The Patriot Post® · Iran Attacks Israel (Again)
“Don’t.” That was Joe Biden’s one-word tough-guy warning on more than one occasion regarding whether Iran would strike Israel. It blew up in his face over the weekend as Iran launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at civilian targets in Israel — the first time Iran struck Israel from its own soil, largely skipping using proxies like Hamas. Fortunately, Israel was ready and, along with U.S., British, and Jordanian assistance, foiled nearly all of the incoming fire.
“Well, he said ‘Don’t’ multiple times,” said former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “and ‘Don’t’ isn’t a national security policy. It’s not even a deterrent.”
It’s practically an invitation from this president. In fact, the Biden administration reportedly conveyed to Iran through Turkey that its action against Israel must be “within certain limits.”
This is all after Biden made restoring his former boss’s horrendous nuclear deal with Iran one of his big priorities. He gave billions to Tehran by way of sanctions relief — including more several months after the Iran-backed assault on Israel.
The more time goes by after Iran’s Hamas proxies killed 1,200 Jews and a few American citizens in cold blood, the more Biden keeps ramping up the harshness of his criticism of Israel’s response in Gaza. Combined with all the coddling of Iran, that has only emboldened the mullahs.
Even now, Biden’s message to Israel is that the U.S. will not back an Israeli response. “You got a win. Take the win,” Biden reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a likely strategically leaked phone call after the attack was repelled.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened that Israel would “be punished” for its April 1 strike in Damascus, which killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard members. Israel never claimed responsibility for that attack, but given that Iran struck Israel first — through Hamas — a precision response was warranted. Quds Force commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was killed in that April 1 strike, was likely part of an earlier drone strike that killed three American troops. Biden didn’t do much of anything after that attack, though, making clear that “escalation” was his biggest fear.
Now, Biden says the G-7 will “coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack.” Khamenei must be shaking in his turban.
On the contrary, says Jonathan Schanzer, a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, “Iran was testing the missile-defense system, the resolve of the regional countries, the resolve of the United States.”
American resolve has been wanting. Not only has Biden been weak and feckless in his defense — if you can even call it that — of Israel after October 7, but his disastrous surrender and retreat from Afghanistan set the stage for that attack, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and increased Chinese aggression aimed at Taiwan. Joe Biden has ensured that the world is a far more dangerous place than the one Donald Trump left him.
Biden would have you believe the opposite. In 2019, he warned, “President Trump’s Iran strategy is a self-inflicted disaster.” He added, “What we need is presidential leadership that will take strategic action to counter the Iranian threat, restore America’s standing in the world, recognize the value of principled diplomacy, and strengthen our nation and our security by working strategically with our allies.”
Indeed, we do need that presidential leadership, and Biden is never going to provide it. We’re reminded once again of the words of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who in 2014 said of Biden, “He has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” A decade later, that’s truer than ever.