Should Israel follow the advice of Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken on Gaza? The right answer is simple but not easy. It has nothing to do with partisan politics. It has to do with results.
A country should pick its advisors and its strategy the same way someone picks a professional to do a job: a plumber, electrician, dentist, piano teacher, or orthopedic surgeon. Normally, we check that professional’s record fixing pipes or teeth or mending wires or bones. Then we ask about satisfied customers.
With Joe Biden and Tony Blinken, as you look around the world, there are not many living satisfied customers.
The Biden-Blinken strategic portfolio includes the less-than-exemplary American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the not-exactly-wonderfully executed war in Ukraine.
Since the Biden Administration is really staffed by many from Barack Obama’s Administration, we need take a quick peek at the strategic record of Barack Obama and his team.
Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize scarcely weeks after taking office, and then sped the world to war and chaos. Obama rushed to remake the Middle East by sowing destruction and mayhem in Egypt, Libya, and Syria.
Obama’s satisfied customers included the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Assad Regime in Syria, the ayatollahs in Iran, and a power-hungry dictator in Turkey.
Very satisfied customers included Vladimir Putin who got a military base in Syria thanks to the Obama-aided anarchy that ripped the country to shreds and sent waves of Muslim refugees to Europe. No red lines there.
There were also a few happy gangs in Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other American officials.
However, the Obama-Biden-Clinton policies left many unsatisfied customers -- hundreds of thousands who were killed or displaced thanks to the brilliant initiatives of Mr. Obama, the Peace Prize laureate.
The prize-winning oratory of Obama also included whispering words of encouragement -- over an open microphone -- to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin via Russian President (and Putin stooge) Dimitri Medvedev. Putin listened. Is it any surprise that Putin waltzed into Crimea and Syria (with mass destruction in both) under Obama’s watch? Later, he invaded the rest of Ukraine on Biden’s shift.
The Biden-Obama team coddled Iran, abetting some of the worst terror around the world -- from the Red Sea shipping lanes to the shores of Lebanon and Gaza -- via Iranian agents like Hamas, Hizb’allah, and the Houthis.
Aside from the death and displacement of millions, there has been economic carnage worldwide.
So, there are many reasons for Israel to think twice or many times more before taking Biden-Blinken advice on strategic affairs, military operations, or counter-terror matters.
As for border rectification, before heeding Biden's advice on Gaza, Israel should check out America’s border situation and what it says about the Biden Administration’s expertise in this realm.
One suspects that Joe (“the Plumber”?) Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas would not be the natural candidates that come mind when it comes to building ports or handling fences and tunnels.
When it comes to advice on handling terrorism, let’s recall that Vice President Biden warned Obama against the successful operation that killed arch-terrorist Osama Bin-Laden. Obama is happy he did not listen to Joe.
Biden and his supporters think Israel owes President Biden a lot of respect and gratitude for his support of Israel’s defense of itself after the monstrous mass murder-rape-invasion of October 7 2024. Yes, Israel should respect President Biden because we should respect the elderly and also because any democratic state should respect the elected leader of the greatest democratic state in the world. And yes, Israel should be grateful for any support against the invasion of the body snatchers and two-legged Hamas zombies who decapitated babies and dismembered women while raping them on a Jewish holiday.
However, there is a limit -- a real red line -- to Israeli readiness to consent to Biden-Blinken ideas especially as another bloody Ramadan begins amid escalating attacks on non-Muslims worldwide, but especially in Israel
Well-meaning but clueless Westerners -- from Washington to Hollywood to the UN -- urging Israeli “restraint” or open-ended “ceasefire,” should understand why nearly all Israelis will go elsewhere for advice.
Dr. Michael Widlanski is the author of Battle for Our Minds: Western Elites and the Terror Threat (Threshold-Simon and Schuster, 2012), and Can Israel Survive a Palestinian State? (1990). He was strategic affairs advisor in Israel ’s Ministry of Public Security, editing captured PLO documents. Earlier he advised Israeli negotiation teams at the Madrid and Washington talks in 1991-92. Dr. Widlanski was a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis in 2007-8 and at the University of California, Irvine in 2014, taught political communication for two decades at The Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University. Earlier he was a reporter at The New York Times and Cox Newspapers, war correspondent for Israeli Army Radio and Diplomatic Correspondent for Israel Television in English (IBA).
Image: Pixabay
Following Biden’s Lead?
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21.03.2024
Should Israel follow the advice of Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken on Gaza? The right answer is simple but not easy. It has nothing to do with partisan politics. It has to do with results.
A country should pick its advisors and its strategy the same way someone picks a professional to do a job: a plumber, electrician, dentist, piano teacher, or orthopedic surgeon. Normally, we check that professional’s record fixing pipes or teeth or mending wires or bones. Then we ask about satisfied customers.
With Joe Biden and Tony Blinken, as you look around the world, there are not many living satisfied customers.
The Biden-Blinken strategic portfolio includes the less-than-exemplary American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the not-exactly-wonderfully executed war in Ukraine.
Since the Biden Administration is really staffed by many from Barack Obama’s Administration, we need take a quick peek at the strategic record of Barack Obama and his team.
Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize scarcely weeks after taking office, and then sped the world to war and chaos. Obama rushed to remake the Middle East by sowing destruction and mayhem in Egypt, Libya, and Syria.
Obama’s satisfied customers included the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Assad Regime in Syria, the ayatollahs in Iran, and a power-hungry dictator in........
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