If Democrats Don’t Want Blame For Appeasing Iran And Hamas, They Should Stop Doing It By: David Harsanyi
Terrorists keep telling us their intentions, and the left keeps pretending they’re bluffing.
There will be much more to say on the heart-wrenching massacre in Israel, the worst attack on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust and one of the most heinous acts of terror in decades.
Right now, though, many on the left seem upset that conservatives are pointing out that the last two Democratic administrations have appeased and funded the terror states responsible for the attack that has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Israelis and at least nine Americans.
There is, most obviously, Joe Biden’s recent $6 billion gift to the mullahs.
“Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people,” a White House National Security Council spokeswoman said. This pathetic and pedantic deflection was repeated endlessly by the president’s defenders. Even a child understands the concept of fungibility. It is true that Hamas didn’t spend that exact funding on their terror proxies. Islamic fascists, like everyone else, make fiscal plans with an eye on future earnings and spending. And the hostage-taking business happens to be booming.
And no, the $6 billion was not “their money” — no more than the roughly $25 billion that the Biden administration let Iran walk away with by ignoring sanctions or the $10 billion it gave Iran via a waiver to Iraq was their money. Sanctions separated the terror state from its money. That’s the entire point.
The only thing more ludicrous than the notion of the mullahs abiding by an agreement with the United States is the idea that their buddies in Qatar, the country overseeing the funds, is going to make them spend their newfound cash on “humanitarian aid.”
Incidentally, do you know where Hamas leadership was hanging out when their squads began kidnapping young children, shooting the elderly, and raping and massacring women? In a hotel room in Qatar, where they were guests of the regime. Do you know who lifted Qatar to be a strategic partner of the United States last year? Clue: It was the same administration that rejoined the antisemitic UN Human Rights Council, which will be chaired by Ali Bahreini, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Let’s also remember that in 2021, one of Biden’s first foreign policy moves was to overturn Trump-era policy and release hundreds of millions of dollars of funding to both Fatah and Hamas. That wasn’t all. In 2022, Biden sent an additional $316 million to the Palestinians. “Moderate” Fatah, which offers stipends to the families of Jew killers, was recently in talks to form a unity government with Hamas. These are the people Israelis are expected to hand a state.
At the time of the first payment, Secretary of State Antony Blinken regurgitated mind-numbing Brookings Institute platitudes about the money offering “critical relief” and fostering “economic development, and supports Israeli-Palestinian understanding, security coordination and stability.”
Not one Palestinian cheering Jewish deaths on the streets of Gaza City is better off today because of our money. Most are now in grave danger. Hamas wants as many casualties as possible. Not one of the Hamas terrorists who has brought destruction on his neighbors and families — many of them likely recruited and trained after the windfall of American cash — was disinclined to slaughter defenseless women and children. Hamas and Iran keep telling us what they’re going to do, and Democrats keep pretending they don’t mean it.
Republicans, like them or not, warned that the money would be diverted to upgrading the terror apparatus. And the administration knew it as well. An internal State Department document also warned that “there is a high risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza.” Indeed. The same way Iran derives indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance.
In any event, the notion that Hamas could unleash this coordinated attack on this scale without Iranian funding and logistical help is ludicrous. Yet even after Hamas publicly thanked the Islamic Republic for arming and funding its operation, Blinken was yammering on about how “in this specific instance, we have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack.”
So often the contemporary Democrat is reflexively defensive of Iran or Hamas. The very first message from the United States government regarding the massacre of hundreds of innocent Jews was from the Office of Palestinian Affairs, urging “all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks,” as if there is any moral or functional equivalence between the terrorists who execute civilians at a music festival and those rushing to save them.
The tweet was deleted, but the sentiment is identical to that taken up by congressional “squad” members and other terror apologists of the growing progressive left. Jews are expected to be murdered and then cease fire. And the same people who pretend that criticizing George Soros is an antisemitic dog whistle have not a word of condemnation for these Hamas apologists.
In the end, these people will all frame Israel as a villain for defending itself. This positioning has been increasingly normalized ever since Barack Obama, fixated on lifting Iran into a regional superpower, turned on Israel. The former president’s people now infest the Biden administration and the State Department.
Just take Biden’s lead negotiator with Iran, Rob Malley. It has always been difficult to tell which side Malley was working for, but we recently learned — well, some of us recently learned, since most of the media refuse to report on the story — that the Iran negotiator had hired at least three advisers who secretly pledged to work for the Islamic State. We have the emails. No one has denied their authenticity. One of these people, Ariane Tabatabai, still works at the Pentagon.
If you’re having trouble comprehending why this is jaw-droppingly problematic, just replace the word “Iran” with “Russia.”
None of it is really that surprising. During the 2008 campaign, Obama pretended to sever ties with Malley when the latter was caught meeting with Hamas — a group that, even then, was designated a terror organization by the Justice Department. When it was safe, Malley and other Obama allies met with Hamas again in 2010, this time with the administration’s blessing. “This administration is different from the previous administration,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmed Yusuf, The Wall Street Journal reported. “We believe Hamas’s message is reaching its destination.”
Obama, of course, rehired Malley, who was one of the architects of the disastrous Iran Deal, helping bring the terror state closer to nuclear weapons. Joe Biden then hired the man who had Hamas’ ear to be the lead envoy in Iran negotiations.
Malley recently lost security clearance for reportedly mishandling classified documents, though we don’t know exactly what he did. What we do know is that he was either a useful idiot, a fellow traveler, or a traitor. Maybe now that his friends have unleashed war in the Middle East some intrepid reporter with access will find out.
Anyway, as expected, The Wall Street Journal now reports that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had indeed helped the Hamas regime. The IRGC devised incursion from land, air, and sea, “refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political faction in Lebanon.”
Iran also gave the final go-ahead for the operation. And there is virtually zero chance that our recent policy decisions did not make it easier for this to happen.
If that bothers you, stop helping them.
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