On Tuesday, President Biden declared, “We will never forget.” By Wednesday, he had forgotten.
On purpose.
Biden commemorated the Holocaust, solemnly declaring, “Never again, which simply means never forget.”
In reality, it means that the genocide of Jews will never be tolerated again.
But Biden’s interpretation is convenient. Because Biden put the Jewish state at risk the next day by saying he would halt deliveries of offensive weapons to Israel if he went into Rafah to end Hamas.
This will go down as one of the worst American betrayals of a close ally in recent memory.
After Hamas’ violent attack on Israel on October 7, Biden declared that “America stands with Israel.” We can never stop supporting them. ”
He immediately supplied Israel with weapons and visited the Jewish state.
But the White House decided that if the president was to win reelection, he needed to meet the needs of Michigan’s pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, anti-American Arab Americans and like-minded young Americans.
The Biden administration then pressed for the establishment of a Palestinian state, which has been anathema to Israel since October. 7.
He increasingly criticized Israel on the Gaza issue, opposed ending Hamas’ last battalion in Rafah, and called for a permanent ceasefire even without the release of Hamas hostages.
Biden’s arms embargo on Israel further strengthens this approach.
The survival of Hamas would be a major victory for Hamas and its supporters, Iran and Qatar, and a major defeat for Israel and its partner the United States, further undermining Israel’s deterrence and security.
It would also condemn both Palestinian and Israeli civilians to an indefinite cycle of suffering and endless conflict.
Politically, this approach also proved poor.
If Biden had supported letting Israel destroy Hamas months ago, perhaps the recent anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, anti-American campus encampments might not have arisen.
These vile and raucous protests hurt Mr. Biden politically. And Biden’s announcement of the embargo will only further embolden protesters who see it as a victory.
By now, the White House could have brokered a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which would have boosted Biden’s re-election.
As it stands, at this point in his term as president, his approval rating is the lowest of any president in the past 75 years.
By contrast, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of the battleground state of Pennsylvania is an unequivocal supporter of Israel, and his popularity is on the rise.
Policy-wise, Biden’s pressure on Israel has been a disaster.
Given the U.S. election calendar and Saudi opposition until Gaza is relatively quiet, the postponement of Rafah makes normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations this year nearly impossible.
He strengthened Hamas’s conditions for the release of hostages and a cease-fire agreement.
A new arms embargo against Israel, including precision-guided munitions (PGMs), also raises the possibility that Israeli airstrikes will cause further collateral damage to Arabs.
Coupled with Biden’s recent mysterious unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets, this arms embargo has seen the light of day in a momentous moment between the United States and Israel, emboldening not only Hamas but also Hezbollah and Iran to make large-scale This makes a Middle East war much more likely – exactly what the Biden team was aiming for. avoid.
Biden’s warning and the deployment of naval assets to the region since October 7 may have helped persuade Hezbollah not to launch a devastating attack of its own.
And it was with the support of U.S. warplanes that Israel was able to blunt Iran’s unprecedented barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles.
But Iran will now believe it has no need to fear that America will come to Israel’s aid.
Israel has been using PGM Biden’s withholdings to destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure and kill Hezbollah and Iranian fighters, which is helping to prevent Tehran and Hezbollah from unleashing further destruction.
Rather than ban these weapons, the United States should pre-position Israel with large quantities of them. Knowing that Israel has ready access to large stockpiles of PGMs could help prevent Hezbollah and Iran from provoking war.
Moreover, this embargo destroys the credibility of the United States with both friends and foes.
If the United States can withhold arms from Israel, one of its closest partners and to whose security the president has repeatedly made “ironclad” commitments, it will seek to destroy Israel. The same is true while fighting a defensive war against an adversary. –Then, which ally will you not betray?
Meanwhile, adversaries such as China will become more confident that they can exploit former US partners with impunity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared, “If Israel is forced to isolate itself, Israel will become isolated.”
For deterrence and security, Israel will need to do just that and destroy Hamas in Rafah.
Michael Makovsky, a former Pentagon official, is the president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security. Blaze Mystal is vice president of policy.
