Who is behind Biden's sloppy approach to the Israel-Hamas war?
There is a guy whom you probably have heard of. He was a two-term U.S. president who left office at age 54. In other words, he needed “a job” for the rest of his working life.
Please consider supporting our mission to help everyone better understand and become smarter about the Jewish world. A gift of any amount helps keep our platform free of advertising and accessible to all.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Over the weekend, rumors swirled that there would finally be a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
Then things got weird.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made multiple announcements during Shabbat (Saturday) — which is unusual for an Israeli prime minister to do on the Jewish day of rest — that Israel would, under no circumstances, agree to a deal that ends the war.
Meanwhile CIA director Bill Burns was jumping on flights between Cairo, Doha, and Jerusalem to salvage an agreement that, on Sunday, was “near collapse” according to sources.
Also on Sunday, four Israeli soldiers were killed and 10 more were wounded in a Hamas rocket attack near the Kerem Shalom Israel-Gaza crossing, fired from Rafah (the terror group’s last major stronghold).
Then, Israel started encouraging some 100,000 Gazans to start evacuating an eastern part of Rafah while attacking terror sites from the air — prompting Hamas to claim yesterday that it agreed to a ceasefire proposal from mediators.
Three Israeli officials said the Hamas announcement on Monday surprised the Israeli government, and that Israel did not receive the text of the groups response from the mediators until an hour after Hamas released its statement.1
When the Israelis read Hamas’ response, they were surprised to see it contained “many new elements” that were not part of the previous proposal which Israel agreed on, and which was presented 10 days ago to Hamas by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar. One official said: “It looked like a whole new proposal.”
The Israelis claimed that Bill Burns and other Biden administration officials who are involved in the negotiations knew about the new proposal but did not tell Israel. The Israeli officials also said that the last touches on the proposal were made on Monday morning in Doha with the Biden administration’s knowledge.
Two Israeli officials said the feeling is that “Israel got played” by the U.S. and the mediators who drafted “a new deal” and were not transparent about it. Additionally, two Israeli officials said Israel is deeply suspicious that the Biden administration gave guarantees to Hamas through the Egyptian and Qatari mediators about its key demand that a hostage deal will lead to the end of the war.
Israeli officials claim that the Biden administration knew about the latest hostage and ceasefire deal proposal Egypt and Qatar negotiated with Hamas, but did not brief Israel before Hamas announced its acceptance of it on Monday.
All of this is corroborated by the fact that Israeli politician Benny Gantz, who sits on Israel’s war cabinet, has basically done a 180-degree shift from his position on Saturday and now firmly believes that a military operation in Rafah is the only way to get the Israeli hostages back.
Ultimately, the above is just the latest in a multitude of episodes during which the Biden administration has woefully mismanaged this war. I could go on and on with examples, but if you have been paying attention during the last six-plus months, then you know precisely what I am talking about.
And for all the “But Biden gave Israel more aid!” folks in the crowd: I, for one, cannot afford to be so naive. Giving aid to a country and then tying the country’s hands behind its back is not exactly a “gift.” Heck, one could easily argue that it is a form of manipulation and even abuse.
But, to be honest with you, I am less concerned with the 81-year-old Biden. Many people do not realize that, while the U.S. president in general is certainly powerful, he or she is also a figurehead; there is a much larger partisan apparatus of the U.S. federal government that makes day-to-day decisions and informs the U.S. president and other key decision-makers.
And the question, at least for me, is: Who is “managing” this much larger partisan (i.e. Democratic) apparatus?
There is a guy whom you probably have heard of. He was, at least on paper, a successful two-term U.S. president who left office at the ripe age of 54. In other words, he needed “a job” for the rest of his working life. Of course, I am talking about Barack Obama, Biden’s former running mate.
I am not going to get into conspiracy theories about the fact that Obama still lives in Washington, D.C. even though he is not from the area or anywhere close, and even though presidents are known to leave the U.S. capital altogether after their time in office has ended.
But, we should be clear about something: Obama and many of the people he hired and put in game-changing positions (many of whom remain in those positions under Biden) are, by definition, “progressives.” And I am not talking about the “progressives” whose ideology is merely limited to, for example, social justice, economic equity, environmental sustainability, and civil liberties.
Unfortunately, I am talking about the “progressives” who manipulate these terms to promote a more vicious, subversive agenda that includes intersectionality, critical race theory, and the notorious “oppressor-oppressed” framework, in which “The Jews” are considered part of the “White oppressor colonialist racist” class that must be lectured and punished.
Thus, it is no surprise that the U.S. State Department (America’s version of a Foreign Ministry), under Obama and continuing into Biden’s first presidential term, is increasingly anti-Israel — not because the Jewish state is some rogue pariah nation that must be forcefully dealt with, but because Israel is considered a “White oppressor colonialist racist” entity by many folks who work in the State Department.
For example, much of the information that the State Department cites comes from a single, ostensibly impartial source whose words carry weight in Washington in part because of his rank: Lieutenant General Michael R. Fenzel, a three-star general who currently serves as the U.S. security coordinator to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC).
The USSC is well-known for its regular, sometimes daily briefings and reports about “extremist” Israeli settlers, which it provides to members of Congress, policymakers, Israel-related advocacy groups, and foreign countries’ forces in Israel.
According to sources in and out of the U.S. government familiar with Fenzel’s reports and advocacy, the USSC has developed a reputation for repeating the same numbers provided by Palestinian and radical leftist organizations, without independent verification, attribution, or contextualization.2
What’s more, we should ask ourselves why Obama went out of his way to coddle and court Qatar, the funder of ISIS and Hamas — you know, modern nihilistic death cults dedicated to the killing of Christians, Gays, and Jews — and why Biden seems to be doing the same.
In 2014, Obama even got behind Hamas’ right to exist and keep its arsenal intact during another war that the terror group provoked with Israel back then.3 More curiously, he subsequently sent his Secretary of State, John Kerry, off to cavort with the Qatari and Turkish foreign ministers in Paris — which incensed Israeli ministers, the Egyptians, and the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the time.
And the Obama administration pressed for the Qatari government to remain a chief broker in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process despite the country’s longstanding financial support for Hamas.4
“Qatar has pledged financial support that would be directed to the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Julia Frifield, an assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the State Department, wrote in an official 2014 letter. “Qatar assured us that its assistance would not go to Hamas. We continue to interact closely with the government of Qatar and will reinforce that such assistance should not go to Hamas.”
What a bunch of baloney.
Meanwhile, back in 2009, at his “New Beginnings” speech in Cairo, then-President Obama demanded that members of the Muslim Brotherhood (of which Hamas is an offshoot) be provided seats at the event — prompting then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to cancel his attendance (probably fearing for his life).
Despite preaching about democracy and freedom in this speech, a few weeks later Obama refused to support the Iranian Green Movement (which demanded democratic voting rights) and effectively sided with Iran’s deeply oppressive Islamist regime.
To add insult to injury, The Clinton Foundation received a $1 million gift from Qatar while Hillary Clinton was U.S. secretary of state under Obama — and she did not inform the State Department, even though she had promised to let the agency review new or significantly increased support from foreign governments.5
In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Obama supported Israel in dismantling Hamas, according to his 73-word statement released on October 9th. But two weeks later, in a 1,130-word statement, Obama called for Israeli restraint — and then went on the “Pod Save America” podcast to counsel “an admission of complexity.”
“What Hamas did was horrific and there’s no justification for it,” the former president said. “And what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable” — adding that, to get to the full truth, “you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree.”
That is 100-percent true — nobody’s hands are clean, including those of Obama — but in a war, you eventually pick a side, either your ally or your not-ally (especially in a war that your supposed ally did not start).
Obama’s implication of neutrality (or what some people call “both-sides-ing”) is not indicative of true allyship, and he is far from alone; Biden and his people have been tripping over themselves during the last several months, such as equating the idea of “Islamophobia” to the very real cases of skyrocketing antisemitism across the United States, as well as talking about the democratically elected Israeli government and the world-renowned terrorist organization Hamas in the same vein.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (who also served in the Obama administration) even said recently that Israel’s “job number one” is to protect and aid Gazans. Silly me, I thought it was defeating Hamas and saving the hostages (including a handful with U.S. citizenship).
Over the weekend, here is how a senior Hamas official described the Biden’s administration’s incredulous contradictions:
“The positions of the American government are related to the interests of their elections, and therefore, the government makes contradictory statements… As far as we are concerned, the American guarantees cannot be trusted. We aim to add Russia, Turkey, and China as guarantors.”
To make matters worse, today it is being reported that the Biden administration has delayed the sales of thousands of precision weapons to Israel in recent months, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Six months ago, Biden gave an interview on the popular U.S. news program “60 Minutes” — agreeing that “Hamas must be eliminated entirely.” Those words have become more empty with each passing day in this long and drawn out war.
What changed since then? There are a variety of speculations, but from my vantage point, either Biden is a total hypocrite, or Obama is still calling their Democratic Party’s shots.
“Israelis frustrated with U.S. handling of hostage talks.” Axios.
“The Fraudulent Case Against ‘Violent Settlers’.” Tablet.
“Obama: Intervening to Save Hamas?” Commentary.
“Obama Admin Wants Hamas Ally Qatar to Remain Chief Broker in Peace Process.” The Washington Free Beacon.
“Clinton’s charity confirms Qatar’s $1 million gift while she was at State Department.” Reuters.
The dominant perception of Obama continues to be one of a well-intentioned, albeit naive, statesman who had the best of intentions, some of which didn't pan out. I look forward to the day when Obama will be recognized for the subversive demonic creature that he really is.
Once you begin to see that everything Obama did has served to weaken and destabilize America, both internally as well as internationally, everything falls into place. You have to admire his brazen courage to do things he did, from inviting the Muslim Brotherhood to his Cairo speech all the way to throwing billions at the Ayatollahs as part of a "reset of our ME policy"—and he got away with it all. Mr. Smooth, the debonair well-spoken black man, the Iago who charmed the pants off the liberal intelligentsia, and nearly brought down Western civilization single-handedly.
This administration is filled with Obama administration lackeys who hate Israel .It always important to remember that personnel make policy and that the anti Israel views of many of the Cabinet and sub cabinet appointees demonstrate that this administration is filled and staffed by fans of Hamas