US president promises to give Israel what it needs to ‘finish the job’ against Hamas, but decries ministers in Netanyahu coalition who want ‘retribution against all Palestinians’
TIMES OF ISRAEL
Full White House text of remarks by President Joe Biden at a Campaign Reception, December 12, 2023
President Biden: Thank you all so very much. Many of you have been my personal friends and political friends for a long time. I know I don’t look it, but I’ve been around a long while. (Laughter.)
And I want to thank you all — all of you — for — for your steadfast support. And, Rosy, particularly, thank you for that introduction and all the work you did to make this successful.
And most of all — in light of the introduction, it seems a little out of place — but Happy Hanukkah. (Laughter and applause.) Happy Hanukkah.
We know that this year’s Hanukkah is different after October the 7th attack. As I said after the attack, the safety of the Jewish people, the literal security of Israel as an independent Jewish state is literally at stake. But it is unshakeable, our commitment to Israel.
We continue to provide military assistance to Israel as it goes after Hamas. And I’ve personally spent hours — hours, without exaggeration — talking to the Qataris, the Egyptians, the Israelis to secure the freedom of more than 100 hostages. And we’re go- — not going to stop until we — every hostage is returned home — (applause) — every one.
We’ll continue leading the world in delivering humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilians as well to emphasize to our friends in Israel the need to protect civilian life. And they understand it, the vast majority of the population.
But most of all, we condemn Hamas’s using rape, sexual violence, terrorism, and torture of Israeli women and girls without equivocation, without exception.
You know, they — I saw some of the photographs when I was there — tying a mother and her daughter together on a rope and then pouring kerosene on them and then burning them, beheading infants, doing things that are just inhuman — totally, completely inhuman.
I also recognize your hurt from the silence and the fear of the safety — your safety because of the surge of antisemitism here in America and around the world.
As I’ve said before, and I won’t belabor it, but it’s — people say, why have I had this feeling for so long, since I ran for the United States Senate 170 years ago? (Laughter.)
My dad really was a righteous Christian. He taught me about the horrors of the Shoah. He’d ta- — we — and he’s — as a consequence, I’ve taken my grandchildren — my — my three children and my grandchildren, when they turned age 14, put them on a plane and flew them to Dachau because I wanted them to see, wanted them to spend the day there and understand that silence is complicity.
Yesterday, at the Hanukkah reception at the White House, I met Holocaust survivors, including a widow of our dear friend, the late Elie Wiesel, who taught us about the perils of indifference.
I’ve been clear that our administration stands with you. We’re aggressively implementing America’s first-ever National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism: prosecuting hate crimes, addressing antisemitism in schools, increasing security around Jewish centers of Jewish life, and more.
In this moment, we have to hold on to the core values of who we are as Americans. The core values are equity, equality, justice, freedom, dignity, respect — values that, from the inception of our nation, have shaped literally the culture, contributions, and values of the Jewish Americans — including all of you that are here — Americans.
And that’s what I want to talk about today.
You know, in 2020, you’re the reason why we got 81 million votes, more than any presidential candidate has gotten in American history. You’re the reason — (applause) — you’re the reason why Donald Trump is not a former president but a defeated former president. (Applause.)
You’re the reason why we’re going to win in 2024 again, with your help, and we are. (Applause.) When we — when we started, the pandemic was raging, the economy was reeling. Because of you — of you, look at what we’ve achieved: record job creation, historic economic growth, among the lowest inflation rates of any major economy on Earth. We’ve rebuilt our alliances around the world.
And because of the great help of Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, we’ve reconfirmed 61 judges — and more, the first Black appointed judge to the Supreme Court of the United States, a woman. And combined, we’ve appointed more — (applause) — we’ve appointed more Black women to the appellate courts of the United States and — than every other president in history combined. (Applause.)
Trump and the MAGA Republicans want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. For the 51st time, they’re trying — (laughter) — literally. We made it more affordable. We made it stronger.
We made the biggest investment in our history in the world — history of the world to combat climate change.
We signed the first new gun safety law in 30 years.
Despite actions of the Supreme Court and MAGA Republicans, we’ve relieved student debt for 3.6 million Americans, who now have a chance to buy their first home and pay their debts and get out of debt.
We’re making a historic commitment to rebuild American roads, bridges, ports, airports, clean water systems, high-speed Internet.
But for all we’ve done, the real heroes of the story are the American people. In thousands of towns all across America, we see the stories of revival and renewal; hope and optimism; pride — and pride in your work, pride in your family, pride in your town, pride in this nation.
We know there’s more to do, from childcare to eldercare, making sure the corporations pay their fair share. And we know that all the progress is at stake in this next election.
And, by the way, we did all that and we still reduced the deficit by $7 billion.
But what’s most at stake in this next election is the future of American democracy, in my view. And that makes this all — it all possible.
Let me be clear, Donald Trump poses, in my view, many threats to this country, from the right to choose — you just saw what the Supreme Court of Texas just did — to civil rights and voting rights to the American standing in the world.
The greatest threat he poses, though, is to our democracy. Because if we lose that, we lose everything.
When I first ran for president, I said democracy was a- — was at stake in America. A lot of people thought when I made that speech at Independence Hall in 2020 — 2021, that I — that they — that they thought I was exaggerating. But they don’t think that anymore.
Remember January 6th, Trump siting in the private dining room off of my Oval — the Oval Office for hours, watching it all unfold as a mob attacked to Capitol and desecrated the Capitol. Capitol Police died. It threatened the life of his own vice president because the Vice President refused to violate his constitutional oath.
The same mob went looking for Nancy Pelosi. Some up — spun up the same lies, inspired an assault on her — who attacked her husband, Paul, with a hammer months later, smacking him in the head with a hammer.
It’s despicable. And silence coming from him.
Trump became the first losing presidential candidate in history who refused to accept the will of the American people.
He didn’t even show up at the Inauguration. I can’t say I was disappointed, but he didn’t show up. (Laughter.) My guess is he won’t show up for the next Inauguration either. (Applause.)
But listen to his words today. He says he’s running not to serve the American — the people of America, but to get “revenge” and “retribution.” His words, not mine. “Revenge” and “retribution.”
Just the other day, he said — he said he liked to be a “dictator.” Going to be a dictator — only “for one day.”
As we Catholics say — (the President makes the sign of the cross). (Laughter.)
He called those who oppose him “vermin,” language that echoes that what was heard out in Germany in the ‘30s.
He talked about, quote, “The blood of our country is being poisoned.” Sound familiar? Same era.
And he threatened the use of American military in the streets of America to go after political opponents.
He embraces political violence instead of rejecting it, and he can’t let that happen — we can’t let that happen.
Look, all of you here understand what freedom means. It means truth. It means to have the courage to hold a mirror up to our nation and say, “Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be? Can we be better?”
Unlike Trump, we don’t believe America is dark and negative — a dark and negative nation driven by anger, fear, and revenge.
When Trump was — spoke at his Inauguration, he talked about “American carnage.” When I spoke at my Inauguration, I spoke about possibilities.
We believe we are a hopeful and optimistic nation driven by a simple proposition: that everybody deserves a fair shot.
We’re the only nation in the world built on — not on ethnicity, religion, geography. We’re the only country built on an idea — an idea all Amer- — all of history — the idea that we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator. We’ve never fully lived up to it, but we’ve never walked away from it either.
Trump wants to — that’s what Trump wants to do, but we’re not going to walk away from it.
Look, let me say that — as all this relates to Israel — I spend a lot of time, probably 75 percent of my time, dealing with foreign leaders and traveling the world. There is a real concern around the world that America is losing its moral center. There’s a real concern that with America — American principles continue to be the vanguard of who we are. I’ve spent more time with NATO pulling together and holding it together than I think anyone has.
When Dr. Kissinger — three weeks before he died, we — he and I had our real differences when he was active Secretary of State and I was a senator — but he called to tell me — he said — he asked me to call him, and I did. He said that — he wanted me to know two things.One, not since Napoleon has Europe not looked at Russia with a — with fear in its eyes about what Russia would do, until now. Well, guess what? They are fearful of what we may do.
But it takes me to my concluding point about Israel and about all freedoms around the world. Israel — it’s an existential threat to Israel — its very existence. Israel has a tough decision to make. Bibi has got a tough decision to make. There’s no question about the need to take on Hamas. There’s no question about that. None. Zero. They have every right.
Bibi and I talk a lot. I’ve known him for 50 years. Some of you know he has a picture on his desk — at least when I’m there, he has it on it. (Laughter.) Eight and a half by eleven, with a picture of — where I wrote, “Bibi…” — when we were both young men, he was at the embassy here and I was a senator. I said, “Bibi, I love you, but I don’t agree with a damn thing you have to say.” (Laughter.) That remains to be the case. (Laughter.)
He’s a good friend, but I think he has to change and — with this government. This government in Israel is making it very difficult for him to move.
You know, Ben-Gvir is not what you would call someone who — this is the most conservative government in Israel’s history — the most conservative. I’ve known every, every, every single head of state in Israel since Golda Meir. And I’ve known them because I’ve spent time with them many times.
And this is a different group. Ben-Gvir and company and the new folks, they — they don’t want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution. They not only want to have re- — retribution, which they should for what the Palestinian — Hamas did, but against all Palestinians. They don’t want a two-state solution. They don’t want any- — anything having to with the — the Palestinians.
Folks, the Palestinians have been not governed well at all. A lot has happened that’s very negative.
But I spent an awful — an awful lot of time with the Arab countries. Everyone from Saudi — without going into too much detail because it would be inappropriate — from Saudi Arabia to a number of other states, they want to normalize relations.
At the G20 meeting with all the 20 major nations in the world, I got a resolution passed that no one thought could happen, saying we’re going to build a railroad from the middle of India all the way up to England and a pipeline across the Mediterranean to unite the countries. And the train is going to go — literally, not figuratively — from — from India into Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia into — to Jordan, Jordan to Israel, Israel, et cetera.
Because there — we have an opportunity to begin to unite the region — unite the region. And they still want to do it. But we have to make sure that — that Bibi understands that he’s got to make some moves to strengthen PLA [PA] — strengthen it, change it, move it. You cannot say there’s no Palestinian state at all in the future. And that’s going to be the hard part.
But in the meantime, we’re not going to do a damn thing other than protect Israel in the process. Not a single thing.
But, folks, there’s a lot to do — a lot to do. We’re going to have to be — as strong supporters of Israel, we’re going to have to be honest about what we’re doing and what the goal is. The goal is Israel’s security. And if Israel — Israel’s sec- — if there were no — many of you heard me say over the years: Were there not an Israel, we’d have to invent one — we’d have to invent one.
I believe, without Israel as a freestanding state, not a Jew in the world is safe — not a Jew in the world is safe. It’s up to what happens at the moment.
And so, we got a lot of work to do, but we’re not going to — in the meantime, none of it is going to walk away from providing Israel what they need to defend themselves and to finish the job against — against Hamas.
And, folks, look, if you think about it, one of the things that Bibi understands, I think, now — but I’m not sure Ben-Gvir and his War Cabinet do, who I’ve spoken to several times — is that Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting it. But they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place.
It was pointed out to me — I’m being very blunt with you all — it was pointed out to me that — by Bibi — that “Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.”
I said, “Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War Two to see to it that it didn’t happen again — it didn’t happen again. Don’t make the same mistakes we made at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did.”
So, those of you who have family back in Israel, you saw what happened when Bibi tried to change the Supreme Court. Thousands of IDF soldiers said, “We’re out. We’re not going to participate. We’re not going to support the military.”
That wasn’t any outside influence. That came from within Israel.
So, folks, there’s a lot to do — a whole lot to do.
First and foremost, do everything in our power to hold Hamas accountable — every single thing in our power. They’re animals. They’re animals. They exceeded anything that any other terrorist group has done of late that I — in memory.
But, secondly, we have to work toward bringing Israel together in a way that provides for the beginning of option — an option of a two-state solution, because absent that — (applause) — (inaudible). It’s probably more than you wanted to hear, but — (laughter).
Look, I do not believe and I will not believe, after all this nation has been through — our nation — from independence to the Civil War to world wars; after being blessed by leaders like Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Dr. King; after having stood as a beacon of freedom and equality for the entire world — I don’t believe this nation is going to turn to my predecessor.
Folks, if we do our job in 2024, we’ll be saving what few generations can be able to say: We’ll be saving American democracy in a way that is needed. And the rest of the world is looking.
Many of you — you’re all so- — very sophisticated people, and I’m not being solicitous. You travel the world. Have you met any foreign leader who suggests to you that they’d like to go back to where we were in the “America Only” position again? Have you found one?
Madeleine Albright was right. We are the essential nation. Like it or not, we are — not Joe Biden, America is the essential nation. And they’re looking for us to lead. And with your help, that’s what we’ll continue to do.
But nobody, nobody, nobody on God’s green Earth can justify what Hamas did. They’re a brutal, ugly, inhumane people, and they have to be eliminated.
Thank you all very much. (Applause.)
@Reader
Delays are all that would be needed.
@peloni
I don’t think the US will go as far as to stop weapons supply to Israel because all this so-called “aid” is in reality a subsidy for the US military-industrial complex, and the US gives such aid to the whole of the ME and a few other countries.
Of course, they may play games with delays and stuff but ultimately they need their profits.
Reader
Yes, Badran should be required reading by all. He truly has the pulse of all things related to the Levant.
Well, the US has Israel right where they want her. She is in the midst of a must win exercise in Gaza, where US munitions are an absolute must have. Yet, Israel should not play the part of America’s captive, but rather, she should stand tall look the US in the eye while continuing to express thanks for the US munitions sales, but stating clearly that they will not be deterred from securing their own security needs and publicly addressing Biden’s moves against Israel. As the contest of wills is between Bibi and Biden is being made more public, Gantz, ever the American stooley, has launched a broadside attack against Bibi on this point. Bibi must react by reacting to the threat which the US is leveraging against Israel’s success in the war and the post-war objectives. The ever looming threat of US aid delays, or withholding US veto in the UN are powerful tools with which the US can manipulate Israel against itself, which is why Bibi must address this issue directly. Biden won’t want this rift being made more public than it has thus far been made, and it will be very difficult for him to act against Israel in the coming months with the munitions or in the UN due to the political blitzkrieg which will result from any move against Israel during the election season.
In a previous piece by Badran he explains that the US has gone to war with Israel in defense of Iran. I would suggest the only way to diminish this reality is to address it openly, directly, and publicly. Waiting for the US to act differently while waging war against Israel’s security interests is just wasting time and wasting time to run out the election clock is what the US is wanting to achieve. They must act in their own defense now or forever regret that they did not. No submission to US demands, ending the war (more) quickly, and move onto the destruction of Hezbollah.
@peloni
Thanks for the reference to:
https://www.israpundit.org/biden-backdoors-israel-in-the-u-n-rescinding-trumps-recognition-of-sovereignty-over-the-golan/
I bookmarked it in September, marked it READ and forgot about it – it is extremely important, for example:
The highlighted part is EXACTLY what Amos Hochstein is negotiating about now with Hizballah when 60,000 Israeli residents have already been evacuated for an indefinite period of time from the northern border – and everyone in Israel is nice and quiet like nothing is happening.
@Adam Dalgliesh
A good description of the famines in the USSR in the 1930s:
https://www.rt.com/russia/588746-russophobic-myths-russia-ukraine/
My comment has been swallowed by the system AGAIN while being posted.
PLEASE, revive it.
I have a copy but I don’t want to keep reposting it.
@Adam Dalgliesh and FelixQuigley
[Everything I quote is from memory because I can no longer find the quotations on the Internet.]
The last political joke of the Third Reich:
Now take the same quote and replace the hair color with “reddish brown”, the accent with “Georgian”, and Germany with “the Soviet Union”, and those three words about ruins wouldn’t do it – the man would need a color presentation at least an hour long.
BTW, Stalin when he was young used to be an agent of the Okhrana, the tsarist security police.
Without getting into details, Stalin always wanted to be the one in charge of whatever group or project he was in and he was extremely creative and cunning in achieving his goals.
When he was made the general secretary of the party, someone in this position was basically in charge of the party’s documentation but he quickly realized that this could be utilized as the control hub since he had all the information.
For example, it was understood that the party ranks were not supposed to really expand but he not only expanded them greatly but the people he recruited as members were recruited from peasantry and owed their advancement to him personally, thus he created a large party base loyal to him, etc, etc.
Once Lenin started having health problems, especially after the attempted assassination, Stalin gradually took over his residence, his treatment, etc.
When his gradual takeover started to become visible, it was too late, and after Lenin died in 1924 (after becoming completely disabled) this takeover gained speed with Stalin using political intrigue to divide-and-conquer the Old Guard (set them against each other and then finish them off one-by-one).
I hope I am permitted to quote from Herr Adolph who allegedly said: “Stalin was no socialist. He actually recreated the Russian monarchy, except in a more cruel form.”
All want to kill Hamas in Israel, their is no divide on this between anyone in the government. The question is the other Arabs what to do with them.
It must be pointed out that peaceniks are not revolutionaries fighting for socialism. Others can fill in the detail through their own study but it is a fact that many on the left in Israel were all influenced in a great degree by Stalinism aka fairy tales about loving (sob sob) poor Palestinians so called
So when did Stalinism start and why? This is just available information. But not for say seven years after 1917.
Why and how?
Etc etc just needed the availability of information, organisation and an enquiring mind.
I have my own life. People can learn if they want to learn.
Thanks for your comment, Reader. I agree with everything you say. I hope we both have more luck inthe future getting our comments posted.
Actually, Felix I agree with you 100% that Stalin was a counter-revolutionary, even though he pretended to be a revolutinary. He ad almost every one of the “Old Bolsheviks” put to death or at the very least imprisoned in Siberia for long periods of time. Almost every Bolshevik who had been a party member before 1917, and any Bolshevik who held positions of authority in the Soviet government before Stalin’s consolidation of power in 1929. Stalin even had old personal friends such as Bukharin put to death. His obsession with killing Trotsky lled him to tgnore the threat to the Soviet state posed by the Hitler regime as he focused on his “mission” to kill Trotsky. None of the promises to the Russian and other Russian-empire peoples msdr by the Bolsheviks took power. There was a huge death rate under stalin. Some of the fatalities were inflicted on the Soviet peoples by Hitler. But there is overwhelming evidence that as many 27 million deaths were the result of the brutal policies of the Stalin regime, such as confiscating vast amounts of grain for export abroad, making profits for the from peasants without giving them any compensation whatsoever and leaving them to starve. For example, The terrible famine in the ukraine 1929-32, called by the Ukrainians the “Holodomor” (starving season) that caused an estimated 3 million deaths. And there were several other mass fimines that occurred during the Stalin regime and were a result of his brutal commands .
Adam relax. But you need to read much more. The Soviets started in the 1905 Revolution. That was the dress rehearsal. In 1917 Soviets were massive. Later years later not Soviet Russia but Stalinism Russia.
In other words there was a counter revolution
Sincerely you have been misguided in the most basic things.
@peloni
Thank you for your extremely valuable response.
About Amos Hochstein’s Hizballah deal – personally, I cannot believe that it is being conducted without consent and knowledge of the Government of Israel, although there is such a possibility.
About the goals of the West:
At first, your statement that
seems puzzling, however, after giving it some thought, I concluded that after the caliphate takes over the whole world, the West is planning to take over the caliphate thus accomplishing its (the West’s) goal by proxy.
PLEASE, RESTORE MY COMMENT (a response to Adam Dalgliesh – it is very polite and informative).
It took me so long to write it!
Something is REALLY WRONG with your software system.
Are you trying to give me a hint to stop commenting on this forum (at least about anything more serious than the weather)?
@Adam Dalgliesh
Sorry to interrupt your conversation with Felix but I mentioned elsewhere that the 20th century events proved that societies cannot jump over their stages of development (backward countries attempting to “build socialism”), nor can they slow down or stop the new stages whose time has come (these attempts cause revolutions or degenerate into fascism).
Marx understood this and yet contradicted himself by insisting on communist revolution (maybe because of the really bad conditions the workers existed under at the time, also his generation lived in the aftermath of the French Revolution of the late 18th cemtury):
The following is a good explanation of why “building socialism” didn’t work in the countries that attempted it (the process did the attempting societies in technology and education) and how such a phenomenon as Stalinist bureaucracy could appear (Stalin = another Tsar, our Dear Father):
Felix–I am a bit anxious about taking issue with your analysis , because I know that you get very passionate in a debate. I know that you won’t agree with I am writing, but don’t take it as a personal attack on you. It isn’t. The Communist Party ruled Soviet Union was not ruled by the working class but by what Trotsky described as the “bureaucracy”–party and state officials, most of whom were of middle class origin,. But even those who hwere of working class family backround did no manual labor once they became bureaucrats. Manual laborers, the proletariat and the peasantry, actually occupied thelowest rungs in the Soviet system, and were exploited even more intensively than in the tsarist era. There is much more that I could say on this matter, but I don’t think that Ted will post this comment if I go on and on
The ruling class today is also the ruling capitalist class as Marx and Engels explained in explicit historical detail, a fact that you APPEAR TO NOT RECOGNISE.
iran under the Mullahs is also fascist and is like Hitler.
The British and American power elites of course for a long time supported German Fascism because it saw Hitler as a certain bulwark against Russia which, horror of horrors, did create a social revolution
As the capitalist world leads humanity to the abyss the alliance with Iran, with all forms of Islam, with the Vatican is given support by American elites who fear the power of the working class and are petrified of losing power.
You see only one thing even though that one thing is indeed important.
This is generally a feature of bourgeois zionism because it rejects science and the Marxist METHOD was and is scientific.
@Felix
Their support for Islam is more specific than just Islam, as they are specifically supportive of those Islamists who oppose nation-states and borders, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Madhi obsessed Iranians. This is an important point to raise because the West have gone full tilt towards enacting their long held Liberal World Ordered vision of a world where nationalities would provide only geographic relevance, if any at all. So towards pursuing this agenda, the caliphate supporting Jihadi Islamists and the Liberal World Order are quite aligned. Though each of these groups have distinct end goal objectives, they see Israel and the Arab Sunni states as obstacles which needs to be eliminated to achieve these respective goals which explains their otherwise inexplicable alliance.
Peloni
Without any doubt at all that’s the strategic plan of the American, British and EU. Not only is Iran their baby but Islam is. For the EU write and read the EU including the Catholic state of Vatican Ireland out of which many have emerged, Biden of course, Pence, Clinton from the maternal Cassidy side. This is one of the chokeholds the Irish ruling elites have – their subjugation to Islam via the Vatican.
@Reader
@Felix
When you read the article which Felix posted, please take note the mention of the word ‘integration’. This term is meant to mask the reality being pursued by the current Washington administration. In fact, the true meaning of the word integration is realignment, and the realignment indicated is between the US and its new chosen regional favorite, Iran. Hochstein makes use of this term repeatedly, and its purpose is to secure Iran and its hold on its many proxies as condition of the US support of its historic allies. Make no mistake about this, Washington means to make Iran not only a nuclear power, but also to expand its role in institutions such as the Abraham Accords which were specifically designed to promote a regional opposition to Iran.
As to the issue of the coming Hezbollah deal, this is meant to role back Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan. There has been no mystery that Washington has been opposed to Trump’s recognition of both the Golan and Jerusalem. In the month prior to October 7, while using the UN, the US de facto rescinded its recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan when it included the language “the occupied Shab’a Farms” in the recent UNSC resolution 2695.
Tellingly, this took place one day after it was reported that a mega-deal by the US which was being put forward which included the reopening of the US consulate in Jerusalem, which would void Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.
It has been the position of the Biden White House that the TSS would be pressed upon Israel, and that it would be along pre-67 lines, which was being addressed long before Hochstein was appointed to play a role in any of this. Now that he has been appointed, it does appear to be little more than confirmation of what was already known to be Washington’s intention, which again is to affect a realignment away from Israel and towards Iran, which Washington, and now Hoschtein, euphemistically describe as their regional integration plan.
By the way, a better source than Glick on this subject is Tony Badran. His expertise on all aspects of the Levant is indespensible and Glick also references him in her article. Badran’s most recent and relevant article on this subject is here:
https://www.israpundit.org/biden-backdoors-israel-in-the-u-n-rescinding-trumps-recognition-of-sovereignty-over-the-golan/
but all of his writings are must reads, IMO of course.
@FelixQuigley
Thanks for the link.
Amos Hochstein seems to suffer from verbal diarrhea, I thought I was losing my mind while reading his outpourings.
Before Peloni speaks this is a pic of Hochstein here and example of how these kind of people talk.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/news/transcripts/bidens-energy-security-adviser-amos-hochstein-on-cop28-and-the-future-of-the-middle-east/
@peloni
What is your opinion about the news report that Amos Hochstein was offering Hizballah a part of northern Israel in exchange for Hizballah “becoming nice” to Israel?
https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/jns/israel-s-survival-clashes-with-america-s-lebanon-delusions/article_9710f3c3-0736-5ee1-a9da-375d75f8f7f4.html
@Bear
This is the statement reported by Glick:
In fairness, given the urban environment in which Israel is fighting, it is miraculous that the number of dead on a daily basis is not much higher than 10, but this is not due to miracles or chance, but due to pursuing operational planning which specifically denies the enemy such opportunities as are inherent in the clearing of such buildings as these members of the Golani brigade were involved.
Hence, if Glick is correct, and you are wrong, and these buildings are being cleared by needlessly exposing Israeli soldiers to appease the American demands, it is not only outrageous, but just further submission of Israel to US policies which seeks the death of Jews in preference of protecting the complicit Pals, as I stated.
@Peloni you do not know the Israelis did not level the building because of the USA policy.
It could have been for many reasons. Even in hindsight operational error. Thinking there were possibly hostages there.
I certainly hope it was not because of giving in to US pushing Israel. I actually do not think this is happening. I know that is your belief. People have their own beliefs and quite often they create their own truism or truth.
I have been watching in general what is Israel is doing militarily in-spite of Biden’s or Blinken’s or the State Departments reported words and I believe is fighting the war on their terms and doing very well.
@Bear
Yes, Friedman is among my favorite voices from America.
Regarding the quote by Ben Gurion, it would be well if that his what was taking place, but it isn’t. The Goyim known as The Big Guy and his Obama acolytes are making demands of Israel, which Israel IS acting upon. Yesterday 10 Israeli soldiers died while trying to clear a building which was rigged with explosives. That building should have been leveled by air attacks, and if that had been done, those 10 soldiers, 8 of whom were part of the Golani brigade, would not be among those being mourned by their family and their nation. In one day, due to acquiescing to demands by the US to soften the air campaign, Israel increased her dead by nearly 10%. This is how you turn Gaza into Bakmut. It lacks all sensibility, it lacks moral clarity, and it lacks the political courage needed to do exactly as Ben Gurion wisely advised. The simple result of this is many more dead Jews, which should not be mistaken to be the consequence of a senile old fool, but rather, should be recognized as being part of the ongoing American policy to manipulate Israel towards accepting the continued slaughter of her people, the loss of her security, and the maximization of the existential threats aimed against the Israeli people emanating from Iran as desired by those in power in the US.
Nothing here is due to either chance or Biden’s senility. It is just US policy.
@Peloni Ambassador Friedman is almost always spot on in his remarks. Those you quoted by him are 100% on the mark.
Biden I am happy is sending Israel weapons and ammunition. He is however a true senile contradictory person in many of his remarks.
Luckily Israelis will do what they need to do and are in-spite of remarks by many people who do not approve and/or understand our enemy and what we need to do. As Ben Gurion said it matters what the Jews do and not Goyim say!
“The Soros/Obama’s (the mufti of W DC) war on the West requires the elimination of Bibi.
Who can/will replace him for a time will come when …!
I read that Israel lost ten soldiers yesterday, indicating that US demands for more Israeli sacrifices as a consequence of its continued support for Hamas is having the desired effect.
Amb. Friedman responds to Biden’s statementa:
Miachel, I was shock at the article. Most of these places we could not find on a map, what happened to the leading Nations of the world, where is there support for Israel? Who was it, A Rabbi, I think who said, “if you’re not for me you’re against me”
Go ahead and spend the money and take your beloved on that trip. You can’t take it with you. 🙂
Biden’s speech was crap. But let’s try to pick the corn out of it. Or for the more sophisticated, “sift the wheat from the chaff.” Biden’s comments italicize.
We know that this year’s Hanukkah is different after October the 7th attack. As I said after the attack, the safety of the Jewish people, the literal security of Israel as an independent Jewish state is literally at stake. But it is unshakeable, our commitment to Israel.
We continue to provide military assistance to Israel as it goes after Hamas. – Important point, but why destroy Hamas now. The world has supported them for years?
We’ll continue leading the world in delivering humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilians as well to emphasize to our friends in Israel the need to protect civilian life. And they understand it, the vast majority of the population. – How do you root out evil, without harming those who have stood by and supported the evil in their mist. One Rabbi, said if you pull up the tares you destroy the wheat. Seems to me to be an obvious fact. But sometimes, you just have to be careful and weed the Garden. Could it be that Hamas is not serving their purpose and so they have to be destroyed before the new plan is imposed?
But most of all, we condemn Hamas’s using rape, sexual violence, terrorism, and torture of Israeli women and girls without equivocation, without exception.
You know, they — I saw some of the photographs when I was there — tying a mother and her daughter together on a rope and then pouring kerosene on them and then burning them, beheading infants, doing things that are just inhuman — totally, completely inhuman. – How can any reasonable, decent human being not want to respond to the Hamas evil and make them pay dearly.
My dad really was a righteous Christian. He taught me about the horrors of the Shoah. He’d ta- — we — and he’s — as a consequence, I’ve taken my grandchildren — my — my three children and my grandchildren, when they turned age 14, put them on a plane and flew them to Dachau because I wanted them to see, wanted them to spend the day there and understand that silence is complicity. – Giving Joe, the benefit of the doubt, maybe in his heart he really does understand, sometimes a man must swim upstream against pure evil.
Yesterday, at the Hanukkah reception at the White House, I met Holocaust survivors, including a widow of our dear friend, the late Elie Wiesel, who taught us about the perils of indifference.
I’ve been clear that our administration stands with you. We’re aggressively implementing America’s first-ever National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism: prosecuting hate crimes, addressing antisemitism in schools, increasing security around Jewish centers of Jewish life, and more.
In this moment, we have to hold on to the core values of who we are as Americans. The core values are equity, equality, justice, freedom, dignity, respect — values that, from the inception of our nation, have shaped literally the culture, contributions, and values of the Jewish Americans — including all of you that are here — Americans. – Maybe, Joe understands in his deepest thoughts that the shaping of America and the world is due to the values of the Jewish people. Those values learned form Torah and given to them to spread to the entire world. Could Joe be, trying to support Israel in his last days, so that when he stands before his maker, he will have a merit? Trying to bless Israel one last time. It has been my experience that old age brings a sharping of the mind, before one journeys to meet their maker. Could it be, Joe is just playing a game, and when Hamas is suppressed, then a two-state solution will be imposed on Israel?
Pharaoh was once for the children of Israel, then he oppressed, then he helped and supported them, and he let them go and then he changed his mind.
Then Joe’s speech turns to Sh……. And he concludes with the following.
First and foremost, do everything in our power to hold Hamas accountable — every single thing in our power. They’re animals. They’re animals. They exceeded anything that any other terrorist group has done of late that I — in memory.
But, secondly, we have to work toward bringing Israel together in a way that provides for the beginning of option — an option of a two-state solution,
But nobody, nobody, nobody on God’s green Earth can justify what Hamas did. They’re a brutal, ugly, inhumane people, and they have to be eliminated.
Sometimes words speak louder then actions!
“German state of Saxony-Anhalt now requires citizenship applicants to sign statement in support of Israel…While states may enact their own rules regarding naturalization requirements for applicants living within their jurisdiction, there already have been attempts to tighten naturalization requirements on a national level. Most recently, on Nov. 15, the CDU faction in the Bundestag, referring to the Hamas attacks, proposed a draft law “to terminate the residence and prevent the naturalization of antisemitic foreigners” in Germany.
Back in June 2021, the CDU already had proposed expelling or “preventing the naturalization of antisemitic foreigners” and requiring that citizenship applicants swear that they will not attempt to undermine the state of Israel.
They also proposed a prison sentence of at least six months and the denial or loss of financial support for asylum applicants convicted of an antisemitic crime, rather than just expulsion.”
– JTA Dec 6
“BERLIN (JTA) — Recognizing Israel’s right to exist is now mandatory for those who want to become German citizens in the former East German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Applicants living in the state will have to confirm in writing “that they recognize Israel’s right to exist and condemn any efforts directed against the existence of the State of Israel.” Saxony-Anhalt’s interior minister, Tamara Zieschang, a member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party, said Tuesday that the rule went into effect at the end of November.
The new state law is fueled by concerns over antisemitism here, which has spiked across Germany and the rest of Western Europe following the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.
In its decree, reportedly shared internally at the end of November, Saxony-Anhalt also requires naturalization agents to be on the lookout for antisemitic and anti-democratic attitudes among applicants.
The state regulation comes as the Bundestag, or German parliament, is about to pick up debate again on a new law originally intended to speed up and ease the process of naturalization. The law might have even allowed new citizens to hold on to their original passports.
But that debate was put off in November, with some politicians arguing that a rise in domestic antisemitism after Oct. 7 did not allow for relaxed citizenship laws. Debate is due to resume this month.
“Without a doubt, the new law will have some words about antisemitism, whereby an application for citizenship could be denied not only because of violence or a violation of the law, but if there is some information about antisemitic attitudes,” Bundestag member Helge Lindh told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a telephone interview.
But it is not yet clear whether a national law will also require a signed statement of loyalty to Israel, said Lindh, who is rapporteur for migration and asylum policies for the Social Democratic Party, the center-left party led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
A national loyalty statement was reportedly proposed after Oct. 7, but critics have argued that it would target people of Arabic or Muslim background and that it would be a safer bet legally to focus on the antisemitism litmus test.
“People have to sign their support of the constitution already,” Lindh continued, adding that “many specialists say that just to confirm you are not antisemitic does not mean you are not antisemitic.”
The new law in Saxony-Anhalt “is a quite strange development,” he added, “because citizenship law is a federal law. In the end, it does not make sense if you have different rules for citizenship in the different German states.”
Some Israel advocates here are still celebrating the new state law.
“I think it is amazing, and it is something I would expect from every state,” said Sacha Stawski, president and founder of the Frankfurt-based pro-Israel initiative Honestly Concerned. Although there are legal grounds for denying citizenship, “Germany has been extremely lenient in all states regarding this issue,” he said. “We don’t need any more antisemites in this country, we really don’t.”
According to news reports, Zieschang expressed solidarity with Israel immediately after the Hamas attack. Echoing the words of former Chancellor Angela Merkel in her historic address to Israel’s parliament in March 2008, she said that Israel’s right to exist “is and remains” a “raison d’état,” or essential tenet of the German state.
While states may enact their own rules regarding naturalization requirements for applicants living within their jurisdiction, there already have been attempts to tighten naturalization requirements on a national level. Most recently, on Nov. 15, the CDU faction in the Bundestag, referring to the Hamas attacks, proposed a draft law “to terminate the residence and prevent the naturalization of antisemitic foreigners” in Germany.
Back in June 2021, the CDU already had proposed expelling or “preventing the naturalization of antisemitic foreigners” and requiring that citizenship applicants swear that they will not attempt to undermine the state of Israel.
They also proposed a prison sentence of at least six months and the denial or loss of financial support for asylum applicants convicted of an antisemitic crime, rather than just expulsion.”
https://www.jta.org/2023/12/06/global/german-state-of-saxony-anhalt-now-requires-citizenship-applicants-to-sign-statement-in-support-of-israel
Tanna,
That’s an impressive list! If I were 20 years younger and a $million richer, I’d love to take my wife on a cruise to Micronesia, Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
The hill reported today that the Un Resolution to stop Israel from destroying Hamas was voted on. Israel and the USA voted against it. Eight (8) other nations/countries stood with Israel. they are:
• Austria
• Czechia
• Guatemala
• Liberia
• Micronesia
• Nauru
• Papua New Guinea
• Paraguay
According to Biden’s speech he seems to be uninformed about a few things.
Ted, please correct your AI amd/ot techie so that my posts stop being automatically sent to trash, That is not right.
That reads like a bunch of crap, damned crap…