If The US Government Treats Its Allies Like This, Pretty Soon It Won't Have Any...
Since Joe seems to have exited the building and is hanging out on Rehoboth Beach working on his tan, it looks like we're in the first week of the Kamala Harris Administration...
and she’s bringing the many successes of the California Democrats to DC with her:
“[T]he Secret Service failed to secure the Watergate Hotel where Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was staying and allowed a pro-Palestine organization to pour live maggots all over a room where he was alleged to be dining.
“BON APPETIT!! MAGGOTS RELEASED ON THE CRIMINAL ZIONIST’S WAR TABLE!” the Palestinian Youth Movement posted on Instagram, along with a video of insects crawling all over the Watergate’s grounds. “Crickets were released on multiple floors of the hotel. Fire alarms were triggered for over thirty minutes on multiple floors to ensure that there will be no rest.”
In response, the Secret Service confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that it didn’t stop the bug-wielding protesters from entering the property.” The Spectator, DC Diary 25 July 2024
So Kamala and Joe didn’t greet Netanyahu at the airport, as would be expected for a foreign head of state; they - through the non-action by Secret Service and other agencies - allowed noisy demonstrations by Marxist-Leninist groups like Palestinians for Solidarity and Liberation and the Palestinian Youth Movement outside of the places where Netanyahu was staying and having meetings; and then allowed these groups to cause this chaos.
What conclusions could the Israelis draw from this about a new Harris Administration? It would be reasonable to reach the conclusion that the US Government has turned against Israel - and perhaps Jews generally, given the trend of anti-semitic demonstrations and actions of US professors at elite educational institutions. Thus, while not formally repudiating Israel, the Harris government has let the Israelis know that they’re no longer welcome, in a backhanded way. Similarly, aid to Ukraine has been in fits and starts, always too little and too late to let the Ukrainians win and put an end to the Russian invasion, but enough so that the slaughter continues.
It’s a weak and feckless foreign policy - a continuation of Biden policy - that reasonably would strike fear, uncertainty, and doubt into the hearts and minds of any nation choosing to ally with the US. Nations that betray their friends, and side with enemies, soon end up without friends - or being held off at arms’ length. It’s a great way for a nation to lose power and influence, and become vulnerable to those who wish it harm - including the actors behind the Palestinians - namely Iran, and become increasingly vulnerable to the Russian government. And others, such as China, will see this vulnerability, and being opportunists will exploit it. The consequences of this week’s actions - and non-actions - by the Harris Administration may be to increase danger to the US in the coming weeks and years.
’Here’s President Harris’ remarks with regard to Israel and Gaza - it follows the Hamas line pretty exactly - in a “permanent” ceasefire, and withdrawal of Israeli troops first from the cities in Gaza, and then from the entirety of Gaza, it would leave Hamas firmly in control of Gaza - which Hamas has sought all along - and would make it possible for Hamas to reconstitute itself and its forces, and to remain as a destabilizing presence in the reason. And this would lead, two or three years down the line, to a seventh attack on Israel - since Hamas, in its charter, has as primary goal, the extermination of the Jewish state, “from the river to the sea.” The next time, though, there may be nuclear weapons in those Hamas warheads - and that would trigger an Israeli nuclear response, since Israel has between 90 to 400 nuclear weapons and has had an active nuclear weapons program since the 1960s.
This is a continuation of Biden’s feckless and weak foreign policy, which allows aggressor governments to stay in power - preserving the status quo - and which can predictably produce disastrous results. Any “solution” which keeps Hamas in power is no solution at all, it just keeps the conflict going.
And Netanyahu’s comments:
.Saying that “Israel has a right to defend itself” sounds great, but it winds up being pretty vacuous, when the US decides what “defend itself” means. The Biden government has repeatedly said the “Ukraine has the right to defend itself” and so that war has continued on for two and a half years, with the slaughter and maiming of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians, military and civilians. We have insisted that Ukraine fight with one hand tied behind its back, only using US aid to hit targets in Ukraine. Russia knows this, and its forces stand off in Russian airspace, and fire weapons into Ukraine. Unless that limitation is removed, there is no chance that the conflict can ever cease, except for the case of the victim of aggression, Ukraine, surrendering to the aggressor state, Russia. And what sort of ally is the US in that case? And in the present case, it’s similar. Hamas has continued to fire rockets into Israel, from cities in which the Israeli troops have withdrawn. The Harris Administration seeks to make that withdrawal general for all of Gaza - which means that Hamas will continue to be able to prosecute its war, as has happened every three years or so since 2006 - and again in 2023 and this year. “Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is madness” - Hamas has a long track record - and stated goals of permanent warfare until those goals are achieved - and allowing Hamas to continue to exist ensures that warfare will continue to exist, and Netanyahu knows this and is acting accordingly. If the US truly seeks an end to this conflict, it will follow a different policy than that of the Harris and Biden Administrations.