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FOREIGN POLICY

The Obama and Biden Administrations’ Betrayal of America’s Closest Ally in the Middle East: Israel by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20547/obama-biden-betray-israel

What onlookers see, including terrorists and America’s enemies and adversaries – when they also factor in the open US southern border across which millions of illegal immigrants have recently poured, including 46,000 Chinese, many of whom are military-aged men possibly “building an army from within” – is that the Biden administration is perfectly content to welcome and support terrorists.

The White House actions have bolstered America’s adversaries and pretty much extinguished America’s credibility as an ally. The universal “optics” are that if America will throw its closest ally, Israel, under the bus, what chance has anyone else got?

Many people in Israel call to “Bring the Hostages Home.” The request is wrong, because it is addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been doing his best to do free the hostages, while preventing Hamas ever to be able to strike Israel again – and standing up to US pressure, as he did during the fraudulent Iran nuclear deal. But the hostages are not his to bring home. The cry should be: “Release the Hostages” — addressed, as well as calls for a ceasefire — to the people who are holding them: Hamas, Qatar and Iran.

The US administration would clearly like to replace Netanyahu with new US-handpicked prime minister who would do whatever they tell him to, and appears to have launched a plan to do just that, using Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as its mouthpiece. The Israelis must not fall for it. If they want to preserve Israel, preserve Netanyahu.

The Palestinian state, even if it were officially “demilitarized,” would, of course, be free to enter into military alliances with any countries it wished — perhaps Russia, China, Iran, North Korea?

Israel’s new US puppet prime minister would presumably be happy to have Qatar – a country that has supported virtually every Islamic terrorist group — including Hamas, ISIS, Hizballah, the Taliban, the al Nusra Front and Al Shabaab — “operate” the Gaza pier now being built to bring “humanitarian aid” and Heaven knows what else into Gaza. Above all, of course, the new puppet would presumably agree to Iran being armed to the teeth with nuclear bombs.

The Biden administration would do far better, especially for November 5, instead of aligning itself with the terrorist groups and the countries that support them — such as Hamas, Qatar and Iran — to align itself with those in the Free World, fighting for freedom, human rights and civilization.

The White House actions have bolstered America’s adversaries and pretty much extinguished America’s credibility as an ally. The universal “optics” are that if America will throw its closest ally, Israel, under the bus, what chance has anyone else got?

BIDEN DEMANDS THE UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER OF ISRAEL ERIC LEVINE

No link….private correspondence

In January 1943, FDR and Winston Churchill issued the Casablanca Declaration, stating that the Allies’ goal was the “unconditional surrender” of the Axis powers. It was a statement of moral clarity and resolve for the ages.

In sharp contrast, earlier this week, President Biden effectively demanded Israel’s “unconditional surrender.”

After the tragic killing of seven aid workers for the World Central Kitchen by the Israel Defense Forces, Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanded that Israel agree to an “immediate ceasefire.” That ceasefire was not conditioned on the release of the hostages still held by Hamas (at least five of whom are Americans), nor the surrender or even a reciprocal ceasefire by the terrorist organization that launched the October 7 attack. To ensure there were no misunderstandings as to what the President meant, Secretary of State Antony Blinken followed up by saying: “If we don’t see the changes [in Israel’s conduct in Gaza] that we need to see, there will be changes in our own policy…[.]”

Biden’s ultimatum to Israel demonstrates that he fails to possess the cognitive ability, judgment, or moral compass to lead the United States or the free world. It is the best evidence to date as to why the new Axis powers of China, Russia, and Iran are ascendant, and America is in retreat. In addition, Biden’s irresponsible and misguided statement does not just betray Israel in its struggle for survival and on behalf of Western Civilization, it has made the world more dangerous for Jews everywhere, including in the United States.

While tragic, the death of the World Central Kitchen workers was the result of a mistake. Israel immediately initiated an investigation into how such a tragedy could have occurred. The investigation’s results were immediately made public. The government immediately took full responsibility for the killings, identified those responsible, and meted out appropriate punishment.

Biden Lies To America, Tells the Truth To China by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20524/biden-lies-china

When the spy balloon was first detected, the initial response by the Biden administration had been to suppress news about it and then to deny that the administration had been aware of it…. But when a Montana resident’s footage of the spy balloon went viral, the Biden cover-up fell apart.

…[T]he Biden administration fully committed to covering up “difficult subjects”… One of those difficult subjects was China’s spy base in Cuba. After the Wall Street Journal reported that China had agreed to pay Cuba billions to build a spy base, the Biden administration denied it.

And then it had to admit it anyway.

The cover-ups, in the name of anti-racism or diplomacy, allowed the Communist regime a clear field for spying on the United States while suppressing the story, so Biden wouldn’t get blamed.

By the fall of last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Chinese infiltrators trying to access American military bases “as many as 100 times in recent years”.

[T]here is every reason to believe that the situation may be worse than we realize.

Governments normally conceal information about enemy activities so as not to tip off foreign spies, but the Biden administration’s consistent pattern has been to hide the information from Americans rather than from Russia and China… China can trust the White House, but we can’t.

“When I was director of intelligence for the Indo-Pacific Command, for example, I watched as numerous requests to publicize Chinese malign activities were disapproved by Washington,” US Navy Rear Admiral Mike Studeman recently warned.

Biden Administration’s Terrorist Pier in Gaza: The Trojan Horse For Terrorists to Take Over the Region by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20520/gaza-pier-qatar

Placing Qatar — rather than, say, the United Arab Emirates — in charge of the Gaza pier entrenches a terrorist-sponsoring Trojan Horse at Hamas’s beck and call. Qatar will use the pier to supply Hamas with more money and more powerful weapons. The port will also undoubtedly be used to smuggle Islamist jihadis from all around the world into the Gaza Strip to launch more massacres against Israelis.

Qatar has a long history of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist offshoots, but also Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah and the Al Nusra Front.

If Qatar really wants an end to the Israel-Hamas war, all it has to do is order its Hamas puppets immediately and unconditionally to release all the Israelis kidnapped by Hamas terrorists October 7 and held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal, who are based in Doha, would not be able to refuse. Qatar is their lifeline.

The Qataris, however, are evidently in no rush to pressure Hamas: Qatar is clearly facing no pressure from the Biden administration. On the contrary, the Biden administration just agreed to extended Qatar’s ability to host America’s Al-Udeid Air Base, the headquarters of CENTCOM, for another ten years – for nothing in return.

“Congress must weigh in and cancel the 10-year extension of the military base in Qatar… The U.S. should seize assets tied to individuals and entities in Qatar for supporting terrorist groups, especially those tied to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism…. It’s time to put Doha on notice that they are jeopardizing their relationship with the U.S. by providing material support to designated terrorist groups. Qatar is clearly acting like a state sponsor of terror and should not be allowed to use the U.S. banking system to bypass existing, though not enforced, sanctions on funding Iran and its terrorist proxies.” — Former US intelligence officer Michael Pregent, The Hill, January 22, 2024.

The US should definitely start withdrawing from Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

Thanks to the Biden administration — which is also pressuring Israel not to eliminate the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah — Qatar and its Hamas pawns are having the last laugh. In light of the Biden administration’s decision to turn itself into an ally of terrorists and their supporters, such as Hamas and Qatar – instead of strengthening US relations with Israel and its allies in the Gulf who are fighting terrorism — it is a very long last laugh, indeed.

Biden Administration’s Jitterbug with Iran’s Regime When Crime Does Pay – Spectacularly by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20515/biden-administration-jitterbug-iran

The recent decision to shower Iran, the “leading state sponsor of global terrorism,” with yet another $10 billion in sanctions waivers, “freeing up $10 billion elsewhere to spend on terrorism, missiles, nuclear weapons and the repression of Iranian women,” defies logic and morality.

Despite galactic evidence of Iran’s atrocities — such as, since October 2023, more than 165 attacks by its proxies on American assets, which include the murder of three US service members; its support for terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis; its brutal crackdown on dissent at home, and its massively destabilizing actions across the Middle East — the Biden administration continues to court Iran and further enrich its regime, which thrives on chaos and bloodshed, especially against the country throwing the money at them.

“The FBI believes Iran is capable of a variety of attack options against US targets, to include cyber operations intended to sabotage public and private infrastructure …. [I]t’s clear the Iranians are determined to carry out attacks in the United States….” — Robert Wells, assistant director of the Counterterrorism Division at the FBI, March 20, 2024.

“The mullahs give up nothing but get a windfall nonetheless… For [Senate Majority leader Chuck] Schumer, apparently, regime change in Israel is the national-security priority — not stopping billions of dollars to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.” — Former National Security Council official Richard Goldberg, New York Post, March 14, 2024.

Former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s assertion that the Biden administration’s actions has already enriched Iran by “closer to $60 billion” is nothing short of chilling. This staggering sum undoubtedly enabled Iran to further enrich its uranium to near weapons-grade level; to help Hamas attack Israel, and to torment its own people.

It is high time for the Biden administration to send a clear and unequivocal message to Iran, China, Russia and North Korea that the days of impunity are over.

Blinken’s Rafah blunder: Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/blinkens-rafah-blunder/

In a press conference on Thursday in Cairo, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated his opposition to an Israeli ground operation in Rafah, saying that such a move would be a “mistake.”

An invasion into the southern Gaza city, he stated, was “unnecessary” to achieving the goal of defeating Hamas. This attitude, which the Biden administration has been expressing with increasing fervor, runs counter to Israeli assessments.

It has become the key bone of contention between Washington and Jerusalem since the start of the Oct. 7 war, spurred by a massacre of Jews that hadn’t been seen since the Holocaust.

Other disagreements—surrounding the use of Israeli force, civilian Palestinian casualties and plans for “the day after”—have been mild in comparison. Or at least they’ve been treated by Israel as arguments that can be addressed through a presentation of the facts.

This hasn’t been simply a tactical ploy to avert discord. On the contrary, the justice of destroying the genocidal terrorist organization that controls territory along Israel’s southern border and vows to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 “again and again and again” is irrefutable.

Anyone disputing Israel’s duty to eradicate Hamas—for the survival of the Jewish state, as well as for the benefit of the region and the world—is on the wrong side of history. Period.

Furthermore, Israel has the data to support the extreme measures it employs to avoid non-combatant deaths in Gaza. It has proof of the huge quantities of humanitarian aid entering the Strip. It also has evidence of its efforts to prevent Hamas from stealing the goods.

America In Retreat: A Record 11 Embassies Evacuated Under Biden

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/03/21/american-in-retreat-a-record-11-embassies-have-been-evacuated-under-biden/

With the evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Haiti last week, President Joe Biden extended his historic lead for fleeing embassies – a dubious distinction once held by Barack Obama.

That’s according to the Daily Signal, which dug into the records and found that as the world has slipped into chaos over the past three years, the U.S. has been forced to withdraw from embassy after embassy.

“Since Biden took office in January 2021, his State Department has partially or fully evacuated 11 U.S. embassies via what are known as authorized or ordered departure directives,” writes Tony Kinnett. The number is actually 14 if you count the fact that this is the fourth time Biden has ordered Americans to bolt from the U.S. embassy in Haiti.

Biden is now well ahead of Obama, who ran from eight embassies over his eight years in office (which included those in Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and South Sudan). During Donald Trump’s term, only three embassies were evacuated, Kinnett reports.

The Biden embassy evacuation timeline:

Burma, March 2021
Chad, April 2021
Afghanistan, July 2021
Ethiopia, November 2021
Ukraine, February 2022
Belarus, February 2022
Russia, February 2022
Nigeria, October 2022
Sudan, April 2023
Niger, August 2023
Haiti, November 2021, December 2022, July 2023, March 2024

Biden Regime Actively Seeking to Overthrow Israeli Government to Save Hamas by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20490/biden-regime-actively-seeking-to-overthrow

One Israeli expert frequently consulted by American officials says, “I have been asked by a serious administration figure what it is that will force the Netanyahu coalition to collapse. They were interested in the mechanics, what can we demand which will collapse his coalition.”

[O]ur intelligence apparatus is rotted through with Islamic terror supporters and sympathizers.

The 2024 ODNI treats Netanyahu like a leader to be overthrown and suggests that this would be a good outcome. It’s a hostile act from a hostile administration that is doing everything it can to save Islamic terrorists.

Since Oct 7, the Biden administration pivoted from backing Israel’s effort to remove Hamas, to backing the effort by Hamas allies from Dearborn to Qatar to overthrow the Israeli government in order to save Hamas.

One Israeli expert frequently consulted by American officials says, “I have been asked by a serious administration figure what it is that will force the Netanyahu coalition to collapse. They were interested in the mechanics, what can we demand which will collapse his coalition.”

“What can we demand which will collapse his coalition” is revealing as hell. The Obama administration was infamous for trying to use pressure on Israel to create splits inside its coalition government. Biden’s people are trying to do the same thing.

The report comes from Noga Tarnopolsky and calling her biased and hostile is an understatement, but this stuff is now showing up in intelligence reports.

The 2024 ODNI claims that, “Netanyahu’s viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultraorthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy. Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. A different, more moderate government is a possibility.”

Kamala Harris explains it all out for you on Gaza Monica Showalter

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/03/kamala_harris_explains_it_all_out_for_you_on_gaza.html

Foreign policy ace Kamala Harris is back in the saddle, explaining to all us rube voters what Gaza is all about.

Kamala Harris on the war in Gaza: “This subject is one that, sadly I say, has — there’s an appetite a lot of people have for it to be binary, as though it’s one thing or the other, when in fact many things are true at the same time.”

Which is one heck of a word salad.

Obviously, she’s feeling the heat from the Hamas-cheering leftists of academia who are seen as vital to Democrats in their re-election bid, and the other heat from the pro-Israel wing of the Democrat party, which is an increasingly smaller segment but just as important to winning independents. So, if I am deciphering the garble correctly, she would like us to know that many things can be true at the same time.

That ought to get them all onboard the Democrat train.

It’s wretched, though.

This is supposed to be America’s foreign policy leader speaking and she obviously doesn’t know a thing about what she’s talking about. She doesn’t know which side she’s on and she lacks the capacity to form even an opinion on it, not being “a good study” as critics on the inside have alleged in the past.

So, here she is, presenting us with another word salad — on a deadly serious issue — and sending a message to our enemies and Israel’s enemies, that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

You thought Joe’s senility was a problem creating a lot of foreign policy failures? Try the stupid person’s take on it, driven by electoral politics alone, and it only gets worse.

Munich Redux Why, exactly, would the Mullahs change their behavior? by Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/munich-redux/

Lost in the spectacle of the high decibel State of the Union speech, and the quadrennial carnival of a presidential election, there was some dangerous news last week that was mostly ignored. Iran, for 46 years a sworn enemy of the U.S. whose citizens it has murdered and interests thwarted with impunity, now possesses all the components for quickly assembling several nuclear bombs.

This development could mark the return of the 1939 diplomatic disaster of England’s and France’s abandonment of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany, which lit the fuse of the most destructive war in history.

Often considered a mere foreign policy cliché for feckless diplomacy, Munich’s lessons are much more complex, widespread, and consequential than a parable about “a timorous, bumbling, and naïve old gentleman, waving an umbrella as a signal of cringing subservience to a bully,” as historian Telford Taylor described the caricature of England’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

Rather, Munich is the premier historical paradigm for illusory ideals about foreign policy and diplomatic engagement that rationalize ideological prejudices, partisan interests, and received institutional wisdom––in our times, all at the cost of the exorbitant risk of a global conflict with nuclear-armed autocratic enemies.

And that threat has just intensified with the news about Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The Wall Street Journal last week reported “troubling news” from Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency: “The Agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to [Iran’s] production and inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate.”

Moreover, the Journal continues, the “Institute for Science and International Security, which has followed Iran’s program for years, says Iran can enrich enough uranium for 13 nuclear weapons, seven in the first month of a breakout. ‘Iran is able to produce more weapon-grade uranium (WGU) and at a faster rate since the IAEA’s last report in November 2023,’ it finds.”