As the war between Israel and Hamas enters its 220th day, the Biden White House spent the weekend trying to deal with the blowback they've received from the political center-left and center-right of the country. The majority of the country is horrified that the President has all but declared an arms embargo against the democratic nation whom war was waged on October 7th when Hamas Nazis murdered, kidnapped, raped, and pillaged the Southern Israel landscape.
The commitment to betrayal of Israel began months ago after Joe Biden saw protests on campuses, protests at both his and his vice president's public events, and polling out of Michigan. Keep in mind that, at least publicly for decades, Joe Biden has maintained an ironclad policy of support for Israel. Here are some examples of Joe Biden in the past, both as United States Senator from Delaware and as Barack Obama's vice president.
Going as far back as 1992, then-Senator Biden was very exercised that we in the United States would have the chutzpah to dictate how Israel should deal with its terrorist neighbors.
In 2006, standing next to Gold Bars Bob Menendez during a Senate Democratic press conference, Biden, at least then, demonstrated he knew a just war when he saw one and also understood that no matter how much care you take, there are civilian casualties, but you nevertheless have to win the war.
In 2014, as vice president, Biden addressed the Jewish Federation and made this promise.
In 2019, Candidate Joe Biden told PBS' Judy Woodruff that it was preposterous to think the United States would ever abandon Israel.
A third of the current Democratic Party base are made up of outright antisemites, and they see the issue much differently, and using social media and a handful of elected representatives, have let Joe Biden hear it, and so Biden immediately caved. Here is the President a week ago from Milwaukee.
A day later, the President compounded the error by not only withholding guided weapon systems and artillery from our only true ally in the Middle East but also issuing waivers on arms sale sanctions to Lebanon and Qatar. In case you don't know the type of people the Qataris are, here's the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Jubeir, talking to a Western audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.
Qatar is one of the largest supporters of terrorism in the world. Washington knows, Jerusalem knows, European capitals know, yet everyone allowed Qatar to maneuver itself into power & immunity.
— Hussein Aboubakr Mansour (@HusseinAboubak) May 12, 2024
Watch Adel al-Jubeir, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia explain it (Sep 26, 2018) pic.twitter.com/I998TbBAz5
So our president not only walked away from decades of his policy position towards Israel's existential struggle with fanatical enemies on its border hellbent on the extermination of Jews, he did so with malice by agreeing to specifically allow sales of weapons to sworn enemies of Israel for no other rational reason other than to try to appease antisemites in his own political base, an appeasement policy that thus far has not shown any indication it is succeeding. As for strategy, the only possible logic one can apply to the Biden plan to ultimately arm Israel's enemies they're at war with, an enemy that is currently holding Americans among the hostages, is that Biden wants to even the playing field a bit. He wants Hamas to inflict a little more damage so that Israel is knocked down a few pegs. Only then would Israel be forced into a position of retreating, surrendering to the eventuality that they have to negotiate a two-state solution, and taking out a right-wing Israeli government in the process. If Biden ever had any fundamental understanding of the Middle East in the earlier clips of him above, those brain cells died along with his speech, motor skills, and short, medium, and long-term memory.
By Friday night, the blowback to Biden was severe enough that it affected both the guest list and question sets on the Sunday shows. It also resulted in an exclusive story planted with the New York Times' chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker. Here's just a taste.
Biden privately threatened to rethink his support for the war in a private call with Netanyahu in February, two months before doing so publicly, but the White House didn't put it into the readout of the call to try to avoid a public blowup. https://t.co/zPytMW5glq
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) May 11, 2024
I seem to recall Donald Trump being impeached for allegedly doctoring a phone call readout to Ukraine for political purposes, but I guess we have a different rule set when the subject is an aging, feeble, rotten Democrat desperate to make peace with antisemites in his party's base.
The Times of Israel reported Saturday that part of Joe Biden's new, new Israel policy of sticks and carrots included this little gem.
Biden officials thought it'd be good comms to tee this one up. Obviously the substance is gross, questionable, contradictory, etc. But don't run past how also they thought it was good comms, which suggests some pretty unpleasant things about how far gone they are. pic.twitter.com/fJfVK05Nt1
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 12, 2024
Now I do not believe for a moment that U.S. intelligence has better information on the whereabouts of Yahya Sinwar than the Israelis do, being that they're in the region. But even giving the White House their predicate, what are they signaling, exactly? We know where the bad guy is that can end this war, we've known for a while, and we'll gladly rat him out if you don't finish the job against the terrorists and do us a solid with our antisemite cranks in Michigan.
Later in the day, as the great walk back continued, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew told the Times of Israel that nothing had changed, really, and that it was just one shipment of weapons that was withheld, which begs a couple of questions. If the intention of the White House was always to only withhold one shipment of weapons, what exactly would be the strategery behind that? An attention-getter? And if it was only one shipment, why is Secretary of State Antony Blinken showing up on Face the Nation Sunday threatening more holds on arms if the Rafah campaign continues?
As for regime media, they had their orders - whataboutism and minimizing the impact of what Biden said last Wednesday. Instead of bringing on guests and soliciting their points of view, it was rhetorical combat television on the three alphabet networks. Here's Tom Cotton V. Margaret Brennan on CBS' Face the Nation.
Brennan picked up on the White House's talking points in the Peter Baker story by pushing back, claiming that presidents have withheld aid to Israel before. Cotton wasn't having any of it.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham had to run through the same interference for Biden offered up by Kristen Welker on NBC's Meet the Press.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul had to spar with Martha Raddatz on ABC's This Week.
The New York Times/Siena poll was just released. The boss is working on a piece to look at the details, but what is striking is deep in the crosstabs, support for Israel over Hamas is 41/22, with those not choosing to take a side or supporting them both equal at 18 points each. Biden's policy is not only not working from a strategic standpoint, it's not working on a tactical or political course of action, either. Biden is getting absolutely killed on this issue. The White House publicly floundering, media is having a hard time trying to figure out what position it is they're supposed to defend, and the President is in California at a fundraiser instead of clarifying whatever the policy is not just for today, but this hour.
It's dangerous when a small country that can only be problematic in their local region of the planet has a failed government with a feckless leader. It's a global crisis when that scenario is applied to the most powerful nation on Earth. The overall numbers in swing states are getting worse for Biden, not better, and that's with left-leaning polling outfits. Biden is doing nothing to stop the bleeding. He's making matters worse every day, and there's no indication coherence is anywhere in sight. November can't get here soon enough.
