{Reposted from The Lid}
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is a man of honor who served admirably in the Army for over four decades, which is why I was surprised with what he said to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Ganz on Sunday:
Today, I was tremendously pleased with our discussion on a number of security issues, which are important to our two countries. And I wanted to convey the Biden-Harris administration’s strong commitment to Israel and the Israeli people.
As a major strategic partner for the United States, our bilateral relationship with Israel, in particular, is central to regional stability and security in the Middle East. And during our meeting, I reaffirmed to Minister Gantz, our commitment to Israel is enduring and it is ironclad.
The Defense Secretary’s commitment to Israel may be ironclad, but based on his actions and those of his administration during his first three months as POTUS there is no way Austin’s boss feels that way:
- Just last week, Secretary of State Blinken announced the resumption of U.S. funding for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Administration. The UNRWA has allowed its facilities and even their schools to act as a terrorist base, and when they were exposed for storing missiles in their schools, they handed them back to Hamas to shoot at innocent Jews. The UNRWA also pushes the lie that there are over 5 million Palestinian refugees. In 2012 it was estimated that there were approximately 30,000 of the 1948 Arab refugees still alive. Ten years later, that number has to be smaller.
- Not only is Biden trying to put America back into the JCPOA deal, which allows Iran to go nuclear, and is hinting at removing the economic sanctions against the biggest state sponsor of Islamist terrorism in the world, but Biden appointed long-time Israel hater Robert Malley to do the deal with Iran. Should Iran get the bomb, Israel will be its first target…and the U.S. would be next.
- Speaking of Israel-haters, Biden picked many of them for his administration. Some include: Reema Dodin, Deputy Director White House Office of Legislative Affairs Dodin has excused Palestinian Terrorism and opposed U.S. support of Israel. Maher Bitar, one of the executive board members of the anti-Semitic, pro-BDS group, Students for Justice in Palestine, that regularly demonize Jewish students who identify as Zionists, as Senior Director for Intelligence at the National Security Council. Biden added Hamas-supporter Hady Amr as Deputy Assistant Secretary For Israeli-Palestinian Affairs. Hamas-supporter Hady Amr is Biden Deputy Assistant Secretary For Israeli-Palestinian Affairs. Karine Jean Pierre, Deputy Press Secretary, made false accusations and statements about Israel and AIPAC…just to name a few.
- Ignoring the Taylor Force Act, Biden is giving the Palestinian Authority $75 million in aid. Passed in 2018, The Taylor Force Act was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Trump. The stops American economic aid to the Palestinian Authority until the PA ceases paying blood money to individuals and their families who commit acts of terrorism. While some of the aid is supposedly for COVID relief, Biden is rushing it through to avoid Congressional scrutiny. The Palestinians didn’t stop paying their blood money, but Biden is sending aid anyway.
These are just a few of the examples proving that President Biden has less than an ironclad commitment to Israel. This raises the question is General Austin lying or has President Biden blown so much smoke up the Defense Secretary’s arse that he can ignore what Biden has done during his first three months in office?
Note: Some will disagree with the above because Austin got agreement from Benny Ganz–Ganz even thanked Biden/Harris– he had to. Just as with very few exceptions, members of the Israeli government never publicly said anything nasty about Barack Obama and even praised him at times during his two terms of Antisemitism and Israel-hatred as POTUS, publicly members of the Israeli government will only say nice things about Biden–his policies are already bad for the Jewish State and pushing back against Austin would only make things worse.