Biden’s betrayal of Israel only means MORE civilians will die: MARK DUBOWITZ explains how Desperate Joe’s latest blunder ‘endorses’ one of the terrorists’s most repulsive tactics
Ten years ago, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates famously declared that Joe Biden “has been wrong on almost every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past forty years.”
Secretary Gates – you will never believe what Joe has done now.
President Biden has committed perhaps his most incompetent policy blunder yet (at least since his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan).
In an interview Wednesday, Biden threatened to block the transfer of American weapons to Israel if the Jewish state launched a military operation against Hamas’s last remaining stronghold in southern Gaza.
His ultimatum comes nearly seven months to the day of the October 7 massacre – and after the White House admitted they had already secretly cut off the supply of bunker-busting bombs that Israel needs to root out terrorists in hiding in deeply buried underground tunnels.
It is believed that the mastermind behind the Hamas massacre, Yahya Sinwar, is hiding in these tunnels – cynically dug under the feet of some 1.3 million Palestinians.
It is not just layers of concrete, dirt and sand that protect these terrorists from the Israeli army. These monsters hide among women and children.
But Biden blames Israel.
It is not just layers of concrete, dirt and sand that protect these terrorists from the Israeli army. These monsters hide among women and children. (Above) Palestinian children in Central Gaza on May 11
It is believed that the mastermind of the Hamas massacre, Yahya Sinwar (above), is hiding in these tunnels – cynically dug under the feet of some 1.3 million Palestinians.
In an interview Wednesday, Biden threatened to block the transfer of American weapons to Israel if the Jewish state launched a military operation against Hamas’s last remaining stronghold in southern Gaza.
“As a result, civilians in Gaza have been killed [U.S.] bombs,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “…it’s just wrong.”
Consider the impact of this new Biden doctrine: it is nothing less than an endorsement of Hamas’ use of human shields.
The President’s message to terrorists around the world is that if they hole up in mosques, schools, hospitals, homes and refugee camps, the United States of America will protect them.
What a horrible new precedent – and it didn’t have to be this way.
There were many viable policy alternatives that President Biden could have pursued before validating Hamas’s strategy to maximize civilian casualties.
BLOCK AID FOR EGYPT, NO WEAPONS FOR ISRAEL
Instead of cutting off arms transfers to Israel, the Biden administration could have deployed $1 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Egypt to force President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to accept refugees from Gaza.
Egypt has all the capabilities needed to provide temporary shelter to Palestinians in the vast empty areas of the Sinai Peninsula – the region just west of Rafah and almost the size of West Virginia. This would allow for the evacuation of civilians and the eventual defeat of Hamas before the phased return of Palestinians to Gaza.
To date, Egypt has refused to accept refugees because el-Sisi sees parts of the Palestinian population, especially the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Hamas, as an extremist threat to his rule.
Egypt has all the capabilities needed to provide temporary shelter to Palestinians in the vast empty areas of the Sinai Peninsula – the region just west of Rafah and almost the size of West Virginia.
Instead of cutting off arms transfers to Israel, the Biden administration could have deployed $1 billion in annual US military aid to Egypt to force President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (above, right) to accept refugees from Gaza.
Western government officials have told the Foundation for Defense of Democracies that several Gulf states have even offered El-Sisi an additional $40 billion in economic aid to open Egypt’s northern border to Palestinian refugees.
Yet he did not give in.
American pressure would certainly change that calculus.
U.S. aid to Egypt should be conditional on Cairo alleviating humanitarian suffering in Gaza. And el-Sisi must be held accountable for allowing Hamas to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza for years, exacerbating the current crisis.
PUT MOSSAD TARGETS ON HAMAS LEADERS
While Palestinians suffer under the thumb of Hamas, the terror group’s leadership lives in luxury more than a thousand kilometers away in the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar.
Today, the political head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, and his commanders, who live in Doha, Qatar, are estimated to be worth $11 billion. They are standing in the way of an immediate temporary Israeli ceasefire by refusing to release 132 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.
But perversely, President Biden rewarded Qatar by naming the country a “key non-NATO US ally” in 2022, despite the fact that the country was home to Hamas, which the US designated a terrorist organization as early as 1997.
Today, Hamas’s political head, Ismail Haniyeh (seated above right) and his commanders, who live in Doha, Qatar, are estimated to be worth $11 billion.
The US should give Doha a two-week deadline: convince your Hamas guests to release the hostages or the Biden administration will revoke Qatar’s important non-NATO status and designate Qatar as a state sponsor of terrorism.
In the long run, the US should pressure Qatar’s emir to completely oust Hamas’s leadership — and then deal with Mossad.
Strangle the patrons of Hamas
According to Israel, the Islamic Republic of Iran annually sends $100 million to Hamas, $700 million to Hezbollah and tens of millions to Islamic Jihad. President Biden can take steps today to choke off this terror financing pipeline.
First, the White House could end its policy of appeasement with Iran by halting the release of billions of dollars in oil funds that were frozen during the Trump administration. This money funds the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East.
Second, the administration can do more to stem the flow of illegal oil sales revenue flowing into Iran.
For example, Malaysia’s prime minister, who refused to condemn the Oct. 7 massacre, has vowed to maintain ties with Hamas even if it leaves Kuala Lumpur vulnerable to Western sanctions. The US Treasury Department has determined that Malaysia is purchasing oil from Tehran in clear violation of sanctions.
President Biden should set an example for Malaysia by cracking down on this illegal trade that fuels international terrorism.
The White House, on the other hand, has taken a different approach — and abandoned an ally in the process.
Perhaps it’s all about presidential politics: Biden has been desperately trying to rid himself of the “Genocide Joe” label placed on him by Hamas sympathizers inside and outside the Democratic Party.
He hopes that by betraying Israel he will win back far-left supporters who threaten to withhold their support for him in November. But this cynical strategy is doomed to failure.
Biden will not soften the “From the River to the Sea” radicals on American campuses, bring the war in Gaza to an end more quickly, or secure the release of a single hostage, living or dead.
However, he has developed a perverse new doctrine that generations of Americans will come to regret.
Mark Dubowitz is the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ben Cohen is an FDD senior analyst