The Biden administration's Israel policy is disconnected from reality

(JNS) — The United States has a law called the Taylor Force Act that forbids the United States from transferring money to the Palestinian Authority so long as the P.A. transfers money to terrorists. Since 10 percent of the P.A.’s budget is used to reward terrorists and their families for the Jews the terrorists murdered in terror attacks, the United States has been unable to transfer money to the P.A. for the past few years.

Unfortunately, even though the Biden administration knows that the P.A. pays terrorists, it still considers them a peace partner that Israel must talk to and has been continuously pressuring Israel to transfer money to the P.A., even though the United States cannot. 

All this, while the textbook definition of Jew-hating antisemitism is a person or organization that supports killing Jews, which is exactly what the P.A. is—an organization that financially supports the killing of Jews.

Thankfully, the State of Israel passed a new “Victim Compensation Law” last week in the Knesset, which is an Israeli version of the Taylor Force Act, allowing Israeli victims of terror to sue any organization that pays terrorists. This means that Israeli victims of terror can sue the P.A. for damages and can be given money the court finds that they are owed from Israeli designated funds to the P.A. that have been legally frozen because of violations of former agreements (like paying terrorists these stipends.)

It is quite sad that it has taken this long for Israel to pass such a law, but it indicates not only how much the Israeli public has “woken up” since Oct. 7, but the overwhelming public support in Israel now for officially recognizing the P.A. as a terror-supporting organization.

After more than 1,200 innocent Israelis were brutally massacred on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip on Simchat Torah and Shabbat morning, a vast majority of Israelis finally understand that our Arab Muslim enemies in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which includes Hamas and the P.A., are killing us because of who we are—Jews—and not because of where we live.

The Biden administration should be cognizant of this new reality of Israeli society. But it is not. It is ignoring this reality.

As we get further away from Oct. 7, we are witnessing a growth of pressure from the Biden administration on Israel — not on Hamas, Iran or Qatar to have Hamas surrender and release our hostages being held captive in Gaza. With each day, we are introduced to mounting pressure on Israel to stop the war, agree to a ceasefire, sanction a growing number of Israeli farmers in Judea and Samaria, and threaten to stop the supply of certain weapons and munitions needed by Israel to fight this war.

Never before has the daylight between a U.S. administration and Israel been so open, and it seems to be devolving.

U.S. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continue to make statements saying that the Israeli government does not represent the Israeli people. They are publicly calling for blatant interference in Israeli democracy by calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to kick out some of his coalition partners or initiate new elections—again showing how they are totally misreading the reality in Israel.

They are correct that the Israeli people are disappointed with the Israeli government but not for the reasons that they think. The Israeli people are disappointed with the Israeli government for bowing to U.S. pressure and not ending this war with a total victory and freeing our captives as soon as possible.

Instead of recognizing this reality in Israel, Schumer took to the Senate floor last week to basically shame Israel, further pushing the messages from the White House. He basically equated Netanyahu with leaders of Hamas and right-wing Israelis to Hamas terrorists. He blamed Netanyahu and Israeli right-wing Israelis for blocking the Biden “peace” solution—a solution that would essentially reward the perpetrators of the most evil massacre of Jews since the Holocaust with a terror state called “Palestine.”

Not only is it clear that the Biden administration is disconnected from the reality of the Israeli people, but it is also becoming extremely clear to many Israelis that the Biden White House might be actively trying to bring about new elections in Israel to topple Netanyahu and his government, thinking that that will help push forward U.S. policy.

Benny Gantz, a War Cabinet minister in the Israeli government, was just in Washington, D.C., without approval from Netanyahu, which is against government protocol. Would any country meet a sitting U.S. vice president if the president had made it clear it was an unapproved visit? No. Such a visit would be looked upon as undermining the president. Yet the White House and U.S. military leaders met Gantz on this recent trip.

Considering Biden and his administration have made it quite clear over the past few months how disappointed they are in Netanyahu and their desire to see a new government in Israel, it is not too far-fetched to think that Gantz’s meeting was to take orders from the White House on what to do to topple the Netanyahu government from the inside. If so, this plan is also failing.

Why? Because the people of Israel do not want to topple this government. The people of Israel want this government to achieve a total victory in Gaza and Lebanon, so that Israeli citizens from the north and south can return to their homes as quickly as possible without any fear of ever being attacked in their homes by our enemies, as we experienced on Oct. 7.

The Biden administration’s continued pressure on Israel to end this war without allowing us total victory, while simultaneously pressuring for the creation of a Palestinian state, shows how it is more interested in rewarding Iran and her proxies for their terror war against Israel than allowing Israel to protect Israeli citizens.

We are confident that pushing Israel into this corner will only strengthen our resolve to rely only on ourselves and will not cause the Israeli people to buckle. We now know in overwhelming numbers that we cannot allow delusional Western notions to jeopardize our very survival.

We are also confident that we will not only win this war as we must but that Biden’s profuse denial of the direction, view and resolve of the people of Israel will only backfire for him in the United States and against the enemies America needs to be as concerned about as Israel.