Insult: Biden First President in 40 Years Not to Contact Israel’s Leaders Upon Taking Office

He called Xi. He called Putin. But three weeks into his presidency, Old Joe has pointedly refrained from calling the head of the government of our most reliable ally in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And so it’s clear now: Biden’s handlers intend to put immense strain on the U.S.-Israel alliance over the next four years, at a time when Israel and the rest of the free world are threatened by Iranian mullahs who are newly emboldened amid all the signs that Biden’s handlers plan to readopt Obama’s appeasement policies toward them.

According to the Washington Free Beacon Friday, Old Joe is “the first American leader in 40 years not to contact Israel’s leaders as one of his first actions in the White House, setting up what could be four years of chilly relations between America and its top Middle East ally.” For “every president going back to at least Ronald Reagan in 1981 made contact with their Israeli counterpart within a week of assuming office.”

Biden’s unjustly maligned predecessor “not only called Netanyahu but made the historic decision to invite him to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22, 2017, two days after he took the oath of office.” And even the lodestar, the hero, the Nobel Laureate Barack Hussein Obama “called the Jewish state’s leaders on his first day in office,” and “also called Palestinian leaders that day, laying the groundwork for that administration’s failed bid to foster peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh reported that “there has been a phone call between myself and Mr. Hady Amr – deputy assistant secretary for Israeli and Palestinian affairs.”

Mr. Amr reaffirmed what this administration declared during the election campaign: It will restore the aid, it will reopen the PLO office in Washington, and it will open a U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem. This is an important political message. In addition, the administration intends to restore aid to UNRWA and aid to the Palestinian people. These issues, as far as we are concerned, fall under the definition of confidence-building measures between this administration and us.

The import of that call was as clear as the import of the snub of Netanyahu: the money will flow again, the jihad will be enabled again, the Israelis will be treated with contempt again, the peace accords that Trump enabled will be put on the back burner, if not repudiated outright. Everything is back on track now after a four-year speed bump.

Joe’s handlers have always made their intentions clear. President-in-waiting Harris said in a late October interview with Arab American News: “Joe and I believe in the worth and value of every Palestinian and every Israeli and we will work to ensure that Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy.”

That cant and jargon was nothing we hadn’t heard many, many times before, but Harris quickly made clear that she meant that Israel would be bullied again in the rush to appease the Palestinians: “We are committed to a two-state solution, and we will oppose any unilateral steps that undermine that goal.” While all sorts of politicians have declared their support for a “two-state solution,” in reality a Palestinian state, like Gaza after Israel withdrew from it, would become a new jihad base for renewed attacks against a diminished Israel.

Harris added: “We will also oppose annexation and settlement expansion.” Those who speak with such confidence about “annexation” and “settlements” never seem to investigate just whose land Israel is “settling” and is contemplating “annexing.” Supporters of the Palestinian cause will insist that it is “Palestinian” territory, but in reality, as The Palestinian Delusion makes clear, there has never been a Palestinian state in the past from which Israel supposedly seized land. The territory in question was ceded by the crumbling Ottoman Empire after World War I to the League of Nations, which gave it, in a Mandate, to Britain for the purpose of establishing a Jewish National Home. That means that Israel is placing “settlements” on land that belongs by right only to it, and would be “annexing” land that belongs by right only to it, according to all the established standards of international law. But Biden’s handlers would put a roadblock in the way of these perfectly legal actions.

Harris added: “And we will take immediate steps to restore economic and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, reopen the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem and work to reopen the PLO mission in Washington.”

President Trump stopped “economic and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people” because of Palestinian leaders’ manifest lack of interest in sincerely working toward peace with Israel and indefatigable support for jihad violence against Israel, including jihad attacks against Israeli civilians. And money is fungible: “humanitarian aid” for the Palestinians would mean more money freed up for rockets to lob into Israel: your taxpayer dollars will finance the Palestinian jihad.

Seventy years of failed policies followed by four of actual progress toward peace in the Middle East, and Biden’s handlers’ presidency is signaling a full return to those failed policies, and a rollback of the progress that has been made. Donald Trump was the most pro-Israel president since the founding of the modern state of Israel, and all he got for it were accusations of anti-Semitism. Biden’s handlers are clearly laying the groundwork for a massive betrayal of a nation that is on the front lines of the global jihad and has been a loyal ally, and he will be hailed by Chris Cuomo and Chris Wallace and Chris Hayes as a great friend of Israel. Truth? Come on, man! They just have to make their old guy look good.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 21 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.