Last Friday, the Biden administration warned its allies around the world that military ties between Russia and Iran were expanding to an alarming degree, making Tehran a bigger than ever risk to the Middle East.
According to a statement by John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, Russia is offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their relationship to a full fledged defense partnership. It is important for us to be clear: this partnership poses a threat, not just to Ukraine, but to Iran’s neighbors in the region as well.
Yet, as we noted here last week, despite the pivotal role Israel plays in keeping predator Arab states from trying to gobble their weaker neighbors and serving as America’s surrogate in the region, the Biden administration was knee-deep in an effort to pick fights with Israel over the recent electoral success of some right-wingers and their new status as apparent king-makers.
As we said, even before the new Netanyahu right-leaning coalition took over, the Biden team went public with some rather extravagant alarm. Thus there were about any Israeli attempts to annex the Golan; a belated Department of Justice decision to investigate the death of a Palestinian-American correspondent in the midst of an IDF-terrorist firefight; and a gratuitous and condescending comment by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the United States will closely monitor the actions of the new Israeli government to ensure that it conformed to our “mutual standards.” And, of course, there were the obligatory warm and fuzzy paeans to a “two state-solution” and Palestinian statehood as well as an announcement of the upgrading of the status of US contacts with the Palestinian Authority.
How could they be bent on undermining Israel while knowing full well what’s coming from Russia and Iran? What are they thinking?
