Posted on 11/12/2020 7:13:53 AM PST by SJackson
Biden may have a “deep feeling for Israel,” but does he care about its protection?
Let’s be charitable. Let’s consider the best case to be made for Biden “as a friend of Israel,” which just appeared from a veteran Israeli journalist, Raphael Ahren: “Biden a veteran friend of Israel, settlement critic, may be at odds over Iran,” by Raphael Ahren, Times of Israel, November 7, 2020:
…“He has a deep feeling for Israel,” said Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the US when Biden was vice president. Oren opposed almost all of the Middle East policies championed by Biden and his boss, Barack Obama, especially on Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian question. Still, he annually attended Biden’s Rosh Hashanah party, and asserts that the former Delaware senator is genuinely concerned about Israel’s well-being.
According to former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren, Biden has a “deep feeling for Israel” and is “genuinely concerned about Israel’s well-being.” That’s good to know, but along with that “deep feeling” and “genuine concern,” a lot more intellect needs to be applied – that is, Biden needs to acquire a detailed knowledge of Israel’s history, its legal rights, the security threats the Jewish state has beaten back but will always have to confront, whatever agreements it reaches with Arab states. It’s nice that he has a warm feeling for Israel, but it would be even nicer if Biden knew why Israeli settlements are legal, built on land — Judea and Samaria, a.k.a. the West Bank — that by right belongs entirely to Israel. Read the Mandate for Palestine, Joe, especially Article 6, where the U.K., as the holder of the Mandate, is instructed “to facilitate Jewish immigration” and “close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.”
The U.K. was, as the holder of the Mandate, duty-bound to “facilitate Jewish immigration” and “close settlement by Jews on the land.” What land is that? Look at, study, commit to memory, Joe – you can do it! — the Mandate maps, that show that land which was set aside to become the future Jewish state. It extends from (roughly) just beyond the Golan Heights in the north, to the Red Sea in the south, and from the Jordan River in the east, to the Mediterranean in the west. The West Bank (a.k.a. Judea and Samaria) is entirely within that Jewish state.
It would be heartening, too, if Joe Biden fully understood the meaning of U.N. Resolution 242, which offers an independent basis – beyond that conferred by the Mandate for Palestine — for Israel’s right to retain territory that it won in the Six-Day War, territory that it needs to hold onto in order to have, in the language of the resolution, “secure [i.e. defensible] and recognized boundaries.” I suspect that in Biden’s nearly fifty years in Washington, despite the hundreds of times he must have spoken feelingly about Israel, he has never read either the Mandate for Palestine or U.N. Resolution 242, as explicated by its author, Lord Caradon. Now is the time for him to do both.
“Biden is from a generation that remembers 1967 and 1973,” Oren said, referring to the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, respectively. “He has Israel in his heart. He actually gets it. He gets Israel.”…
Oren opposed almost all of the Middle East policies of Obama and Biden, which were dangerous to Israel, including the Iran deal, attempts behind the scenes to persuade Israel to stop settlement building, and even the shameful abstention – the first time for the U.S. — on a U.N. vote condemning Israel’s settlements as “illegal.” So why does he insist that Biden “has Israel in his heart. He actually gets it, He gets Israel”? What does that mean? Does he “get” that Israel has a legal right, superior to all other claims, to the entire West Bank? Does he “get” that Israel cannot possibly return to the 1949 armistice lines, with that nine-mile-wide waist from Qalqilya to the sea, which Abba Eban once described as the “lines of Auschwitz”? Does he “get” that instead of seeking, in vain, for a “solution” to the Arab Muslim war on Israel, as generations of peace-processors have tried, we should recognize that this Jihad against Israel is not a problem to be solved but, rather, a situation to be managed? Does Biden understand that the best way for Israel to manage this situation is through a strategy of deterrence, which requires that Israel continue to control, at a minimum, the Jordan Valley and the five large settlement blocs in the West Bank (a.k.a. Judea and Samaria)?
“Biden has known every Israeli prime minister since Golda Meir, “and more than just casually,” he [Ambassador Oren] noted.
“He has retold many times the story of his meeting with Meir in the summer of 1973, during his first overseas trip as a young senator: The Israeli premier showed him maps and told him about the militarily precarious situation her country found itself in. Biden looked depressed, but Meir cheered him up, telling him that Israelis have a secret weapon against the Arabs: They have nowhere else to go.
“During his decades in politics Biden — who has Jewish grandchildren, as two of his three children married Jews — met countless world leaders. But he still describes his interaction with Golda Meir as “one of the most consequential meetings I’ve ever had in my life.”
“Less known is a meeting with her successor Menachem Begin a few years later, which The New York Times at the time described as a “highly emotional confrontation.”
In June 1982, a few days after the start of the Lebanon War, known as Operation Peace for the Galilee, Begin met with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington. Several lawmakers grilled him over Israel’s alleged disproportionate use of force.
“A young senator rose and delivered a very impassioned speech — I must say that it’s been a while since I’ve heard such a talented speaker — and he actually supported Operation Peace for the Galilee,” Begin told Israeli reporters after he returned to Jerusalem.
The senator — Biden — said he would go even further than Israel, adding that he’d forcefully fend off anyone who sought to invade his country, even if that meant killing women or children.
“I disassociated myself from these remarks,” Begin said. “I said to him: No, sir; attention must be paid. According to our values, it is forbidden to hurt women and children, even in war… Sometimes there are casualties among the civilian population as well. But it is forbidden to aspire to this. This is a yardstick of human civilization, not to hurt civilians.”
“But while Biden had sympathy for Jerusalem’s actions in Lebanon, he let it be known that he opposed Israel’s West Bank settlement enterprise. He warned Begin that Israel “was losing support in this country because of the settlements policy,” according to The Times.
Biden was right. Israel has been “losing support” because of its “settlements policy.” But that doesn’t make that policy wrong. The decline in support is merely testimony to the deficiencies of Israel’s hasbara, and the success of Palestinian and other Arab propaganda efforts. “War is deceit,” Muhammad said, and the Palestinians are past masters at this kind of warfare. Apparently those efforts won over Biden himself. Instead of accepting what he has been fed by those propagandists, he owes it to the Jewish state that he keeps insisting he feels so deeply about, to investigate the moral, historic, and legal claims of Jews to the West Bank (a.k.a. Judea and Samaria) on which those settlements have been built.
“He hinted — more than hinted — that if we continue with this policy, it is possible that he will propose cutting our financial aid,” Begin recalled. “And to this I gave him a clear answer: Sir, do not threaten us with cutting aid. First of all, you should know that this is not a one-way street. You help us, and we are very grateful for your help; but this is a two-way street: We do a lot for you. And also in recent battles we did a lot for the United States.”
Begin, in his own telling, warned the young Delaware senator that “if at any time you demand of us to yield on a principle in which we believe, while threatening to cut aid, we will not abandon the principle in which we believe.”
It was “a lively discussion” that he thought was “very helpful,” Begin concluded.
Begin, a noble and also tragic figure (for the way he was treated with such hostility and contempt by Jimmy Carter at Camp David, while Anwar Sadat, who was getting back the entire Sinai, was seen by Carter as a veritable Prince of Peace) stood his ground at Biden’s implied threat of a cut in aid. And his performance likely made a deep impression on Biden, for since that exchange with Begin, Biden has always said that he would never cut aid to Israel to force a change in its policy. We’ll soon have a chance to see if he still means it.
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Biden was right. Israel has been “losing support” because of its “settlements policy.” But that doesn’t make that policy wrong.
Losing what support? Progressives, who don't support Israel to begin with and who will have great influence over Joe? Europeans who have nearly a millenia long history of antisemitism? They've gained support among their neighbors, far more important when they're all facing an expansive Iran and Turkey. In the end, Israel will be responsible for their own survival. Yes, Joe might shed a tear should a disaster befall Israel. And take the sanctions off a nation dedicated to Israel's destruction. That's not support, and I suspect most Israelis understand that.
“What Would a Biden Presidency Mean For Israel?”
Bad news.
Again, Churchill was totally right:
“What’s good for America is good for the rest of the world. What’s bad for America is horrible for the rest of the world.”
History has demonstrated that over and over!
Don’t waste our time. Biden will NEVER be president!
The problem is who Joe or Jill or Kamala would surround themselves with, & who actual create policy.
“What Would a Biden Presidency Mean For Israel?”
Not much.
You can bet they aren't moderates.
A president Biden would/will be very bad news for Israel. No two ways about it. He may not harbor the hate but those running him do. And he will go along with it. His assurances of the past mean nothing. Just hot air to get through the moment. Israel must be very alert and harbor no illusions about the democrat intentions.
Biden will never (if the Democrats are successful in stealing the election) be able to stand up to the anti-semitic far left faction of his party. If they could intimidate Pelosi, Biden would be a push over. The selection by the media was hardly over before Omar was screeching about defunding Israel. My prediction is that he will have a “stroke” within the next several months in order to effectively address the mental decline that has been so obvious so far. He’ll be easily removed.
A Biden presidency means about the same to Israel as a Biden Presidency means to Taiwan.
Both nations need to buy lots of bullets.
Both nations will need divine intervention.
Wonderful things about Biden’s heart towards Israel./s I wonder if Harris feels the same way?
Bibi was quick to toss DJT under the bus so I don’t care what it means for them, I care about America.
You’re right. And his support of Israel is one of the reasons why.
Israel will be on her own; the embassy moving back to Tel Aviv to appease Harris.
I don’t know but I think Biden himself could be okay for our allies including Israel. The problem though is patent and unavoidable. Not only are there very sinister forces in today’s D party controlling elite that will almost certainly influence American policy if any D were to get in the White House, but mr Biden may well not remain in office very long anyway ( he’s been widely perceived as a Trojan Horse to install a communistic Harris/Pelosi or Harris/? Puppet Administration fully compliant to the soroznazi puppetmeisters who have seized control of the DNC political machine and its apparatus). Another fine article about the foreseeable policies of THAT administration will be helpful
“What Would a Biden Presidency Mean For Israel?”
Same as for us...
Biden means Death to Israel!!! Biden will kiss butt with the Chinese, Russians and Iran!!! Iran will destroy Israel with Biden’s blessing, as Biden is pressured by the progressives in the Democrat Party to screw Israel!!! Amurican Jews....not-too-bright!!! AOC and her girl MUslim gang will make short order of American Jews as well as Israelis!!!! Sad days coming for Israel and American Jews, with Joe Biden...not in their corner!!! Go figure...folks!!!
Biden is a weak man and he will not be able to stand up to the pressure of his own party. They also need to know that Biden won’t live through a first term.
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