You have commented 358 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Is the Biden Administration at War with Israel?
2021-12-14
[GatestoneInstitute]
  • "The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic connections with the PA [Palestinian Authority]. If that is all they wanted, they could easily do this by opening a mission in Abu Dis or Ramallah -- where most other countries conduct their relations with the PA... the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem." — Eugene Kontorovitch, professor, George Mason University, Antonin Scalia School of Law, Israel Hayom, December 5, 2021.

  • The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations states that "a consular post may be established in the territory of the receiving State only with that State's consent". In other words, reopening the consulate may be done only with the consent of the Israeli government.

  • All this cannot be dissociated from the general hostile attitude of the Biden administration towards Israel from the moment it came to power.

  • Earlier in March, an internal memo from the US State Department was leaked to The National, a daily newspaper in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The National reported that "The Biden administration memo recommends voicing US principles on achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace under a two-state solution framework 'based on the 1967 lines'".

  • The author of the memo is Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs and Press and Public Diplomacy in the Biden administration, and also in charge of US negotiations with Israel and Palestinian organizations. It is hard to imagine that Amr was chosen as an "honest broker". Amr has a long history of anti-Israeli activities.

  • Amr also is the lead author of a report published by the Brookings Institution in December 2018 in which some proposals are made that could be regarded as disturbing. The report says that the United States must "reconnect" with Hamas, a fundamentalist terrorist group; seek "to create a Palestinian unity government integrating Hamas", and "compel Israel to make major concessions", even if it may "endanger Israel". The report never defines Hamas as a terrorist group, and never says that Hamas's goal is to destroy Israel. The report adds, "should Israel prove uncooperative with American efforts, the United States could signal it will move ahead anyway."

  • The behavior of the Biden administration towards Israel is all the more worrying in that at the same time, it places itself in a weak position regarding negotiations with Iran and seems ready to make a deal with the mullahs' regime at any price, in a resolution that has already been called "less for less", or, worse, "less for more".

  • An Israeli diplomatic service briefing recently announced the Biden administration is ready to accept a deal with Iran that includes only two elements: the removal of all international sanctions still imposed on Iran, and Iran's pledge to stop enriching uranium, which would mean that Iran's nuclear program would remain intact and that Iran's regional destabilization actions, including its threats against Israel, could continue.

  • Two days before the current negotiations began, chief Iranian Army spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said to the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) that Israel's annihilation is his country's "greatest ideal before us and the greatest goal we pursue."

  • Iran claims, truthfully or not, that it already has enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear warhead on short notice. On November 8, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, announced that Iran will only agree to sign a deal with the US if all sanctions are unconditionally lifted. "Either we agree on everything, or we agree on nothing," he said.

  • The US Biden Administration seems.... at a time finally of peace, deliberately acting to destabilize not only Israel's new coalition government but, more importantly, the entire region. The United States seems once again to be igniting, on the heels of its failure in Afghanistan, yet a second, unnecessary disruption, with all the carnage, global damage and pandemonium that will result. Those two historic upheavals will be the legacies of the Biden Administration. If Biden is looking for yet another disaster to notch on his belt, this is it.
Posted by:trailing wife

#8  No, he is at war with the majority of the American people, many of whom did not vote for this poufy perv, and his socialist/communistic, dictatorial, illegal, unconstitutional policies and directives.

His direction vis-a-vis Israel is a subset thereof.
Posted by: Spock Uleager4845   2021-12-14 16:50  

#7  Ref #6: ....that vile and posturing piece of shit tried to threaten Begin -- literally pounding the table in the Senate.

No comment actually. I just wanted to see it in print with emphasis.
Posted by: Besoeker   2021-12-14 15:44  

#6  Biden has been obsessed with Israel since at least 1982. Menachem Begin delivered an epic bitch-slapping to Biden when, as a junior Senator, that vile and posturing piece of shit tried to threaten Begin -- literally pounding the table in the Senate.

JPost's recounting of the famous incident is worth re-posting, both to show the great dignity of Menachem Begin and the squalid and spineless piece of shit that is Joe Biden:

In 1982, prime minister Menachem Begin testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Then-senator Joseph Biden told Begin that US aid to Israel could be cut off if actions in the West Bank did not cease.

Menachem Begin responded, “Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history.

"Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”

Senator Joseph Biden slammed on the dais, clearly angry with what Begin was saying.

Menachem Begin continued, “This desk is designed for writing, not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the US lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do?

"We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three-thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats. Take note: we do not want a single soldier of yours to die for us.”

IOW: F-off, you disgusting excuse for a human being
Posted by: Merrick Ferret   2021-12-14 14:51  

#5  Biden has been anti Israel for a long time. He' is taking up where his boss Obama left off. Trump almost derailed this agenda.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2021-12-14 14:24  

#4  Certainly not a shooting war. That might be embarrassing.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2021-12-14 12:19  

#3  ‘Obsessed’ Biden Obama administration put settlements on par with Iran nukes
Posted by: Skidmark   2021-12-14 10:08  

#2  Well yeah, State Dept Oceania has always been at war with Israel East Asia.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2021-12-14 08:16  

#1  Show of hands: who wants an Iraq-style war with Iran?
Posted by: Clulet Splat5443   2021-12-14 04:55  

00:00