by Hillel Fendel
US President Joe Biden has been widely criticized for his actions, or inaction, regarding China, Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine, and other global hot spots. This has unfortunately left little time for the criticism he and his administration so well-deserve for their mistreatment of the United States' closest ally: Israel.
Let us consider last week's visit by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to Israel and Ramallah, shortly after the Palestinian terrorist stabbing attack in which six Israelis and one foreign worker were murdered.
When Blinken and PA chief Mahmoud Abbas held a joint press conference in Ramallah, the latter started out by saying: "We affirm that the Israeli Government is responsible for what’s happening these days, because of its practices that undermine the Two-state Solution and violate the signed agreements, and because of the lack of international efforts to dismantle the occupation and the settlement regimes, and the failure to recognize the Palestinian state and its full membership in the United Nations."
Blinken did not protest this grotesque portrayal of the situation and of the great American friend, Israel.
He rather said, "Palestinians and Israelis alike are experiencing growing insecurity, growing fear in their homes, in their communities, in their places of worship." Does anyone recall the last time a "Palestinian" non-terrorist was killed in his home or place of worship? For a "friend" such as Blinken to make such an equivalence is downright insulting.
Blinken then addressed Abbas: "I also appreciate, Mr. President, your consistent and resolute stance against terrorism." What in Blinkety-blank is he talking about? How did he not choke on his words knowing that the only thing Abbas and the PA are "consistent and resolute" about regarding anti-Israel terrorism is actually encouraging and paying for it?
Blinken then listed all the pro-PA and/or anti-Israel actions the US intends to do, such as: contributing $890 million, as well as another $50 million bonus, to UNRWA; naming Hady Amr as the first US representative for Palestinian affairs; and promising to continue to work to reopen the US consulate to the PA in Jerusalem.
The Secretary then listed a series of actions opposed by the US that supposedly make attaining peace more difficult. In yet another show of disloyalty to the Jewish State, the finger was basically pointed at Israel: settlement expansion, legalization of outposts, demolitions [of illegal Arab structures] and evictions, disruptions to the historic status quo of the holy sites, and incitement and acquiescence to violence.
Let us briefly analyze these:
· Jewish settlements and outposts are not prohibited under the terms of the Oslo Accords.
· Nor is Israel shackled from enforcing its laws against illegal construction in areas under its control. On the contrary: Why did Blinken not call out the PA for brazenly violating Israeli jurisdiction by building, with encouragement by the European Union, without regard for laws and legality?
· The holy sites referred to by Secretary Blinken are the Temple Mount, where Jewish prayer is inexplicably restricted by Muslim elements – in stark but unrecognized contrast to Israel's record in allowing free access of worshipers of all faiths to their respective holy sites.
· Finally, "incitement and acquiescence to violence." Blinken phrased this one as if both sides are guilty of it, when in fact every child knows that it is the PA that incites its denizens to murder Jews. Such incitement is a major aspect of its educational system, TV programs, and "pay for slay" system, whereby terrorists and their families receive lifetime salaries for their murderous actions.
Just yesterday, the Mynet site reported that the father of a pupil in a school run by the Muslim Waqf has complained publicly of murderous education there. He wrote that the eastern-Jerusalem school encourages its students to conduct Jihad against Jews. "They tell [our children] that killing Jews is legitimate," the father wrote to the Ministry of Education. As a result, he has decided to transfer his son to the Arab-Jewish school in Beit Tsafafa, an Arab-populated Jerusalem neighborhood near Talpiyot and Givat HaMatos.
Just last week, a 13-year-old Arab boy of eastern Jerusalem shot a Jewish father and his son, critically wounding the latter.
Ignoring well-known phenomenon such as the above, Blinken said instead, "We look to both sides to unequivocally condemn any acts of violence regardless of the victim or the perpetrator." Sort of like telling a rapist and his victim that both of them should take equal responsibility…
Aaron Lerner, director of the IMRA news agency, notes the strong contrast between the above and Blinken's parallel press conference with Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Blinken's warmest words for Netanyahu were reserved for his support for upholding the "historic [sic] status quo at Jerusalem’s holy places, including the Temple Mount Haram al-Sharif. We’re grateful to the prime minister for his repeated expressions of support for that position..."
There is no doubt that the United States supports Israel on many international fronts, and that the two countries work clandestinely together in many ways. But when one is stabbed in the back, as Israel was at the Blinken-Abbas press conference, it hurts so much more when the stabber is otherwise your friend, and does so before the very eyes and ears of the entity who seeks your very worst.