Is there a Margaret Thatcher in the house who can help stiffen Joe Biden’s spine?
The late British prime minister, in a 1990 phone call during the early days of the first Gulf war, famously told a hesitant President George H. W. Bush that it “was no time to go wobbly.”
As Thatcher recounts in her first memoir, “The Downing Street Years,” Bush appeared reluctant to act decisively following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.
Although the United Nations Security Council approved a trade embargo of Iraq, it was left largely to the US and UK to enforce it.
Fortunately, Bush adopted the Iron Lady’s resolve and soon unleashed Operation Desert Storm, leading to a retreat of Iraq’s forces and a smashing allied triumph.
Biden needs a Thatcher now to set him straight during the current Mideast conflict.
Faced with Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and a shaky re-election campaign, the president isn’t just going wobbly in his support for our embattled ally — he’s inching toward a full betrayal of Israel to appease American radicals.
His actions and statements are more troubling than those of the officials Thatcher ridiculed as “faint hearts” or “drifting with the tide.”
It is dishonest to defend Biden’s undercutting of Israel as part of some strategic view of how to bring a just and lasting peace to the region.
His words and actions increasingly have little to do with peace and everything to do with pandering to domestic political critics.
A timeline of the president’s shifting attitude shows his position, which began as forceful backing of Israel after the Oct. 7 invasion by Hamas, changed as large parts of the Democrats’ base made it clear they would not vote for him because of his support for Israel.
Some of those people, who include Muslim Americans and leftist students at elite colleges, can be charitably described as ignorant of both history and current events, especially their absurd accusations that Israel is committing “genocide.”
They claim to be concerned about the suffering of Palestinian civilians, but voiced no concern that Hamas uses those civilians as human shields and turned Gaza into a terrorist launching pad while stealing billions of foreign aid.
Nor are they moved by the horrific events of Oct. 7, including the slaughter of Israeli children and the raping and torture of women.
Many other Biden objectors are classic antisemites who oppose Israel’s very existence.
These so-called protesters, some of them violent, don’t try to hide their support for Hamas’ plan to control all land “from the river to the sea.”
Antisemitism at home
Biden makes no distinction about the critics’ motivations and is disgracefully mute about the shocking explosion of antisemitism in America.
Instead, in a recent meeting with Muslim voters in Michigan, an administration aide — not a campaign aide — arrived full of apologies and said the White House knows it made mistakes in its approach.
“We are very well aware that we have misstepped in the course of responding to this crisis,” said deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, according to a recording obtained by CBS News.
Days earlier, the White House slapped sanctions on four Israelis in the West Bank, accusing them of violence toward Palestinians.
Then aides announced last week they were investigating whether Israel misused American munitions in Gaza.
To put further distance between the two governments, Biden flunkies leak that he intensely dislikes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and disparages him as an “asshole.”
He tells donors Israeli bombing was “indiscriminate” and mumbles at a press conference that Israel’s reaction to Oct. 7 is “over the top.”
His words sting, but his policies are far more dangerous.
They include a demand for an immediate cease-fire before Hamas has been eliminated or releases its hostages, some of them American citizens.
If the war stopped now, the terror group would retain control of Gaza.
It would also siphon off much of the billions of dollars likely to be contributed to rebuilding, just as it now seizes much of the daily humanitarian aid.
Similarly, Biden’s push for the creation of a Palestinian state rewards Hamas’ brutality and would result in perpetual war that could become a global conflict.
Hamas’ open hatred
It is also astonishing that Biden ignores how Hamas leaders in Qatar and Lebanon say publicly they will not accept any “two-state solution” because it implies acceptance of a Jewish state.
“I would like to say two things about the two-state solution. First, we have nothing to do with the two-state solution,” Hamas official Khaled Mashal said in a TV interview.
“We reject this notion, because it means you would get a promise for a [Palestinian] state, yet you are required to recognize the legitimacy of the other state, which is the Zionist entity.
He added: “This is unacceptable.”
That’s not an unusual view.
Polling shows up to 80% of all Palestinians support Hamas’ invasion, including a big majority in the West Bank.
Some historians compare the challenge of Palestinian state-building to the denazification of Germany after World War II.
Does Biden see that?
Most appalling, his policies skirt around Iran’s role. It is the head of the snake and directs and finances every terror group calling for Israel’s destruction, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Iran sits back & smiles
Every one of the president’s criticisms of Israel and his effort to micromanage and curtail its military strategy must come as welcome news to Iran and those proxies.
As such, Biden gives them no reason to change their ways.
The job of selling his pre-election snake oil falls to Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who is spewing nonsense in his ’round-the-region shuttles.
Lately he’s been marketing a Palestinian state to Israel as the key to unlock normalization agreements with Arab states.
“Virtually every Arab country now genuinely wants to integrate Israel into the region to normalize relations . . . to provide security commitments and assurances so that Israel can feel more safe,” Blinken said Saturday at the annual Munich Security Conference.
“And there’s also, I think the imperative, that’s more urgent than ever, to proceed to a Palestinian state that also ensures the security of Israel.”
Blinken, like his boss, conveniently ignores two enormous facts: First, the Trump administration secured the Abraham Accords with four Muslim nations without endangering Israel’s survival.
And Saudi Arabia was moving toward normalization last year without a Palestinian state, which Hamas cited as a reason for its attack on Israel.
Second, there is no credible vision for a Palestinian state that ensures the security of Israel.
It’s an oxymoron, as has been proven repeatedly for 75 years.
Hamas’ invasion was different only in the scale of its fiendish success.
It brought about the largest single-day loss of Jewish life since the end of the Holocaust.
And it is committed to doing the same thing again and again.
Is Biden so addled that he doesn’t understand that?
Or is he so fixated on a second term that he doesn’t care?
