Biden’s interference

His administration’s approach to two flashpoints – in the UK and the Middle East – is based on a chronic failure to acknowledge reality.

By Melanie Phillips

Israel isn’t the only country that’s having to cope with a US administration threatening to undermine its security.

President Joe Biden last week ordered a senior American diplomat to issue a severe formal rebuke to Britain for the way it is dealing with the European Union over Northern Ireland.

Accordingly, Yael Lempert, the acting head of the US mission to the United Kingdom, issued a diplomatic reprimand to Britain’s Brexit minister, Lord Frost, and delivered a veiled threat that America’s proposed trade deal with Britain depended upon Boris Johnson’s government acceding to Biden’s demands.

The noxiousness of this rebuke – more commonly issued to adversaries than to an ally – doesn’t just derive from America interfering in the policies of a sovereign country. It’s also because, just as with Israel, this interference is based on an ignorant and dangerously partisan view that, under the guise of advancing peace, is in fact a powerful incentive to further violence and aggression.

Lempert told Frost that Biden wanted the United Kingdom to settle its dispute with the EU even if that meant making “unpopular compromises.”

She suggested that in his robust negotiations with the EU, Frost was threatening to undermine the 1998 Northern Ireland “Good Friday” peace agreement.

The row centers on part of the Brexit deal with the EU known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, which resulted from the British government’s desperate attempt to untie a Gordian knot created by the Good Friday Agreement.

That agreement brought to an end years of terrorist violence between Northern Ireland’s majority Protestants and its Catholic minority, and against the British who had tried to keep the peace in this province of the United Kingdom.

Crucially, it involved an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The agreement thus created a delicate balance between its guarantee to Northern Ireland’s Protestants that the island of Ireland would not be unified without their consent, and the simultaneous impression for Catholic Republicans of one seamless Irish territory of which the open border was a key feature.

Since the Republic of Ireland remains in the EU while Northern Ireland left it along with the rest of the United Kingdom, the problem arose of trade checks with the province that the EU would now require.

In order to avoid creating a “hard” border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, the British government decided instead to leave the province inside the EU’s economic “single market.” This meant making the required EU checks on goods traffic between Northern Ireland and the British mainland.

This effectively created an invisible economic border down the middle of the Irish Sea, thus abandoning Northern Ireland’s Protestant Unionists to an anomalous limbo land. The only way through this political minefield was for people of good faith in Brussels and Dublin to adopt the lightest of touches to border trade controls.

According to Frost, the EU has been insisting instead on an over-the-top application of these controls, thus risking reigniting violent Protestant agitation.

Into this complex and potentially incendiary situation has waded Joe Biden. He is insisting that Britain cave into the EU’s demand for the protocol to be applied to the letter on the basis that this is needed to preserve the Good Friday Agreement. What he fails to grasp is that, according to a key architect of that peace deal, Lord Trimble, the protocol itself subverts and undermines that agreement.

Accordingly, he wrote this week, the EU’s false claim that it was protecting the agreement in its fight with Britain was stirring up Protestant anger and rising tensions on the streets.

Yet Biden is actually backing that claim. Far from promoting peace, what he is advocating will instead further increase the risk of renewed sectarian violence in the province.

The similarities with his approach to Israel are striking. Over Northern Ireland, he is blackmailing Britain into abandoning its legal and moral obligations to the province’s Protestants and imperiling their security.

As seen in the recent hostilities between Israel and Hamas, when the United States demanded an Israeli ceasefire even while rocket barrages from Gaza were still being fired at Israeli towns, Biden also tries to pressure Israel into undermining its security and its defense of its people.

His administration’s approach to both these flashpoints is based on a chronic failure to acknowledge reality.

Emotionally invested in Northern Ireland through his own Irish Catholic ancestry, Biden twists the facts to the Catholic narrative and totally ignores Britain’s legal and moral duty towards the Protestant community.

While he personally supports Israel, the administration he has created refuses to acknowledge the existential nature of Palestinian rejectionism. These officials view the Arab war against Israel instead through the distorting prism of moral equivalence, which twists the facts to indulge the Palestinians who aim to destroy it.

Just as Biden’s interference threatens to undermine the Good Friday Agreement, his administration’s interference in the Middle East by re-empowering the Palestinians, appeasing Iran, and trying to drive a wedge between Israel and Saudi Arabia threatens to undermine the most important development for peace in the region for a century: the Abraham Accords.

Indeed, according to The Washington Free Beacon, the Biden administration won’t even use this term, ordaining that the accords be referred to only as “normalization agreements.”

This petulance and spite towards a historic agreement that has made a mockery of the Foggy Bottom consensus on Israel and the Palestinians tells us that the Biden administration’s attitude to the Middle East is based not on realism or pragmatism, but on emotion and ideology.

It shows that the administration will deny hard facts in order to preserve fantasies, such as Palestinian “victimhood” and the illusory two-state solution, that define today’s progressive identity.

Israel itself is currently in the throes of unprecedented political convulsions. On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year stint as prime minister ended when an improbable coalition of rightists, leftists, centrists and the Arab Ra’am Party were sworn in as Israel’s government.

With no one able to say with certainty that such a coalition will even endure, it’s impossible to predict what its policies will be. No one can say whether the rightists will abandon principle and allow themselves to be held hostage by the Left; or whether the Left will swallow right-wing policies to stay in power; or whether the Ra’am leader really will abandon his Islamist holy war against Israel and settle for the pragmatic priority of improving the lot of Israel’s Arab citizens.

Despite these unknowables, there are hopes in the progressive world that the very existence of such a coalition will soften Western hostility to Israel and break down barriers with the Biden administration.

Yet whatever the coalition does, Western hostility won’t dissipate because it is based on an irrational hatred that treats any concession Israel may make as merely a further sign of its innate perfidy.

As for the Biden administration, stuffed with officials who either hate or are indifferent to Israel and the Jewish people, the only Israeli policies that would break down such barriers are those that would leave Israel twisting in the genocidal wind.

In Northern Ireland the Republican Sinn Féin Party, which has a history of rank anti-Semitism, promotes the left-wing Israel demonization agenda, while the Republic of Ireland is one of the most extreme anti-Israel countries in Europe. In stark contrast, Northern Ireland’s Protestants have long been strong supporters of Israel. They identify with the Israelis’ struggle against existential foes, global disdain and perfidious “friends.”

With the Biden administration’s perverse interference in their own affairs, further endangering their security while doing the same to the Israelis, these two causes are now joined at the hip against an America that has lost the geopolitical plot.

June 15, 2021 | 5 Comments »

Leave a Reply

5 Comments / 5 Comments

  1. For what it’s worth, I wish I had any expectation that this administration was limited by the sadly impaired, racist, reprobate in the White House, who is given to wild outbursts and awkward recollections best not shared. We could all rest safer knowing Senile Joe was not Obama #3. But sadly, Obama’s back and the reality is that his plans to challenge the world’s sanity is back as well.

    This is evident as the same satraps that were running things under Obama are back in similar roles they ran in 2008-16. These players are Obama’s players, and they run the policy wagon, not Senile Joe. As I recall Robert Malley was the mastermind behind the JPOA and a large part of the force behind organizing the Obama #2 administration towards its passage. And he has returned for a redo. Along with Blinken and others. Joe is a public figure-head. The real show is off-screen and, I don’ believe he has any role in it.

  2. Biden when talking publicly about Putin and his situation sounded very confused and mixing up Libya and Syria. He appeared to be having a very senior moment. While talking Putin he was holding notes to try and stay on topic.

    Really embarrassing for the USA truly a sign weakness.

    Regan was not totally with it for part of his Presidency. His aides protected him much better. An Israeli who was with Begin on one of the trips to the White House told stories of how completely not with it Regan was when on one of the trips.

    If Biden wants something from Israel that they do not wish to comply with, the Israelis should act like Japanese do and say I understand or that will be very difficult I will think about it. He will probably forget the conversation in an hour.

  3. Biden is giving Bennett til after he has a budget to make his demands of concessions to the Pals. He has a hundred days reprieve before Lapid will try to work his magic for Pals and Americans alike.

    iden admin gives Israel a reprieve on PA issue
    Report: US has conveyed a message to Israel that it will not bother the new government on Palestinian Arab issue until a budget is passed.
    Tags: Peace Talks PA Israel-US Biden administration
    Elad Benari, Canada , Jun 19 , 2021 2:18 AM
    Share

    Bennett government sworn in
    Bennett government sworn in
    Hezki Baruch

    The United States has conveyed a message to Israel in recent days that it will not bother the new government on the Palestinian Arab issue until a budget is passed, Channel 12 News reported on Friday.

    The budget is due to be approved within 140 days, meaning the Bennett-Lapid government has four months in which the Biden administration will not try to advance the Palestinian Arab issue.

    According to the report, this move by the Americans stems from the understanding that raising the issue will create the most significant minefield for the new government, which includes members from across the political spectrum, ranging from Mossi Raz of Meretz to Ayelet Shaked of Yamina.

    The Biden administration has several times expressed support for the “two-state solution” as the only solution for the longstanding Israel-PA conflict.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently asserted that the two-state solution is the only way to provide hope to Israelis and Palestinian Arabs that they can live “with equal measures of security, of peace and dignity.”

    “If there isn’t positive change, and particularly if we can’t find a way to help Palestinians live with more — with more dignity and with more hope, this cycle is likely to repeat itself, and that is in no one’s interest,” the Secretary of State said.

    The Biden administration’s support for the two-state solution is a policy shift from the previous administration of Donald Trump.

    While Trump said while in office he thought the two-state solution “works best”, he also said he would be comfortable with what the sides ultimately decide on.

    Trump last year unveiled his so-called “Deal of the Century” peace plan, which Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas was quick to reject, saying it would be relegated to the “dustbin of history.”

    Past efforts under the Obama administration to broker a peace agreement failed in 2014 when the PA unilaterally applied to join international organizations in breach of the conditions of the talks.

  4. Biden showed strong signs of seniity in a press conference in London during his recent visit. Please watch the video in th Daily Mail. It is shocking.

    Biden repeatedly mixes up Syria and Libya
    11:53 EDT, 14 June 2021
    By

    Published: 06:47 EDT, 14 June 2021 |

    repeatedly confused with Libya while discussing ways of working with during a press conference at the G7 on Sunday.

    The 78-year-old gaffe machine spoke of working with to provide economic assistance to the people of Libya, prompting some confused glances from the press pack at the G7 summit in Cornwall, England.

    ‘I’m hopeful that we can find an accommodation where we can save the lives of people in — for example, in — in Libya,’ the president said, mentioning the north African country for the third time instead of Syria, which is in the Middle East.

    The White House later brushed the confusion off, confirming that the president was indeed referring to Syria, the country where Russia and the US have been involved in a decade-long civil war.

    ‘I’m hopeful that we can find an accommodation where we can save the lives of people in — for example, in — in Libya,’ the president said, mentioning the north African country for the third time instead of Syria, in the Middle East
    ‘I’m hopeful that we can find an accommodation where we can save the lives of people in — for example, in — in Libya,’ the president said, mentioning the north African country for the third time instead of Syria, in the Middle East
    The White House later brushed the confusion off, confirming that it was indeed, Syria, the country where Russia and the US have been involved in a decade-long civil war, which the president was referring to
    The White House later brushed the confusion off, confirming that it was indeed, Syria, the country where Russia and the US have been involved in a decade-long civil war, which the president was referring to

    Some had guessed that he was confused when he mentioned Libya, which most would not put at the top of a list when sitting down to negotiate with Putin.

    Although there are similarities between the two countries – both have been plagued by civil war, Islamism and seen the military intervention of Washington and Moscow – these are only surface issues.

    Lebanese geopolitical commentator Sarah Abdallah tweeted: ‘I guess when you’re bombing so many countries at once, it’s hard to keep up.’

    The blunder came days after he called Britain’s Royal Air Force the ‘RFA’ while addressing US military personnel at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk during his first-ever speech as President on British soil.

    Mr Biden told US troops: ‘These partnerships have been hardened in the fire of war. Generations of Americans and service members fought them. Like the original Bloody Hundredth, and those RFA pilots.’

    He had already been admonished by his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, who told him to ‘pay attention’ as the President stared at troops positioned behind the stage at the military base.

    The US commander-in-chief, the oldest ever to occupy the White House, has been the subject of repeated questions about his mental faculties and fitness to be in charge of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.

    He is known to make mistakes, have mix-ups or even digress during speeches or while answering questions.

    And British pro-Brexit politicians today called him ‘senile’ in a feud over White House accusations that Boris Johnson has ‘inflamed’ tensions in Northern Ireland in a dispute with the EU over trade arrangements.

    In March, the President was seen falling up the stairs three times while boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews before finally reaching the top and saluting. White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later claimed that he had been blown over by the wind.

    Biden also referred to his vice president Kamala Harris as ‘President Harris’, forgotten the name of his Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and confused his granddaughter with his late son, Beau.

    His most recent gaffe came on the last day of the G7 summit of world leaders in Cornwall, southeast England.

    Biden and First Lady Jill with the Queen at Windsor Castle on Sunday
    Biden and First Lady Jill with the Queen at Windsor Castle on Sunday
    Biden as VP meeting Putin in 2011. The pair are set for another in Switzerland on Wednesday, with a lot more on the table this time
    Biden as VP meeting Putin in 2011. The pair are set for another in Switzerland on Wednesday, with a lot more on the table this time
    Transcript of Biden mixing up Syria with Libya

    And so, there’s a lot going on where we can work together with Russia. For example, in Libya, we should be opening up the passes to be able to go through and provide — provide food assistance and economic — I mean, vital assistance to a population that’s in real trouble.

    I think I’m going to try very much — hard to — it is — and, by the way, there’s places where — I shouldn’t be starting off on negotiating in public here. But let me say it this way: Russia has engaged in activities which are — we believe are contrary to international norms, but they have also bitten off some real problems they’re going to have trouble chewing on.

    And, for example, the rebuilding of — of Syria, of Libya, of — you know, this is — they’re there. And as long as they’re there without the ability to bring about some order in the — in the region, and you can’t do that very well without providing for the basic economic needs of people.

    So I’m hopeful that we can find an accommodation that –where we can save the lives of people in — for example, in — in Libya, that — consistent with the interest of — maybe for different reasons — but reached it for the same reason — the same result.

    The countries include Britain, the US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy, but Biden is planning to meet Putin in Switzerland on Wednesday – a summit organised following a rise in tensions at the Ukrainian border which led to fears of an invasion in mid-April.

    Biden and First Lady Jill visited the Queen for a private audience at Buckingham Palace later on Sunday. He is the 13th president to meet the 95-year-old monarch.

    He is due to meet with European Union chiefs in Brussels on Tuesday before travelling to Switzerland.

    ‘We expect this meeting to be candid and straightforward,’ a White House official said.

    Biden is set to discuss the Kremlin’s frayed relationship with the West, including cyber attacks on the United States, aggression against Ukraine and the jailing of dissidents.

    Biden referred to Putin as a ‘killer’ in an interview in March.

    Asked about this characterisation by a US broadcaster last week, Putin said: ‘This is not something I worry about in the least.’

    Tripping up the stairs, calling Kamala Harris ‘president’ and introducing his granddaughter as his late son: Biden’s numerous gaffes over the years

    Over the past few years, President Joe Biden has made the news for things he’s said and done – but not related to policy.

    Rather the 78-year-old has had a knack for gaffes.

    During speeches or while answering questions, Biden is known to make mistakes, have mix-ups or even digress.

    The commander-in-chief has even been caught tripping a time or two, raising speculation about his physical health.

    DailyMail.com has compiled many of Biden’s notable mis-speaks. foot-in-mouth moments and slips.

    SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS

    Over the years, President Joe Biden has made numerous gaffes and mix-ups and has even been caught falling. Pictured: Biden falling while walking up the stairs of Air Force One
    Over the years, President Joe Biden has made numerous gaffes and mix-ups and has even been caught falling. Pictured: Biden falling while walking up the stairs of Air Force One
    TRIPPING WHILE BOARDING AIR FORCE ONE

    On Friday, video captured Biden tripping up the stairs as he boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews.

    In the clip, Biden stumbles as he walks up the airstairs. He grabs the hand railing to catch his balance, but then loses his footing two additional times.

    During the third stumble, he falls to his knees. However, after brushing off his leg, he reaches the top of the plane and gives a salute before disappearing inside.

    White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later told reporters that Biden was ‘100 percent fine’ and preparing for his trip in Atlanta.

    ‘It’s pretty windy outside. It’s very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself,’ she said.

    On Friday, he was caught tripping up the stairs as he boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews
    On Friday, he was caught tripping up the stairs as he boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews

    President Joe Biden FALLS up the stairs of Air Force One

    CALLING KAMALA ‘PRESIDENT HARRIS’

    Just one day earlier, Biden accidentally referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘President Harris.’

    The gaffe occurred during a press conference on Thursday, during which he lauded his administration for being close to meeting their goal of 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office.

    ‘Now when President Harris and I took a virtual tour of a vaccination center in Arizona not long ago, one of the nurses on that, on that tour injecting people, giving vaccinations, said that each shot was like administering a dose of hope,’ Biden said.

    Harris was standing behind Biden as the president carried on with his speech, but did not correct himself.

    Later that day, when the White House released the of his speech, Harris’s proper title was inserted with brackets.

    Just one day earlier, during a press conference on Thursday (pictured), he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘President Harris’
    Just one day earlier, during a press conference on Thursday (pictured), he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘President Harris’

    Joe Biden calls Kamala ‘President Harris’ in latest gaffe

    FORGOT NAME OF SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

    In a speech on March 9, Biden seemed to fumble with his words and forget the name of his Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

    ‘I want to thank Sec – the former general – I keep calling him ‘General,” Biden said.

    ‘My – the guy who runs that outfit over there. I want to make sure we thank the Secretary for all he’s done to try to implement what we’ve just talked about, and for recommending these two women for promotion.’

    The slip-occurred despite the fact that just a few minutes earlier, he had mentioned Austin’s name in the speech without an issue.

    Earlier this month, while making a speech, Biden seemed to forget the name of his Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (above)
    Earlier this month, while making a speech, Biden seemed to forget the name of his Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (above)

    Awkward moment Joe Biden forgets defense secretary’s name

    INTRODUCES GRANDDAUGHTER AS HIS SON

    During an Election Day speech in Philadelphia, Biden stumbled over his words and confused his granddaughter with his late son, Beau Biden.

    Biden told the crowd: ‘I want to introduce you to two of my granddaughters…this is my son, Beau Biden who a lot of you helped elect to the Senate in Delaware.’

    The commander-in-chief had meant to introduce the crowed to Natalie, Beau’s daughter, but hadn’t just mixed up the name but the person – he also put his arm around Finnegan Biden, Hunter’s daughter.

    He finally corrected himself as he draped his arm around Natalie’s shoulder and said: ‘This is Natalie, this is Beau’s daughter.’

    Beau Biden passed away in 2015 after a months-long battle with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest types of brain cancer.

    On Election Day, in November, Biden introduced a crowd to his granddaughter, but referred to her as his son
    On Election Day, in November, Biden introduced a crowd to his granddaughter, but referred to her as his son

    ‘This is my son, Beau’: Biden confuses granddaughter for dead son

    TOLD STATE SENATOR IN WHEELCHAIR TO STAND UP

    Not all of Biden’s gaffes occurred in the 2020s or even the 2010s. In fact, some happened in the early aughts.

    In September 2008, after Biden had been named former President Barack Obama’s running mate, he attended a campaign rally in Missouri.

    It was there that he called on then-Missouri state senator Chuck Graham, who passed away last year. to stand up for the crowd.

    In 2008, Biden told then-Missouri state senator Chuck Graham to stand up for the crowd at a rally, before realizing he was in a wheelchair
    In 2008, Biden told then-Missouri state senator Chuck Graham to stand up for the crowd at a rally, before realizing he was in a wheelchair
    ‘I’m told Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up Chuck, let ’em see you,’ Biden said.

    It was at that moment he realized Graham was in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy.

    ‘Oh, God love you. What am I talking about. I’ll tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up, though, pal.’

    According to the , Graham said he was never offended by the mistake.

    Advertisement

    Share or comment on this article: