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FOREIGN POLICY

Biden Is Betraying Freedom-loving Protesters in China and Iran by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19184/biden-is-betraying-freedom-loving-protesters-in

In one demonstration at Beijing’s Tsinghua University earlier this week, students were recorded chanting the slogan “Democracy, rule of law and freedom of speech.”

Yet, rather than supporting the brave protesters defying the tyranny of their Communist masters, the Biden administration appears reluctant to comment on the turmoil. Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have all avoided making any comment on the unrest.

Biden’s reticence about commentating on the disturbances in China may be explained by his recent three hour summit with Xi at the G20 summit in Indonesia, when the two leaders agreed to de-escalate tensions on contentious issues, such as Taiwan, as well as by a growing body of evidence that he appears to have been seriously politically compromised by lavish deals from “CCP-linked Individuals & Companies” to his family.

Such craven conduct typifies the response of American officialdom to the malign rule of the ayatollahs, which has seen an estimated 500 Iranians killed — including women and children — during the regime’s brutal repression of anti-government protests, with another 18,000 protesters taken into detention.

The Biden administration’s unwillingness, moreover, to lend its support to anti-regime protesters in despotic states such as China and Iran is certainly short-sighted, as it encourages regime officials in the belief that they can act with impunity against their opponents.

At a moment when China and Iran, two of the world’s most despotic regimes, are being consumed by waves of protests, the Biden administration’s overly cautious approach is sending entirely the wrong signal to those campaigning for freedom and liberty in their respective countries.

In what is being hailed as the largest anti-government protest movement China has experienced since the unrest in 1989 that culminated with the Tiananmen Square massacre, nearly all of China’s major cities have witnessed large crowds taking to the streets to protest against the Communist Party’s dictatorial rule.

US Funds Arabs Who Want to Destroy Israel by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19183/us-funds-destroy-israel

What is disturbing is that a large portion of this incitement is coming from Arabs whose governments signed peace treaties or other agreements with Israel: Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians.

What is even more disturbing is that the hate against Israel is coming from Arabs who continue to benefit from unconditional US financial aid.

The Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, continues to spearhead the Arab campaign of incitement and delegitimization against Israel. In addition to the incendiary rhetoric, the Palestinian Authority does not hide its vehement opposition to any kind of peace with Israel.

In its latest tirade against Israel, Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction claimed that the Israeli counter-terrorism measures, designed to save the lives of Jews and Arabs alike, are acts of “terrorism and war crimes.” According to the logic of the Palestinian Authority, a terror attack against Israel is legitimate and the perpetrator is a hero and martyr, but an Israeli action to stop terrorism is illegitimate.

This is the same Palestinian Authority that maintains good relations with the Biden administration, which recently decided to upgrade US relations with Abbas and his associates….

[T]he allegation that Israel is committing “war crimes” can be seen as a direct call to Palestinians to engage in violence against Israelis. The “war crimes” libel is also intended for Western audiences as part of the campaign to delegitimize Israel and pave the way for prosecuting its leaders before international courts.

It is worth noting that since April 2021, the US has provided more than half a billion dollars in assistance for the Palestinians.

If the US thinks that showering money and concessions on the Palestinian leaders will lessen the tension, you heard it here first: this approach definitely will not work. All that will happen is that the hostilities will increase so that the bribes will increase. Giving hard, concrete gifts in exchange for soft promises is inevitably doomed from the start.

The reason for referring Zaidan to be investigated was because had announced that he was willing to lecture at an Israeli university. He is also suspected of having expressed support for establishing relations between Egyptian and Israeli intellectuals.

Egypt has enjoyed the benefit of more than $51 billion in US taxpayer-funded military aid since the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in 1979.

Again, it is worth noting that this incitement against Israel is being spread despite the ongoing massive US financial aid to Jordan.

One way to counter this campaign of hate and to encourage peace is for the US to make its aid conditional on ending (or at least reducing) the rhetoric of hate. So far, however, it is clear that the US has no intention of demanding anything in return for its money.

For the time being, then, many Arabs will continue to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the US while continuing actively to seek the destruction of Israel and being financially rewarded for it.

Some Israeli journalists who travelled to Qatar to report on the soccer World Cup were harassed and verbally abused by Arabs from several countries. The journalists were told that Israel has no right to exist and that most Arabs are opposed to any form of normalization with Israelis.

Biden adopts the Palestinian cause The president’s team is intent on undoing everything Trump did — no matter how good it was. Jed Babbin

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/dec/3/biden-adopts-palestinian-cause/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=

President Biden inherited a Middle East that posed the greatest opportunities for stability, if not peace, in almost six decades. Former President Donald Trump’s 2018 revocation of the Obama nuclear weapons deal with Iran and imposition of severe economic sanctions on it backfooted the terrorist state. The Arab nations, terrified by the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, saw Mr. Trump’s Abraham Accords as the best chance to align themselves with the U.S. and Israel, the only regional power able to face up to Iran.

As this column has pointed out before, Mr. Biden and his team are intent on undoing everything Mr. Trump did, no matter how good it was. Mr. Biden’s attempt to negotiate a new version of the 2015 Iran deal has returned the Arab states to skepticism about our reliability as an ally. Mr. Biden’s new embrace of the Palestinians is a clear message to the Arabs that he is backing away from the Abraham Accords.

In September, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was committed to “advancing and expanding” those accords. But actions and statements by himself and Mr. Biden, before and since, demonstrate commitment to the opposite policy.

It must take ingenuity to be as precisely wrong as Mr. Blinken often is. For example, he said in March that the Abraham Accords, through which four Arab states establish ties with Israel, are “not a substitute” for progress on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Biden Administration Turns a Blind Eye to Iranian Regime’s Brutal Crackdown by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19176/iran-brutal-crackdown

The Biden administration appears to be repeating Obama administration’s policy of choosing to be silent in the face of the Iranian regime’s bloodshed, human rights violations, and crackdowns that kill and wound peaceful protesters — and has the same policy regarding brave Chinese protestors as well.

One hospital staff member wrote in a message to CNN about a female detainee: “When she first came in, [the officers] said she was hemorrhaging from her rectum… due to repeated rape. The plainclothes men insisted that the doctor write it as rape prior to arrest….” — CNN Special Report, “How Iran’s security forces use rape to quell protests,” November 21, 2022.

Will the Biden administration ever stop appeasing the regime of Iran, called by the US Department of State “the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism”?

Will the Biden administration ever start standing with Iranian — and Chinese, Brazilian and Venezuelan — men and women asking only for what we purport to care about — liberty and freedom — but who suffer brutality and suppression from their own governments?

When millions of citizens poured into the streets of Iran in June 2009 to protest against the country’s regime, the Obama administration was silent as many people in Iran cried out, “Are you with us, or are you with them [the ruling mullahs]?” Now, the Biden administration appears to be repeating Obama administration’s policy of choosing to be silent in the face of the Iranian regime’s bloodshed, human rights violations, and crackdowns that kill and wound peaceful protesters — and has the same policy regarding brave Chinese protestors as well.

Secretary of State Blinken to Address Anti-Israel Group Along With “Infected With Jew-Hatred” Activist The Biden administration really hates Israel by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/secretary-of-state-blinken-to-address-anti-israel-group-along-with-infected-with-jew-hatred-activist/

One would think this would be a problem. But it’s also routine in the Biden administration which, in recent weeks, elevated Hady Amr, a terrorism supporter, to a top-tier emissary to the PLO and sent the FBI after Israel. This is just one in a series of ugly hate messages, the latest being to dispatch Secretary of State Blinken to address an anti-Israel group set up by George Soros and some Hong Kong money laundering.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be the keynote speaker at leftwing J Street’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., the organization announced on Wednesday.

Blinken on Wednesday announced that he will serve as the headline speaker at the annual conference for J Street, which as recently as last month trashed Netanyahu, accusing the incoming prime minister of “building and bulldozing [his] way to permanent, undemocratic control of the West Bank.” The group also advocates conditioning U.S. aid to Israel, routinely attacks the Jewish state for defending itself against Palestinian terrorism…

The conference kicks off this weekend, with Blinken set to address the confab on Sunday, alongside former Bernie Sanders adviser and longtime Israel critic Matt Duss, Daily Beast writer Wajahat Ali, a cadre of pro-Palestinian activists, and several Democratic members of Congress, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.) and senator-elect Peter Welch (D., Vt.).

Biden’s Venezuela Oil Dealings: Dumb and Dumber Andrew Stuttaford

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bidens-venezuela-oil-dealings-dumb-and-dumber/

The White House has combined disdain for human rights with a degree of geopolitical stupidity impressive even by its own dismal standards.

It’s not exactly news that, so far as the Biden administration is concerned, climate policy trumps both human rights and America’s strategic interests.

Even so, with its latest opening to Venezuela, the White House has combined disdain for human rights with a degree of geopolitical stupidity impressive even by its own dismal standards.

A columnist at the Wall Street Journal explains:

At the United Nations climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the U.S. agreed to pay environmental reparations to developing countries. Days later it emerged that the Biden administration would issue a new license to Chevron to resume operations in joint ventures with Venezuela’s oil company, PdVSA.

The U.S. government thinks you’re a fool, dear reader. And not only because it waited until Americans were en route to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving to let news slip of a deal to increase heavy-crude output from joint ventures controlled by a dictatorship allied with Iran. Or that it expects you to believe that Venezuela is considering a return to free elections in exchange.

Presumably you also haven’t noticed Team Biden’s effort to impede the development of huge reserves of light sweet crude from Guyana, a U.S. ally.

Ukraine: Only Bad and Worse Choices We can no longer afford to ignore the lessons of history. by Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/ukraine-only-bad-and-worse-choices/

The war in Ukraine has seemingly devolved into a vicious stalemate. Ukrainian counter-attacks have pushed Russia back, but a definitive ejection of Russia from all its territorial gains at this point doesn’t seem likely. Commentary has settled on two choices for resolving the crisis: a diplomatic resolution that requires Ukraine to sacrifice territory; or a larger Ukrainian offensive to push Russia back to its pre-2014 borders, supported by more aid and materiel from NATO countries, which in practice really means the U.S. Each choice is fraught with difficulty and danger.

This predicament of only bad and worse choices is one endemic to foreign policy, as military violence always exacts the price of  “exorbitant risk,” as Henry Kissinger put it, of unforeseen and costly consequences. In the case of the Russo-Ukrainian war, that risk includes the possibility of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons, and triggering a wider nuclear engagement that could escalate into an apocalypse.

On the other hand, allowing Russia to keep territories acquired by force creates the moral hazard of endangering global supplies of energy, and encouraging Russia and other aggressive irredentist and revanchist powers like China and Iran to make the same wager that the West does not have morale or even resources to punish their aggression.

The difficult solution for avoiding such dilemmas is to anticipate and forcefully deter an enemy’s ambitions, and all the means he has for realizing them, before they become kinetic. Yet the West for a century has done a poor job at such long-range planning and instituting preemptive policies. Too often we have been like Demosthenes’ Athenians in the early 4th century B.C., who failed to preempt King Phillip II of Macedon’s advance against the southern Greek politically free city-states. Demosthenes chastised the Athenians, saying they “carry on the war with Phillip, exactly as a barbarian boxes . . . when struck, [he] 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.”

Biden Rewards Palestinians for Terrorism, Incitement by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19172/biden-rewards-palestinian-terrorism

The Biden administration’s recent decision to upgrade its relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) is yet another sign of how the US is rewarding the Palestinians, as they are the Iranian regime, for their ongoing toxic incitement and terrorism against Israel.

It is the first time the US has created a position at the State Department that is solely responsible for Palestinian affairs.

The decision coincided with two bomb attacks in Jerusalem, in which a 16-year-old Jewish boy was killed and 14 other people wounded.

The Palestinian Authority, in fact, offers stipends to the terrorists and their families as part of its “Pay-for-Slay” program — which serves as an incentive, especially in an area that is not wealthy, for its citizens to continue their violence.

Several Palestinian groups issued separate statements lauding the Jerusalem bombings as “heroic operations” and calling for the murder of more Jews.

Abbas has never called on the terror groups to halt their attacks.

One would have expected the Biden administration to demand that the Palestinian leadership dismantle the terror groups operating under its auspices in the West Bank.

One would have expected the Biden administration to demand that the Palestinian Authority halt the monthly payments for terrorism to the terrorists and their families.

One would have expected the Biden administration to pressure the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table with Israel and abandon their long-time policy of rejecting all offers without even proposing a counteroffer.

The Biden administration, which resumed financial aid to the Palestinians — without any conditions attached — has chosen to ignore the Palestinian leadership’s role in encouraging violence, hate and efforts to eliminate Israel, and to erect, in its place, yet another Islamic state.

The payments to the terrorists and their families successfully encourage many Palestinians to carry out attacks against Israelis: they know that they or their families will be added to the Palestinian Authority’s payroll.

The Biden administration is dead wrong if it thinks that upgrading its relations with the Palestinian Authority will have a moderating effect on the Palestinians or prompt them to improve their policies toward Israel. On the contrary, the move is likely to increase the Palestinian leaders’ intransigence because now they feel that the US is on their side, notwithstanding their incitement and support for terrorism.

By upgrading US-Palestinian relations, the Biden administration is also sending a message to these Arab countries that it stands behind the Palestinians’ rejection of normalization and peace between the Arabs and Israel.

The Biden administration has anyway done nothing to support the Abraham Accords or try to get more Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, on board. Instead, the Biden administration has done everything in its power to antagonize America’s traditional allies in the Arab world, first and foremost Saudi Arabia. The Biden administration’s policy of appeasement of the mullahs in Iran has already alienated some Arabs, especially the Gulf states.

The Biden administration’s recent decision to upgrade its relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) is yet another sign of how the US is rewarding the Palestinians, as they are the Iranian regime, for their ongoing toxic incitement and terrorism against Israel.

Biden’s Man in Venezuela The U.S. eases sanctions on Maduro in return for political promises.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-man-in-venezuela-nicolas-maduro-sanctions-11669674747?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

In negotiating with oil-producing dictators, the Biden Administration has a consistent strategy: Make concessions in hope the other side will return the favor. It hasn’t worked with Iran, and now the White House is trying with the thugs who run Venezuela. What could go wrong?

The U.S. lifted Trump-era sanctions on Caracas over the weekend, renewing a license for Chevron to pump oil again in its joint ventures with the state-owned oil company PdVSA. The U.S. will also unfreeze $3 billion in Venezuelan assets for what it says will be “humanitarian” needs. In exchange, dictator Nicolás Maduro is promising to negotiate free and fair elections in talks with the opposition in Mexico City.

Venezuela once produced 3.4 million barrels of oil a day and was the richest nation in Latin America. But two decades of socialism have degraded petroleum infrastructure and exiled human capital. PdVSA now pumps fewer than 700,000 barrels a day, and Mr. Maduro relies on narcotics trafficking to pay his military.

Mr. Maduro wants to produce more oil, and the Biden Administration also wants more oil to replace Russian supplies reduced by the Ukraine war. Easing permitting rules on U.S. federal land offends the Democratic Party’s climate donors. So the Administration has gone hat in hand to OPEC and the Saudis and now Venezuela. It’s mind-boggling to see the U.S. go begging to dictators when the U.S. has huge untapped reserves.

Biden’s Dirty Oil Deal With Venezuela Caracas gets a sanctions reprieve while the U.S. vetoes a loan to Guyana, a rare U.S. ally in the region. By Mary Anastasia O’Grady

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-dirty-oil-deal-with-venezuela-free-elections-guyana-environmental-reparations-strategic-value-pdvsa-11669579238?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

At the United Nations climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the U.S. agreed to pay environmental reparations to developing countries. Days later it emerged that the Biden administration would issue a new license to Chevron to resume operations in joint ventures with Venezuela’s oil company, PdVSA.

The U.S. government thinks you’re a fool, dear reader. And not only because it waited until Americans were en route to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving to let news slip of a deal to increase heavy-crude output from joint ventures controlled by a dictatorship allied with Iran. Or that it expects you to believe that Venezuela is considering a return to free elections in exchange.

Presumably you also haven’t noticed Team Biden’s effort to impede the development of huge reserves of light sweet crude from Guyana, a U.S. ally.

Washington policy makers occasionally make miscalculations that help American enemies, undermine development in a poor country, or harm U.S. economic interests. But to nail the trifecta requires a special blend of ideological blindness and incompetence that is mercifully rare. Still, as the administration’s treatment of Guyana demonstrates, it does happen.