An article in the conservative National Review by Elliot Abrams claims that President Biden “is perhaps the last Democrat to make it to the top in the generation that sort of loved Israel.”

Abrams elaborated that Democrats in the same age group as Biden, including Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, “lived through the wars of 1956, 1967, and 1973; they watched Yasser Arafat lead terrorist attacks and say no to every offer of peace.”

The report quotes Biden as saying upon receiving the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor in 2022: “I can say without hesitation that being known as a friend of Israel and receiving this award today is among the greatest honors of my career. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

Abrams believes that Biden meant those words and “that’s what makes the abandonment of Israel (and other allies) in Biden’s pending new deal with Iran so striking.”

“The new arrangement (an informal one — so the administration can argue that congressional approval is not needed), as described in the press, is this: Iran says it will stop trying to kill American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, will release the American hostages it holds, and will limit uranium enrichment to 60 percent. In exchange, the United States will unfreeze between $15 billion and $20 billion, and will continue to allow Iran to export oil despite U.S. sanctions that forbid it. It’s worth remembering that when Trump left office in January 2021, Iran’s accessible reserves were down to about $4 billion. Today, they are ten or 20 times that — the proceeds mostly of oil sales that the Biden administration allowed by failing to enforce U.S. sanctions.

“It is fair to say that the United States is paying Iran to stop taking American hostages and trying to kill Americans, an amazing response by a superpower to violent and unlawful actions by a vulnerable middle power. As to the 60 percent enrichment level, that will put Iran well on the road to enriching uranium to weapons grade — and the enrichment to 60 percent has no other possible purpose.”

“But in doing so, he has abandoned Israel and all other American friends in the region who are vulnerable to Iran. The deal contains no limits whatsoever on Iran’s continuing missile program. It contains no limits on conventional arms sales to and by Iran. It contains no limits on Iran’s supplies of arms and cash to Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) — and in fact, PIJ’s leaders were visiting Tehran on June 16. And of course, the deal infuses the ayatollah’s regime with cash only months after it brutally repressed an uprising by the Iranian people.

“It’s very clear that Iran has a strategy underway of encircling Israel by establishing and arming proxy groups in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. This deal contains no constraints on this Iranian strategy — and provides Iran with billions of dollars with which to implement it.

“From the Israeli perspective, this deal shows an American government anxious to exit the Middle East and willing to see the threats to American friends and allies there increased. Iran will have more cash to give the terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank who are attacking Israel every day, and to Hezbollah so that its immense arsenal can grow further. The deal proposes no restraint on Iran’s actions against Israel or anyone else except the small detachments of Americans in the region and the small number of Americans foolish enough to enter Iran.

“The agreement also makes it harder for Israel to strike at Iran’s growing nuclear program, because the administration will now argue that with enrichment capped at 60 percent, there’s no imminent danger. Iran, meanwhile, can improve its enrichment capabilities, upgrade its centrifuges, and continue secret work on a warhead.

“All of this reflects the Biden administration’s — and over many years, America’s — unwillingness to confront Iran over behavior that has for decades included killing Americans. One can think of other possible responses to the taking of hostages, ranging all the way back to “millions for defense but not one cent for tribute” in 1797. This time, it looks like up to $20 billion for tribute. One can think of a different response to the efforts to kill American soldiers, such as threatening or striking Iran for such conduct until it ceases. And one can believe that a sufficient military deterrent would stop Iran from producing a nuclear weapon — if the Iranian regime believed the United States actually meant what several consecutive presidents (including Joe Biden) have said about preventing Iran from having one.

“President Biden, who in his way is a strong supporter of Israel, wishes once again to go down the path blazed in the JCPOA in 2015 — and opposed by Israelis of the Left and the Right in a great show of unity. That path pays Iran billions to slow down its nuclear program for a few years while allowing it to wreak havoc in the entire Middle East. It was a poor bargain in 2015 and is an even poorer one in 2023.”

With friends like Biden, who needs enemies?

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)