic-middle-east-versus-a-tragic-one/

Classical diplomacy warns leaders to be neither obsequious and appeasing abroad, nor gratuitously boastful and hard-headed.

The usual advice is don’t-tread-on-me resoluteness, or what Teddy Roosevelt characterized as “speak softly and carry a big stick.” The alternatives – whether “speak loudly and carry a twig,” “speak softly and carry a twig,” or “speak loudly and carry a big stick”- are far worse.

Our current diplomats have unfortunately forgotten that golden mean of guarded language backed with credible warnings of overwhelming force. And the result is a verbal mess, backed by impending attacks called off, confusion, and harsh rhetoric rather than quiet retribution.

Biden and his team give us endless variations on the same loud threat to Iran along the following lines: “If outside actors are considering widening the war, DON’T!” They accompany this by reacting only four times to 83 documented acts of Iranian aggression directed at U.S. forces, by greenlighting a $6 billion ransom to Iran and by lifting sanctions, resulting in a $50 billion Iranian oil windfall.

As a general rule, the more one side appeases the other, or is humiliated, or is shown to be weak or naïve, the more likely it is that the tentative party will vainly seek to restore lost deterrence by ever-tougher language—even though it must know that these ever-increasing verbal threats are becoming increasingly empty. Threats and taunts are like inflation: the more they are issued without reliable backing, the more worthless they become.

The murdered dead were not even buried in Israel, when the Biden State Department’s Palestinian Affairs bureau issued a call for a ceasefire—a plea followed by a similar one in a joint communiqué from Turkey’s Recep Erdogan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Did such calls win either empathy from Hamas or prompt agreement from Israel to transcend any idea of meting out justice to the killers of more than 1,000 of their own? Or were they simply revelations of cluelessness along with an empty signal of “concern?”

Did Secretary Blinken’s invitation to American regional embassies to lower their flags to half-mast to commemorate civilian causalities in Gaza—unfortunately timed to the false news reports of an IDF strike on a hospital—win respect or cool tensions?

In Blinken’s words, the gesture was intended “to observe national periods of mourning following an official proclamation by the host government with respect to the loss of innocent lives at the Al Ahli hospital blast on October 18.” Did that U.S. “concern” work? Did protests abroad wane? Was Biden never snubbed? Did U.S. host countries express loud thanks?

Which was the more likely reaction from Hamas to Blinken’s act of magnanimity?

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/10/30/is-americans-love-affair-with-nato-alliance-over-ii-tipp-poll/

Whether it’s the Russia-Ukraine war, or the Israeli-Hamas war, NATO remains a big part of U.S. decision-making. Indeed, the U.S.-led postwar alliance has lasted 75 years, and it’s fair to say that nearly everything the U.S. does overseas involves NATO, directly or indirectly. But increasingly, average Americans are uneasy about the alliance, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

A significant number of Americans, though not yet a majority, feel the burdens of the U.S.’ NATO leadership as unfairly distributed, according to the online I&I/TIPP Poll of 1,378 adults taken from Sept. 27-29

The first question was elemental: “Does the U.S. participation in NATO increase or decrease the likelihood of U.S. getting involved in a military conflict?”

A surprising plurality of 38% answered “increase,” while 15% responded “decrease” and 19% said “no impact.” Another 28% said “not sure,” making it the second-largest answer. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points.

This was the rare question in which political affiliation didn’t make too much of a difference. While 34% of Democrats said NATO raises the chance of war, that response wasn’t too far below the Republicans (44%) or independents (38%).

https://www.jns.org/bidens-hamas-conundrum/

Since Oct. 7, American Jews have seen their civil rights trampled every day. Jewish students are subjected to constant intimidation, assault, battery and threats from Hamas supporters on campus. From coast to coast, the stories are depressingly similar. University authorities refuse to protect them from their pro-Jewish genocide peers.

Then, too, on Thursday, the New York Police Department told the Jews of Brooklyn to stay off the streets on Shabbat afternoon. Pro-Hamas will be demonstrating, and the police said that they will be unable to protect Jewish residents as the terror supporters march through their neighborhoods.

How is this happening? How is it that at a time of maximum peril, law-enforcement bodies are doing all but nothing to defend the Jewish community? Why is the FBI not arresting terror supporters as required under U.S. law? Why is the U.S. Justice Department not directing local authorities to defend the Jews?

A good place to begin to look for answers is the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. That powerful division is led by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.

Clarke’s appointment in 2021 caused an uproar in Jewish circles because she has a record of anti-Semitic activism and was an ardent supporter of the pro-Hamas, anti-Jewish Black Lives Matter movement.

In 1994, as the head of the Black Students Association at Harvard Law School, Clarke invited Wellesley College Professor Tony Martin to speak at Harvard. Martin had just written a Protocols of the Elders of Zion-style anti-Semitic book called The Jewish Onslaught.

Clarke defiantly defended Martin at the time and attacked the Jewish students who expressed concern about her move. She never apologized for her actions. Instead, ahead of her Senate confirmation, she told progressive, anti-Israel Jewish reporters and activists that she “regretted” the invitation. That was enough for them to declare that the allegation that Clarke remains hostile towards Jews is slander.

U.S. President Joe Biden has a problem. He staffed his administration at all levels and across departments with hardened ideologues, many of whom have records of hostility towards Jews and support for Hamas, Iran, and other terror groups and regimes. Under Biden, these officials have advanced his Middle East policies that until Oct. 7 were largely aligned with the interests of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/10/27/what-israel-needs-from-america-and-what-it-is-getting-from-joe-biden/

After the brutal Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, the most horrific attack on Jews since the Holocaust, Israel and the Jewish people need America’s steadfast support.

This means immediate and robust backing from our President and Congress. Israel urgently needs military, humanitarian, and financial aid to destroy Hamas and recover from the October 7 terrorist attack. It also needs America’s support in the information war, which is being relentlessly waged against Israel and the Jewish people by Hamas, other radical Islamists, the global Left, and the mainstream media.

American support for Israel must be unequivocal. There can’t be any daylight between the United States and Israel. If the Biden Administration has differences with Israel on how it plans to respond to the Hamas attack or other issues, it must relay these concerns privately. Any such private communications cannot be leaked to the press.

America also must speak plainly about who ultimately was behind the October 7 terrorist attack – Iran. The Biden Administration must halt its efforts to appease Iran and hold Tehran responsible for this atrocity.

These are the things that a President who is a true friend of Israel would do at this critical moment in its history. Sadly, President Biden’s actions and statements since the October 7 terrorist attack prove that he is far from a true friend of Israel.

The President was widely praised for stating his support for Israel after the October 7 terrorist attack in which he communicated America’s total commitment and support to Israel, that Israel has the right to respond to the slaughter of their people, and for calling Israel America’s most reliable ally in the Middle East. Biden also strongly condemned the Hamas attack as “sickening,” “pure unadulterated evil,” and a “violation of every code of human morality.”

Unfortunately, these statements were followed by a mishmash of contradictory statements, lectures to the Israeli government, and criticism by Biden and his senior officials.

Biden qualified his support for Israel defending itself against Hamas by saying any Israeli attack in Gaza must be governed by the rule of law to protect innocent Palestinian civilians. He also stated that Israel must not be consumed by rage in responding to the Hamas attack.

These are not things a U.S. president should be saying to a close U.S. ally who is at war.

As Israel grieves over the 1,300 killed in the horrendous terrorist attack and braces for the next stage of the war, President Biden has publicly dictated to Israel how to conduct the war and its aftermath. Biden has warned Israel against a full-scale occupation of Gaza. The President also called for the inept and deeply corrupt Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza and said that the Israel-Hamas conflict must end with the two-state solution, a now-dead proposal that all Palestinian parties have repeatedly rejected.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-red-line-moment-with-iran-9e1bbf5a?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Tuesday that the U.S. would respond “swiftly and decisively” to any attack on American forces from Iran or its proxies. That’s a welcome message aimed at deterring the mullahs in Tehran and their agents. But will the President enforce the red line he appears to be drawing? He hasn’t so far.

“The United States does not seek conflict with Iran,” Mr. Blinken said at the United Nations. “We do not want this war to widen. But if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake. We will defend our people.” Mr. Blinken’s remarks are the sharpest U.S. warning to Iran so far, and from the most senior U.S. official. They go beyond President Biden’s previous vague warnings of “don’t” to discourage Hezbollah or Iran from getting involved in the Hamas-Israel war.

Clearly the White House is worried, and it should be. Even the Administration has been obliged to acknowledge that Iranian clients have used drones and rockets to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East more than a dozen times in the past week.

White House spokesman John Kirby said Monday that Iran is “in some cases, actively facilitating these attacks” on U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria. Mr. Kirby also acknowledged that “Iran’s goal is to maintain some level of deniability here, but we’re not going to allow them to do that.” A senior defense official noted this week that “when you see this uptick in activity and attacks” in the Middle East, “there’s Iranian fingerprints all over it.”

The obvious implication of Mr. Blinken’s remarks is that if American forces are attacked, the U.S. will respond with military force. Multiple reports suggest that Iran’s clients are planning more attacks on U.S. positions in the Middle East. The Pentagon has dispatched more air defenses and on Tuesday announced an F-16 deployment to complement other fighter aircraft in the region. One carrier strike group is already operating in the area and another is on the way. So when will the swift and decisive U.S. response arrive?

https://victorhanson.com/the-aberrant-american-appeasement-of-theocratic-iran/

The Obama–Biden pathological appeasement of Iran is shameful. Barack Obama cooked up the “Iran deal” design to ensure the development of an Iranian bomb—although not on his watch. Every aspect of that deal favored Iran, and then in quite an unconstitutional fashion he ignored the Senate and reclassified the treaty as an “accord” to avoid the need for ratification.

He brought in Robert Malley, the pro-Iranian, pro-Hamas leftwing journalist to help John Kerry slow down but also ensure an Iranian bomb. Kerry was so desperate to help Iran that even after office he met clandestinely with Iranian government officials in Paris to help undermine U.S. foreign policy under Trump and Pompeo.

When Iranian dissidents hit the streets in the 2009 Green Revolution, Obama had ignored them for days, terrified they might endanger his détente with the terrorist regime.

His apex? Sending cash on pallets by night to Tehran, apparently embarrassed by the Iranians into physically delivering dollars and euros, although careful, he thought, not to disclose that to the American people.

Remember the plan: empower Iran and its crescent of Assad’s Syria, Hezbollah, the Lebanese extremists, and Hamas. They collectively would put constant pressure on the Gulf Monarchies and help surround Israel.

The resulting “creative tension” would force Israel to grant concessions to the radical Palestinians. Under such a regime, the U.S. would then monitor the warp and woof, the Yin and Yang of the Middle East, with no clear friends and no clear enemies—but which in fact would create a de facto U.S. Iranian-American axis that would allow Nobel laureates like Obama now and then to pontificate to all.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/10/17/3-things-americas-national-interest-demands-after-the-heinous-hamas-attack/

Only exacting pressure from the American people and our representatives will ensure the Biden administration advances our interests over those of our enemies.

When the Iran-backed jihadists of Hamas attacked Israel, butchering Jews in numbers equivalent to more than 45,000 Americans, raping them, and taking them hostage, the genocidal Jew-haters sparked a potential global conflagration. By murdering and taking Americans hostage, as Iran and its proxies have been doing since the very start of the mullahs’ theocratic takeover, Hamas also took this fight to us.

That our greatest ally; most pivotal military, intelligence, and technological partner; and the first line of defense in a bellicose, often barbarous, and anti-American region is under existential threat, and that the threat has come for our people, compels an American response.

By the same token, many are rightly skeptical about involving ourselves in any foreign conflict — let alone one in the Middle East, where over the last quarter-century Americans have sacrificed so much in blood and treasure, only to see our nation’s power erode and the threats persist. We are a divided country, thinly stretched, and war-weary.

Given this volatile situation, and Americans’ competing concerns, what does the U.S. national interest demand with respect to the war forced on Israel and us? I propose three things.

1. Defend Americans and Secure the Homeland

This starts with using all elements of national power to pressure Iran and its proxies — including Qatar, where Hamas’ leadership lives in luxury — to force the return of American hostages immediately. The scandal that this has not yet occurred is only enlarged by the fact that the Biden administration’s coddling of the mullahcracy fueled the kidnapping of Americans in the first place.