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FOREIGN POLICY

Biden Administration Sent Over $2,000,000,000 to ‘Palestinians’ Since Oct. 7 Daniel Greenfield

https://jihadwatch.org/2024/11/biden-administration-sent-over-2000000000-to-palestinians-since-oct-7?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=biden-administration-sent-over-2000000000-to-palestinians-since-oct-7

Kill over 1,000 people in one of the worst Islamic terrorist attacks in modern history and what do you get?

Over $2 billion and counting. Or around $2 million for every person they murdered on Oct 7.

USAID, which has been repeatedly accused of complicity in funding Islamic terrorism around the world just bragged that it handed out another $230 million while boasting of its total of $2.1 billion in ‘aid’ since Oct 7.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing $230 million in additional funding to support economic recovery and development programs in the West Bank and Gaza. This significant investment highlights USAID’s commitment to improving the lives of individuals and communities in the region amidst challenging conditions. Since 2021, USAID/West Bank and Gaza has invested over $600 million in economic support funding of the Palestinian people, in addition to the over $2.1 billion in humanitarian assistance since October 7, 2023.

The Biden-Harris administration has made America one of the world’s leading funders of Islamic terrorism. Take away a lot of our ‘humanitarian aid’ and a lot of the terrorism will go with it.

Can Trump End Ukraine’s ‘Endless War?’ There are lots of parties who want, and lots of incentives for, an end to our 21st-century Verdun. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2024/11/18/can-trump-end-ukraines-endless-war/

Trump was elected in part on promises to avoid “endless wars” of the sort that cost American blood and treasure in Afghanistan and Iraq but without resulting in strategic advantage or civilized calm.

Yet as a Jacksonian, Trump also restored American deterrence through punitive strikes against ISIS and terrorist thugs like Baghdadi and Soleimani—without being bogged down in costly follow-ups. During the last four administrations, Putin stayed within his borders only during the Trump four years.

But upon entering office, Trump will likely still be faced with something far more challenging as he confronts what has become the greatest European killing field since World War II—the cauldron on the Ukrainian border that has likely already cost 1-1.5 million combined dead, wounded, and missing Ukrainian and Russian soldiers and civilians.

There is no end in sight after three years of escalating violence. But there are increasing worries that strategically logical and morally defensible—but geopolitically dangerous—Ukrainian strikes on the Russian interior will nonetheless escalate and lead to a wider war among the world’s nuclear powers.

Many on the right wish for Trump to immediately cut off all aid to Ukraine for what they feel is an unwinnable war, even if that abrupt cessation would end any leverage with which to force Putin to negotiate.

They claim the war was instigated by a globalist left, serving as a proxy conflict waged to ruin Russia at the cost of Ukrainian soldiers. They see it orchestrated by a now non-democratic Ukrainian government, lacking elections, a free press, or opposition parties, led by an ungracious and corrupt Zelensky cadre that has allied with the American left in an election year.

Trump II: Challenges Ahead by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21119/trump-challenges

The real question, therefore, is what could Trump II do to restore America’s prestige across the globe and reassert itself as the indispensable power that it still is? The answer is: plenty.

In fact, Trump, even if he doesn’t do anything, will repair some of the damage that the past three administrations shaped by Barack Obama have done to US standing and credibility as a world power.

In those 12 years of Obama and Biden, US leaders went around the world to apologize for imaginary injustices done by Americans to various segments of mankind, mused about “leading from behind” and presented the United States as a room service that doesn’t even ask you to sign the bill let alone offer a tip.

Under the three Obama administrations, with Trump I as a brief interlude, the US saw Russia attack and occupy parts of Georgia and annex Crimea and eventually invade Ukraine, and the US did nothing.

Obama drew a red line against the use of chemical weapons to kill Syrian people, but when Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia, did so, went into purdah.

To divert attention from the Middle East, Obama conjured the “pivot to Asia” slogan, while letting China grab a bigger chunk of the world, including US markets, in the name of free trade.

Also remember that regardless of what experts or even Trump himself say, the 47th president is likely to be as unpredictable as the 45th one, a feature that helped him in foreign policy last time and may do so again.

What will Donald Trump’s foreign policy look like in his second term?

This is the question currently making the buzz in the commentariat around the world.

Western European pundits claim that Trump will abandon the Ukrainian lamb to the Russian wolf or, at least, force the European shepherd to foot the bill for keeping it half alive.

Trump Would Be Wise To Deliver Regime Change in Iran by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21120/trump-iran-regime-change

The October 7, 2023 attacks carried out against Israel by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists…. was the direct result of Tehran’s ability to fund the terrorist movement to the tune of $100 million a year, an operation that would not have been possible without Biden’s lenient attitude towards the ayatollahs.

Trump may come to see as well that, unfortunately, due to the deep-seated commitment of Iran’s regime in exporting its brand of Islam, as enshrined in its constitution, there can be no real long-term peace in the Middle East without regime change, especially if Iran has nuclear weapons — not to mention the global arms race that would follow such an event.

Not only would many of Iran’s neighbours be relieved, but its captive citizens could then be free to choose leaders better aligned with their aspirations. A liberated Iran might even join the Abraham Accords….

Now that Donald Trump has secured his remarkable victory in the US presidential election, supporting regime change in Iran could soon emerge as one of his new administration’s top priorities after he takes office in January.

Trump’s no-nonsense approach to confronting the ayatollahs’ malign influence in the region was one of the defining characteristics during his first term in the White House.

One of his more laudable foreign policy initiatives was to withdraw from the flawed nuclear deal with Iran agreed by former President Barack Obama in 2015.

10 things Trump can do to clean up Biden’s messes abroad by Douglas Murray

https://nypost.com/2024/11/07/opinion/10-things-trump-can-do-to-clean-up-bidens-messes-abroad/

Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday was so overwhelming that even his opponents seem to have gone quiet for a bit. Relatively speaking.

No doubt they will soon start constructing a whole new set of roadblocks to throw in his way. But there is no doubt that the president-elect now has an opportunity to reshape not just America, but the world.

The free world is desperately in need of strong leadership. And the un-free world is in desperate need of containment.

Here are 10 things the Trump administration could do to clean up the Biden-Harris chaos, and bring the peace that Trump-Vance promised in the campaign:

Ukraine

Trump has promised to negotiate a settlement to the war in Ukraine. It is inevitable at this stage that this will include some land compromises for the Ukrainians.

Some of us wish that wasn’t so. But Russia needs a way out, and Ukraine needs to not lose any more of its younger generation.

The quid pro quo should be that Trump makes it clear to Russia’s Vladimir Putin that there’ll be no more invasions on his watch.

And no more actual Russian election interference in neighboring countries like Georgia and Moldova.

America’s Enemies Working Together Is the Biden-Harris Foreign-Policy Legacy By Pat Fallon

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/11/americas-enemies-working-together-is-the-biden-harris-foreign-policy-legacy/

Our adversaries such as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are working closer together than ever before and appear far more willing to undertake acts of aggression.

In February 2021, after less than a month at the helm in Washington, D.C., the Biden-Harris State Department revoked the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation for Ansrallah, more commonly known as the Houthis, a belligerent, armed militant group operating out of Yemen. The message was clear: Even if your group is defined by targeting innocent people, the Biden-Harris White House will bestow the same legitimacy upon you as any nation-state by granting you a seat at the negotiating table.

Nearly four years later, we have intelligence reporting that indicates that Russia is providing Houthi terrorists with real-time targeting data to strike commercial ships in the Red Sea. A major U.S. adversary is providing known terrorists with intelligence to wreak havoc upon international commerce — what went wrong?

Much has transpired since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, and any objective observer will note that the world is far less safe — with the potential of a great-power conflict at the highest point since 1939. Our adversaries such as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are working closer together than ever before and appear far more willing to undertake acts of aggression.

Many point to the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 as the catalyst for how the Biden-Harris foreign-policy agenda would play out. The chaotic withdrawal, which culminated in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members, was the result of reckless planning and a refusal to listen to the concerns of the secretary of defense, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and the U.S. Central Command commander, who we now know pleaded with Biden and Harris to reverse course. By pursuing their naked political objective of leaving Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Biden-Harris White House stranded American citizens and Afghan allies on the ground. Russia and China, no doubt, took note of the incompetence displayed by U.S. leaders.

Biden’s Hollow Warnings to China Are Leading to War by Gordon G. Chang

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21036/biden-hollow-warnings-to-china

The world’s two most dangerous states, Xi Jinping’s People’s Republic of China and Vladimir Putin’s Russian Federation, have been growing closer in part, it seems, because they see there is no cost to ignoring the warnings of the Biden administration.

“Mr. Biden can either enforce his red line through sanctions or other means, or he can signal a collapse of American resolve by applying merely symbolic penalties. Beijing and its strategic partners in Moscow, Tehran, Pyongyang, and Caracas would surely interpret half-hearted enforcement as a green light to deepen their campaign of global chaos. Mr. Xi sees a historic opportunity here to undermine the West.” – Matt Pottinger, wsj.com, April 30, 2024

Since then, the Biden administration has done little but impose meaningless sanctions on Chinese parties, such as the ones announced on October 17 on two companies.

The American inaction today brings to mind President Obama’s infamous red-line failure in Syria in 2013. We should not be surprised: Biden, then vice president, was Obama’s foreign policy advisor.

Britain and France [last century] issued a series of threatening words to Berlin. German leaders, from the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936 to the eve of the invasion of Poland in late summer 1939, ignored them.

“Warnings were crafted in such a way so they could not be enforced and understood as not intended to be enforced.” — Arthur Waldron, retired Lauder Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, to Gatestone Institute, October 17, 2024.

China’s aggressive leader apparently believes he can with impunity do just about anything.

Hollow warnings lead to war.

“These are not dual-use capabilities,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters in Brussels on September 10, describing China’s aid to Russia for use against Ukraine. “These are component pieces of a very substantial effort on the part of China to help sustain, build, and diversify various elements of the Russian war machine.”

The Beijing-Moscow cooperation, Campbell argued, is “not a tactical alliance.” It is, instead, “a fundamental alignment.” The Chinese-Russian hook-up was “orchestrated at the highest levels” in the two capitals, he said.

Biden-Harris Threat against Israel Is a Moral Disgrace The Editors of National Review

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/10/biden-harris-threat-against-israel-is-a-moral-disgrace/

Israel’s ongoing war against Iran and its terrorist proxies is a political problem for Democrats. While most Americans sympathize with Israel, a segment of the Democratic Party is harshly critical of the U.S. ally and, in some cases, openly pro-Hamas. This contingent is loud and heavily concentrated in the swing state of Michigan. Ever since the October 7 attacks, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have sought to thread this needle by talking about their commitment to Israel’s defense while routinely haranguing Israel for its conduct of the war and pressuring the nation to operate with more restraint.

This tension has come into full view over the past week.

On the one hand, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the U.S. would be sending an advanced anti-missile system to Israel, along with troops to operate it, to bolster the defense against Iran. On the other hand, Biden has been pressuring Israel into a more limited response to Iran’s second ballistic-missile attack in five months, including publicly opposing an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

In the midst of this, Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a joint letter to Israeli officials — promptly released publicly — chastising Israel for not ensuring enough humanitarian aid in Gaza and warning that if Israel does not meet the administration’s demands within 30 days, the U.S. could suspend aid to Israel. Conveniently, this would place the potential aid-suspension date a week after the November 5 election.

In other words, Harris can spend the closing weeks of the presidential election arguing to the pro-Hamas caucus that the administration has put Israel on notice while still claiming to supporters of Israel that no decision has been made to suspend aid.

The substance of the letter places the blame for insufficient aid getting into the hands of Gazans on Israel, claiming that Israelis are creating too many barriers to aid entering the strip. Yet Israel must vet aid going in because Hamas has historically used aid deliveries to smuggle in weapons. Also, Hamas inhibits the flow of aid within Gaza, looting delivery trucks and hoarding food and supplies for their own fighters.

Biden-Harris Officials Leak Every Piece of Info They Have About Israeli Attack on Iran Why would they do that? by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-harris-officials-leak-every-piece-of-info-they-have-about-israeli-attack-on-iran/

The Israelis informed the Biden-Harris admin about the Pagergeddon attack and the attack on Hezbollah’s leader once both were underway.

Why did they do that?

Here’s the latest in a series of anonymous leaked stories about Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran.

U.S. officials believe Israel has narrowed down what they will target in their response to Iran’s attack, which these officials describe as Iranian military and energy infrastructure.

There is no indication that Israel will target nuclear facilities or carry out assassinations, but U.S. officials stressed that the Israelis have not made a final decision about how and when to act.

The U.S. does not know when Israel’s response could come but officials said the Israeli military is poised and ready to go at any time once the order is given.

Israel has shared more information with the U.S. about the retaliation, the officials said, but they withheld many details out of operational security concerns.

What could those ‘concerns’ possibly be? Can’t imagine.

The same folks hounding Trump over classified documents leak constantly and they do so deliberately. The goal is to sabotage any Israeli operation much the way Obama’s people sabotaged a planned Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program by leaking the information.

Israeli operational security for taking out terrorists now involves hiding information from the White House.

We’ve become the weak link because the administration is stuffed with terrorist sympathizers.

The China Crisis? For years, investors profited from China despite its corruption, but they are now acknowledging the increasing risks as the country moves away from capitalism. By Stephen Soukup

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/12/the-china-crisis/

It is largely axiomatic in the investment world that “to be early is to be wrong.” It doesn’t matter what you know, in other words, or how right you may be in understanding conditions or a developing situation. If the rest of the world isn’t ready to accept your case, if it isn’t “there” yet, then you won’t make any money. Indeed, you may lose quite a bit as you wait for everyone else to catch up to you.

Under this specific investment-driven definition, then, I have been wrong about China for the last 25 years or so—repeatedly and spectacularly wrong.

My boss and I once got ourselves into scalding hot water with our employer at a large financial services firm for questioning the sanity and propriety of the hottest investment deal on Wall Street, the initial public offering of PetroChina, the listed arm of the Chinese National Petroleum Company. I once left a job—at a different large financial service firm—in part because the firm’s investment bankers were censoring what we could and could not say about the Chinese government. For some reason, they found it difficult to cut deals with the Butchers of Beijing when their own firm’s analysts were back stateside, calling their partners “the Butchers of Beijing.” Funny how that works.

In a real, fundamental, political, and moral sense, I was right about China. I was right that the CCP cannot be trusted, that it is a brutal, neo-fascist regime. I was right that the defenders of the “global order” had it backward, that allowing China to play in the free world’s sandbox would not make its government freer and more amenable to classical economics and politics. All it would do would befoul the sandbox, make it grotesque and largely unusable. I was right that the CCP would lie, cheat, and steal to advance its agenda and achieve its goals. In short, I was right about everything—everything that is, except the short-term investment possibilities.