RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://nypost.com/2021/05/28/biden-keeps-rewarding-the-worlds-villains/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=mail_app

President Joe Biden sure has a knack for rewarding the world’s . . . villains.

Take Hamas, which just agreed to a cease-fire for the faceoff it started by launching hundreds, eventually thousands, of rockets at Israeli civilians.

Even before that, Biden dropped the Trump policy of refusing aid to the Palestinian Authority until it ends its support of terrorism, promising $250 million in assistance — in potential violation of the Taylor Force Act, since the PA continues to pay “salaries” to imprisoned terrorists and the survivors of ones who died in the act.

This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised more aid, upping the total to $360 million, theoretically to help rebuild in Gaza. Yet even State admits there’s “no guarantee” Hamas won’t divert the money to, for example, rebuilding its tunnels for terrorists to sneak into Israel.

And standing behind Hamas is Iran, which paid for most of the rockets launched from Gaza (and likely those launched from Lebanon and Syria during the 11-day flareup, as well). But Team Biden continues to try to restore the Obama nuclear deal with Tehran, ending sanctions and so giving the regime countless billions more to spend on sponsoring terror.

This when the deal’s better clauses — the ones that actually slow Iran’s drive to become a nuclear power — expire in just a few years, at which point the accord actually legitimizes Tehran’s nuclear work. And the International Atomic Energy Agency chief says Iran is enriching uranium up to purity levels that “only countries making bombs are reaching.”

Meanwhile, the president has seen fit to schedule a summit this summer with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as well as waive sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will increase Germany’s dependenceon Russian natural gas and remove Ukraine’s ability to stop Russia’s gas sales to Europe the next time he decides to chop off a piece of that country.

Quite a favor for a guy whom Biden pointedly called a “killer” and whose interference (most Democrats believe) put Donald Trump in the White House. And soon after Russia-based hackers cyberattacked a US pipeline and created major gas shortages here — followed by new cyberassaults on federal agencies by hackers linked to Russian intelligence.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/05/blinken_blinkered_biden_secretary_of_state_cant_give_a_clear_answer_on_hamas_financing_from_iran.html

The Biden administration is loaded with people who can’t admit the obvious.

The border is in crisis. Immunization means you can’t catch COVID. COVID originated in a ChiCom lab.  Inflation? What inflation? 

Now it’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s turn. Get a load of this exchange reported by the Daily Caller, describing Blinken’s appearance on ABC’s “The Week”:

The show’s host [former Clinton administration operative George Stephanopoulos] then brought up a May 13 letter by a group of Senate Republicans, in which the lawmakers urged Biden to stop offering sanction relief to Iran, citing its funding of Hamas.

“Do you believe that Iran is funding Hamas? And if they are, should the sanctions stay in place?,” Stephanopoulos asked Blinken.

“You know, George, Iran is engaged in a number of activities, including funding extremist groups, supporting terrorism more broadly, supporting very dangerous proxies that are taking destabilizing actions throughout the Middle East, proliferating weapons,” Blinken responded.

The secretary of state also said that the first priority is to bring Iran back into “compliance with the nuclear agreement, the so-called JCPOA,” and that Former President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure … clearly did not get the result that we all seek.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/biden-leads-from-behind-on-opening-the-u-s-canada-border/

Ottawa continues to ban nonessential travel across its border with its southern neighbor. The closure no longer makes medical sense.

C anada is usually our leading trading partner, and ties between the two countries run deep. But they’ve been severed for the last 14 months by a closure of the U.S.–Canada border. The closure no longer makes medical sense.

The closure of the world’s longest international border has just been extended again. That is unlikely to change soon. Friends, relatives, and business associates have been separated. Americans who own vacation homes in Canada can’t maintain them.

The closure isn’t equal. Canadians are allowed to travel to the United States by air, but Americans aren’t allowed to cross the border for nonessential travel into Canada. A Canadian coming to the U.S. only needs to have had a negative coronavirus test no more than three days before travel, while Canada requires a hotel quarantine for those arriving by air. This is despite the U.S.’s comparable record on vaccinations and its better record on COVID-19 cases.

On the Canadian side, the closure has devastated border towns and destroyed tourism from the U.S., which sent more than 15 million arrivals in 2019.

An anti-American strain infects the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “Canadians are boastful of their tolerance, but the reliable way so many will rush toward the worst possible interpretation of any American event reminds that when it comes to the United States, the dominant Canadian disposition is often closer to a form of unthinking bigotry,” writes Canadian journalist J. J. McCullough in the Washington Post. Indeed, the Canadian historian Frank Underhill once mused that Americans are benevolently ignorant of Canada, while Canadians are malevolently knowledgeable about the United States.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/back-to-irans-nuclear-future-11621806279?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The news in the Middle East these days suddenly seems like a return to circa 2014. Israel and the U.S. are at odds over the Palestinians, America is courting Iran, and the Abraham Accords between Israel and the Arabs get the back of America’s hand.

In other words, President Biden is rejecting the Trump strategy that focused on containing Iran and forging closer ties among America’s traditional allies. Team Biden is returning to the Obama calculation that engaging Iran is the key to reducing America’s footprint in the Middle East, even if it means creating anxiety for Israel and the Gulf Arabs.

***

Nowhere is this clearer than in the hell-bent U.S. attempt to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. A revival of the agreement will reshape the Middle East for years—and not to the benefit of U.S. interests.

Donald Trump left the 2015 deal three years ago and pursued a “maximum-pressure” sanctions campaign. The new economic restrictions targeted Iran’s nuclear malfeasance, as well as its support for terrorism abroad and violation of human rights at home. An isolated Iranian economy contracted 6% in 2018 and 6.8% in 2019, and Tehran responded by stepping up nuclear activity proscribed by the deal.

Rather than seeking a better deal as the Islamic Republic struggles with domestic unrest, Iranian and American diplomats have spent more than six weeks in Vienna negotiating through intermediaries a way back to the nuclear deal. The Biden Administration is sending stronger signals by the week that it will give up most of its leverage over Tehran to get a deal.

By one count, Mr. Trump imposed sanctions on more than 700 Iranian officials and entities—including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s national oil company and central bank. Iran says it wants all sanctions lifted before it will halt its illicit nuclear activities. That would amount to a multibillion dollar payout for reducing its stockpile of increasingly pure uranium. The knowledge Iranian scientists have gained from activating advanced centrifuges can’t be reversed.