What explains President Joe Biden’s anti-Israel actions since Oct. 7? Painfully, the facts require that we recognize that it’s Biden’s longstanding animus toward the Jewish State.
By Morton A. Klein
(May 21, 2024 / Israel Hayom) I’m often asked the following: “What explains President Joe Biden’s anti-Israel actions since Oct. 7?”; “Why is Biden stopping arms and ammunition shipments to Israel in the midst of a war to protect Israel’s existence, and withholding intelligence about Hamas leaders and tunnels’ location?”; “Why is he enabling passage of anti-Israel UN Security Council resolutions?”; “Why is he falsely accusing Israel of “indiscriminate” bombing, sanctioning innocent Israeli citizens, and threatening to sanction moral Israeli soldiers?”; “Why is Biden having his aide Blinken proclaim Israel is becoming “indistinguishable from Hamas,” and facilitating Iran receiving $26 Billion and enriching Iran with tens of billions of dollars of sanctions waivers, when Iran is funding and arming its proxies attacking Israel – and itself launched 350 deadly missiles at Israel?”; “Why is Biden pressuring Israel to reward pro-Hamas Palestinians with a terrorist dictatorship state?”; “Why did Biden’s Secretary of State demand that Israel “Get out of Gaza!” And “don’t retaliate” when Hamas committed a massacre and is still holding innocent American and Israeli hostages, and when destroying Hamas’ terrorist regime is essential for Israel’s survival?”
Analysts always answer that Biden is worried about Arab voters in Michigan and other swing states.
But that answer is wrong. Biden has been hostile to Israel since day one of his administration before Michigan was a twinkle in his eye. Moreover, Biden stands to lose more Jewish and pro-Israel votes than he gains from anti-Israel communities, as 80% of Americans support Israel over Hamas.
I thus believe that the real reason for Biden’s anti-Israel policies is Biden’s longstanding and sinister hostility to Israel.
In 1982, then-Senator Biden banged his fists on the table and infamously threatened then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to withhold US funds if Jews continued living in the lawful Jewish communities of Judea-Samaria. I met with then-Senator Biden and his staff many times during the past 30 years. They were always extraordinarily hostile toward Israel.
Former hostile-to-Israel President Barack Obama, who listened to his beloved Reverend Wright spewing anti-Israel hatred for two decades and was close friends with Louis Farrakhan would never have chosen Biden as his running mate if Biden was pro-Israel. As Vice President, Biden excoriated Israel for approving building homes for Jews in Jerusalem; boycotted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2015 speech to Congress – contravening the vice presidential role of sitting behind visiting heads of state speaking to Congress, and promoted the dangerous Iran deal.
During Trump’s presidency, Biden objected to Trump moving the US Embassy to Israel’s 3,000-year-old capital Jerusalem without placing “conditions” on Israel and getting Israel to make “important concessions” towards a Palestinian (terror) state. All this occurred long before he was thinking of the 2024 election.
Personnel is policy. Biden’s appointees and nominees to virtually every major position dealing with Israel are hostile to Israel. Biden’s Special Representative for Palestinian/Israel Affairs Hady Amr wrote he was “inspired by the Intifada” (terror wars in which Arab terrorists murdered or maimed approximately 10,000 Jews). Legislative Affairs Deputy Director Reema Dodin justified and encouraged suicide bombings against Jews, organized anti-Israel rallies, and spread anti-Israel blood libels. National Security Council member, Deputy Assistant to the President, and Intelligence and Defense Policy Coordinator Maher Bitar organized Georgetown University’s Palestine Solidarity Movement anti-Israel boycott conference; ran a session on how to demonize Israel; and assisted or worked for anti-Israel hate groups Sabeel, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Badil, FMEP, and UNRWA. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre helped orchestrate the Democratic presidential candidates’ boycott of The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines signed a letter falsely accusing Israel of violence, terrorism, and incitement. Biden’s Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley (whose security clearance was suspended in 2023) is a long-time apologist for Hamas and supports a nuclear Iran.
Biden immediately stopped enforcing sanctions on Iran and resumed sending $1.5 billion to UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority whose funding was stopped by the previous administration because of their anti-Israel actions. The House Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions reported that Trump’s maximum sanctions policy decreased Iran’s annual oil revenues from $100 billion to $8 billion, and reduced Iran’s accessible foreign reserves from $122 billion to $4 billion (near bankruptcy). But Biden’s lax enforcement then increased Iran’s annual oil revenues to $40 billion commencing in 2021; benefitted Iran by more than $80 billion; and increased Iran’s accessible foreign reserves to $49 billion. Without this huge largess, it’s doubtful that Iran and Hamas could have perpetrated Oct. 7.
Also, during ten days in May 2021 when Hamas launched 4,500 rockets at Israel, Biden pressured Israel to agree to a premature, immediate ceasefire – before Israel could destroy Hamas’ terror tunnels and rocket arsenal. If Israel had been able to finish the job in 2021, Oct. 7 would not have occurred. In 2021-2022, Biden pressed Israel to give Gazans thousands of permits to work in Israel. Gazans used those permits to map Israeli communities and kindergartens, enabling Hamas’ attack.
Biden further weakened Israel in October 2022 by pressuring Israel to surrender 330 square miles of maritime territory including valuable gas fields to Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, enriching Iranian-terror proxy Hezbollah with billions of dollars which helped it launch recent rocket attacks that drove 80,000 Israelis in northern Israel from their homes.
From day one, the Biden administration also incessantly pressured Israel to establish a pathway to a Palestinian Arab (terror) state; pressured Israel to re-open Obama’s Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem; condemned Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria; failed to take action against the Palestinian Authority’s “pay to slay” payments to terrorists to murder Jews; and more.
All those policies damaging Israel occurred well before the Dearborn Arabs’ Abandon Biden movement. Biden’s hostile policies toward Israel are not about elections and Michigan. Painfully, the facts require that we recognize that it’s Biden’s longstanding sinister animus toward the Jewish State.
Morton A. Klein is the National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
This op-ed was originally published in Israel Hayom and can be viewed here.