The Biden Administration Takes Aim at Israel By Lincoln Brown
A brief bit of biographical background: when I was in high school, I ran with a pretty diverse group of people. Yes, kids, there was a time in America when we were perfectly capable of embracing diversity without an official mandate. While I assure you that I am telling you the truth, that is another story for another time.
I hung out with black kids, Asian kids, Mexican kids, all kinds of kids. In fact, in my circle of friends, I was the only WASP around. There was a decent-sized Jewish population in my part of town for some time. I used to see people walking to temple on Saturday mornings. And I saw the synagogues around the neighborhood, which from time to time would be vandalized with swastikas.
I worked off and on during high school for a catering company that served the local synagogues. I remember one night, someone asked me to get a dish down from a cupboard. They were serving meat that evening and I grabbed a dairy dish. That is a mistake I only made once! Well, you have to learn somehow. Hanging around with Jewish kids, like the black kids, Catholic kids, and Mexican, and Asian kids I ran with, I got to meet their parents and their grandparents. Some of whom had the numbers from the concentration camps tattooed on their arms.
And quite frankly, all of my friends and I shared the same concerns. Namely, where could we get beer, and where were all the girls? Hey, it was high school. Because of those experiences, I have never understood the hatred of Jews. That hatred never was and has never been a part of the equation of life for me.
One would think that in a supposedly-enlightened age, the naked hatred and prejudices of the past would have already been consigned to history. But of course, this is not an enlightened age. People are motivated by stereotypes, rhetoric, and a situation in Israel that they do not fully understand or care to research, protest and vomit talking points in fits of rage. Because rage has become the coin of the realm. It is the fuel for egos and a lubricant of the gears of power.
I once interviewed a man who lived in Israel. He was able to provide me with a fully-orbed understanding of the events that continue to take place in that troubled land. Unfortunately, the most vitriolic members of the left, especially college students, would never take that into account. They could never fathom the idea that the things that they have been fed may, in fact, not be true. And they have no concept of history, which is why they feel compelled to yell “Nazi” to the point that the word has almost been robbed of its true meaning.
With those things in mind, I should not be surprised that the Biden administration has asserted an anti-Israel stance. Perhaps it’s because Netanyahu is back in power, and somehow hectoring Israel is one of the ways the administration thinks it can advance whatever geopolitical goals it has in mind. Perhaps.
According to an article in Front Page Magazine, the Biden administration is condemning Israel. Israel has decided to give $39 million in tax revenue to the victims of terrorism. Meanwhile, Mohammad Shtayyeh, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, has said that if they do not get the money, the result will be a collapse. This is noteworthy since the Palestinian Authority finances terrorists.
Front Page points to a piece in the Washington Free Beacon from May of last year that outlines how the Palestinian Authority has illegally fueled terrorism and its “pay-to-slay” terror program with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States. At the time the article was written, the Biden administration wanted to increase aid to the Palestinian Authority. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told the Free Beacon:
The Biden administration is ideologically committed to elevating the Palestinian government and pouring money into Palestinian territories. They’ve been doing this while they clearly knew that the same Palestinian government was inciting terrorism and using fungible money to reward terrorism against Israelis and Americans. It’s disgraceful and unacceptable.
As to the $39 million in tax money being allocated to the victims of terrorism? Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “It is morally just and important for the war against terror. There is no greater justice than using the funds for the victims of terror.” The Biden administration, whether it is tone-deaf, ignorant, or committed beyond reason to an agenda has taken issue with the idea.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the move was “unilateral” and would escalate tensions. He also issued the warning that the administration would “raise the issue with Israel.” And true to the administration’s word, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan went to Israel to give the country a stern talking to. Israel does not want to give money to people who will use it to commit more acts of violence against its citizens. Only the Biden administration and certain extremists would have a problem with that.
On top of that, the Free Beacon also notes that the administration is also upset over the Temple Mount. The State Department has said that the idea of Israel ending the practice of only allowing Muslims to pray at the site, and permitting Jews to pray there as well is “unacceptable.” A department spokesman stated, “The United States stands firmly for preservation of the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem. Any unilateral actions that depart from the historic status quo is unacceptable.”
Not only are these things clear signs of a growing divide between the United States and a trusted, long-standing ally, but they are also indicators of who is running things in the U.S. They provide proof of the mindset of the administration and the Left that many have suspected all along. Furthermore, Biden the Great Uniter is not content to sow discord and assert his draconian, heavy-handed authority at home. He and his handlers must also do so on the world stage.
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