Biden Foreign Policy
June 2, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden announced a proposed Israel/Hamas ceasefire deal this past Friday at 1:28 p.m. (EDT), some 45 minutes after sundown (and the onset of Shabbat) in Israel. Biden attributed the terms of the proposed deal to Israel. I inferred from the text of his remarks that it was Biden’s proposed deal, not Israel’s. Atlantic staff writer Yair Rosenberg asserts that the terms are Israel’s. The Times of Israel story addressing
»
June 1, 2024 — Scott Johnson
With Shabbat in full swing Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a special statement in English this morning. Netanyahu says that “The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions [i.e., the destruction of Hamas and the freeing of all hostages] are fulfilled is a non-starter.” The Prime Minister's Office: Israel's conditions for ending the war have not changed: The destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, the
»
June 1, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday President Biden addressed the conviction of President Trump. He has no problem with it. He finds everything to be in order. He Wants Americans to believe — and declares in so many words — that Trump is experiencing equal justice under law. “That’s how the American system of justice works,” he asserted. If only he had added “now,” he would have nailed it. We can only express the fond
»
May 29, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden’s efforts to supply Hamas via a pier constructed by American forces has suffered a temporary interruption. Hamas can’t be too happy about this particular display of military incompetence by the United States. Only last week Daniel Greenfield that “All the Aid From Biden’s Gaza Pier was Seized by Hamas.” At last word, the pier is scheduled for a timeout — a timeout for repairs after the top of
»
May 23, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Eugene Kontorovich is a professor at the George Mason University Scalia Law School and the director of its Center on the Middle East and International Law. He is also the head of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a think tank in Jerusalem. His X stream offers a stream of commentary and links on matters related to the Hamas/Israel war. His current Tablet column considers “The ugly
»
May 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Iranian president — the late Iranian president — Ebrahim Raisi suffered a hard landing on Sunday. May he rot in hell. He was a murderous bastard, a personification of the evil of the Iranian regime, and an enemy of the United States. Raisi’s nickname was “the butcher of Tehran.” No one thought he didn’t earn it fairly. Under Raisi, Iran armed and assisted terrorists with American blood on their hands.
»
May 17, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Biden Administration insists that Israel must have a plan for the “day after” it completes its victory over Hamas. A reasonable question is: why? Gaza started this war on October 7, and Israel responded as it had to, as any nation would, by fighting and, now, winning the war. Why should it be Israel’s burden to try to make something constructive out of the sickest culture in the world?
»
May 15, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Post has reported that the Biden administration is withholding sensitive intelligence from Israel on the location of Hamas leaders in Gaza. This is how the Post puts it: The Biden administration, working urgently to stave off a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, is offering Israel valuable assistance in an effort to persuade it to hold back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of
»
May 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Across Israel at 11:00 a.m. this morning the sirens sounded to mark Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron) for the fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. This is the day that Israelis, as a nation, honor the fallen from Israel’s military and those casualties from its wars and victims of terror attacks. Since last Memorial Day, 1594 Israelis have been killed. Out of those, 834 are civilians murdered in terror attacks,
»
May 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Last week we posted Senator Tom Cotton’s close encounter with Jonathan Karl here on ABC’s This Week. Yesterday Senator Cotton appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation (or Deface the Nation, as Rush used to put it). I missed it. You missed it. We all missed it. Here is the video of Senator Cotton’s appearance (full show transcript here). Like Karl, Brennan performs in her capacity as an operative of the
»
May 12, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a possible VP choice, continues to take heat for gunning down a vicious canine. That invites a look at Vice President Biden’s response to a mass shooting of American soldiers by U.S. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, who billed himself as a “soldier of Allah.” On November 5, 2009 at Fort Hood, Maj. Hasan yelled “Allahu akbar” and blasted away with two handguns. He shot
»
May 12, 2024 — Scott Johnson
It would be a mistake to rely on the United Nations for information about anything, especially anything related to the Middle East. In Israel’s current war the UN operates as an arm of Hamas. It is nevertheless worth noting — as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies does in this Flash Brief: The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revised its child fatality figure from the Gaza
»
May 11, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In February President Biden promulgated National Security Memorandum 20. NSM-20 directs the State Department to “obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments receiving [U.S.] defense articles and, as appropriate, defense services” that they will abide by U.S. and international law. NSM-20 also requires the Departments of State and Defense to report to Congress within 90 days on the extent to which these governments and services are abiding
»
May 10, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In a November 2020 Wall Street Journal column Tevi Troy recalled “When Biden Met Begin” (posted in accessible form on Pundicity). Tevi recounted how Biden and Begin once clashed in a private June 1982 session with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Mr. Biden, 39, lectured the 68-year-old [Israeli Prime Minister Menachem] Begin over Israeli settlements, jabbing his finger at the prime minister and banging his fist on the desk. Mr.
»
May 9, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden publicly acknowledged his betrayal of Israel’s anticipated offensive in Rafah in an interview with Erin Burnett on CNN. The CNN story on the interview is here. As a practical matter, Biden supports Hamas. Biden opposes Israel. Biden’s declaration of “ironclad” support for Israel is “inoperative,” to borrow a term from Watergate. On Tuesday Biden gave a Holocaust remembrance speech decrying those calling for “the annihilation of Israel, the
»
May 8, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden chose to revise and extend his mealymouthed comments on anti-Semitism with a 1600-word speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance Ceremony yesterday. The White House has posted the text of his remarks here. The speech seems to me late and wanting. Revisiting the history of the Holocaust, Biden referred to “the perils of indifference, the complicity of silence in the face of evil that
»
May 7, 2024 — Steven Hayward
For a while now the joke has been going around that Biden’s two-state solution for the Israel-Hamas conflict involves the two states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. The more time passes, the more this seems not a joke at all. Biden is apparently terrified not only of the campus left, but that he could lose Michigan’s substantial Arab voting block, and hence the election, if he doesn’t placate them. Here’s a
»
