Biden’s pressuring of Israel is just a naked and shameless pandering for votes.
By Robert Spencer, Frontpage Magazine
The Biden regime has been under heavy pressure from its far-left base for months. Foes of Israel have repeatedly demanded that Biden’s handlers punish the Jewish state for defending itself, or else they’ll lose their votes in November. Clearly, the Biden camp has been listening, and now the matter has come to a head: the Biden regime has actually threatened our foremost ally in the Middle East with a cutoff of military aid.
The Jerusalem Post reported that “Biden issued a memorandum on Thursday night asking countries receiving US military funding to prove they’re following international humanitarian and human rights laws.” There is only one country to which that pertains at the moment, and as the Post pointed out “the timing of the memorandum coincides with President Biden’s unscheduled press conference where he took reporters’ questions on the Israel-Hamas war, saying Israel’s response is ‘over the top.’”
This has been coming for a long time. Nihad Awad, executive director of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who infamously said that he was “happy” about Hamas’ Oct. 7 jihad massacre of 1,200 Israelis, thundered at a November pro-Hamas rally: “No cease-fire, no votes. No votes in Michigan, no votes in Arizona, no votes in Georgia, no votes in Nevada, no votes in Wisconsin, no votes in Pennsylvania.”
These were, of course, the states that allowed Old Joe to pretend to be president over the last three years. Awad concluded: “No votes for you anywhere if you don’t call for a ceasefire now.” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Ramallah) added: “The American people won’t forget. Biden, support a ceasefire now. Or don’t count on us in 2024.”
In mid-January, the “March on Washington for Gaza” boiled over into violence at the White House, as thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators stormed the security fence and forced the evacuation of “non-essential employees” from the building. Then last week, Fox News reported that Biden was “facing an electoral revolt among Arab and Muslim voters in Michigan who are outraged by his ongoing support for Israel, with some even accusing him of enabling genocide.” They even launched an “abandon Biden” campaign in Dearborn.
The pressure has continued. The Jerusalem Post added that “for weeks now, reporters have pressed both the White House and State Department on their ability to assess if Israel is following international law as there have been no formal assessment procedures in place.” Also vocal on this issue has been, predictably enough, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Ramallah). She and some of her far-left colleagues wrote to Biden stating: “We write today regarding your administration’s ongoing weapons transfers to the Israeli government despite considerable evidence that these transfers are flagrantly violating American and international law and being used in the commission of war crimes.”
The only actual evidence that Israel has committed any war crimes in Gaza comes from Hamas, which has every reason to fabricate incidents and wildly exaggerate real ones, especially when it has such a sympathetic and credulous audience in the West. Israel must nevertheless submit its report to the Biden regime by March 24, or military aid will be stopped until “required assurances are obtained.” The memorandum explains that the U.S. “must maintain an appropriate understanding of foreign partners’ adherence to international law, including, as applicable, international human rights law and international humanitarian law.”
Although this was an outrageous insult and quasi-betrayal of an ally, Karine Jean-Pierre rushed to assure the world that it was just business as usual: “I want to be clear: there are no new standards in this memo, we are not imposing new standards for military aid, that is not what is in this. Instead we are spelling out publicly the existing standards by international law including the law of armed conflict.”
Yeah, sure, that’s it. What’s really happening, however, is quite clear: The Biden regime is trying to show Tlaib, Awad and co. that it is listening to their rage, and pressuring Israel accordingly. The subtext is blazingly obvious: Please vote for us! Don’t stay home in November! We are betraying Israel as quickly as we can! Actual questions of justice and the rules of warfare are out the window here. This is just naked and shameless pandering for votes. That it might result in a world-historical victory for the forces of the global jihad matters to the Biden regime, not one bit.