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The White House Abandoned Israel at the UN; Will Jews Abandon Biden?
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan addresses the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York City, US, March 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar
In failing to veto the UN Security Council Resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, the Biden administration has abandoned Israel. Many observers predicted this day would come, having seen the writing on the wall with increasingly hostile rhetoric directed at Israel in general, and Prime Minister Netanyahu specifically.
Optimistic observers dismissed the tough talk as an attempt to appease critics and maintain support within the Democratic caucus ahead of a tough election. Some say the same about the UN vote itself. On Saturday, Biden signed a funding package that eliminated aid for UNWRA until 2025 and provided $3.3 billion for Israel, which will supply its Iron Dome and other defense needs. So many Jews were hopeful that Biden still would stand behind Israel in its efforts to fully defeat Hamas.
That optimism was damaged on Monday, when Israel found itself with no ally on the Security Council. In a stunning display of shortsightedness, Biden capitulated to pressure from his left flank. In analyzing the decision to withhold a US veto, the question is whether this will help Biden in the long run.
If Biden acted to prevent Israel from entering Rafah, then he miscalculated badly. Israel will surely enter Rafah now, and Biden will appear weak because his diplomatic prowess was inadequate to prevent it. It may appease some in his party, but it’s a bad move for all those who believe Israel is justified in removing Hamas from power.
After the vote, Israel recalled the contingent it had planned to send to Washington at Biden’s request to discuss alternatives to a full Rafah incursion. The administration is said to be “perplexed” by what they consider an “overreaction” from Israel. The fact that the administration is perplexed suggests that they do not understand the significance of their actions, which is frightening. For weeks, negotiations towards a hostage deal were taking place, and progress was being made on that front. Hamas had accepted that there would be no permanent ceasefire as a condition of the deal.
Predictably, Hamas responded to the UN resolution on Monday by rejecting the most recent proposal and going back to its original position that Israel must withdraw from Gaza entirely in exchange for the release of hostages. All of the progress that was made to get to the most recent proposal has been undone. By allowing a ceasefire resolution to pass, Biden has materially undermined these negotiations. If a ceasefire can be imposed on Israel without the return of hostages, then Hamas has no incentive to release them. In essence, the UN vote doomed the negotiations and the hostages — not to mention, Israel’s hope of preventing future October 7 attacks in the long-term.
Biden has been walking a tightrope, trying to support our ally in Israel without jeopardizing his political fortunes at home. However, leadership means sticking to difficult decisions despite criticism. A great leader does not succumb to political pressure in making historic decisions. That Biden caved to pressure when leadership was needed most, is a historic blemish on his record that he will most certainly suffer for politically.
Once again, Jews are alone on the world stage. Once again, the US has abandoned Israel in a true time of need. The US’ policy is a huge moral failure, and politics is never more important than doing what’s right.
Kenneth Blake is a former state prosecutor and teaches Critical Thinking and Government in Petaluma, California.
The post The White House Abandoned Israel at the UN; Will Jews Abandon Biden? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.