Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
A decade ago, Vice President Biden paid a visit to Jerusalem.
Like any trip by an emissary of the Obama administration, it wasn’t a goodwill tour, but a combination of a provocation and a shakedown. While Biden was in Israel, two construction projects received partial approval in a multi-stage process from the City of Jerusalem.
Biden responded by staying up in his hotel room and refusing to come down for an hour.
When he did come down, he hugged Netanyahu and assured him, “Just remember that I am your best f____ friend here.”
Biden’s definition of friendship is the backstabbing kind because after that he and the entire Obama administration began attacking Israel over a decision made by a local urban agency.
“It was not only an insult to Biden, but an insult to the United States,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ranted. Then she spent two hours yelling at Netanyahu over the phone.
“I was often the ‘designated yeller,’” Hillary would later brag about her relationship with Israel.
“There was an affront, it was an insult,” David Axelrod, Obama’s senior adviser falsely claimed.
The media launched a disinformation campaign falsely claiming that Prime Minister Netanyahu had deliberately caused a Jerusalem urban planning committee to reach a decision on housing in two areas that until then no one had even been paying much attention to.
One of those housing projects was going up in the Shimon HaTzadik (Simon the Righteous) neighborhood named after the last true high priest who had dissuaded Alexander the Great from putting up an idol in the Temple.
The Jewish neighborhood had been built in the 19th century. In 1936, Muslim rioters drove out the community while shouting, “Allahu Akbar” and “Ibtach Al Yahood” or “Kill the Jews”.
This was the first modern Muslim attempted genocide of the indigenous Jewish population of Israel. A British truck driver recollected a massacre in Tiberias in which “the bodies of children, apparently set alight with gasoline in a nursery, were still smoldering” and “the naked bodies of the women exposed the evidence that the knives had been used in the most ghastly fashion.”
In 1947, the Muslims came for the Jews of the neighborhood again and they fought back with the few weapons they had. Then British forces came along and disarmed the Jews to “keep the peace”. The Jewish population fled again. Jordan’s Arab Legion, under British officers, seized half of Jerusalem, and ethnically cleansed its Jewish population Some of the homes in Shimon HaTzadik (referred to by Muslims as Sheikh Jarrah after one of Saladin’s colonizing invaders) were used by the UNRWA to settle Muslims in violation of international law.
The other housing project in Jerusalem in Ramat Shlomo was set to be built on uninhabited land that not even the PLO was claiming as its own.
This was what Biden, Hillary, the Obama administration and the media were howling about.
Obama used fake outrage over Jews living in Jerusalem to engineer the beginning of the Democrat Party’s break with Israel. Biden played a key role in staging an international incident to manufacture a narrative in which Israel was somehow provoking a conflict with Obama.
11 years later, Biden is so short of ideas that he went right back to the same neighborhood.
The Muslim squatters planted by UNRWA in Jewish homes have refused to pay rent to their owners or leave. After two generations of court cases, Israel’s Supreme Court was moving to issue a final decision. The Islamic terrorists of the PLO and Hamas used this as a pretext for a murderous campaign against Israel. And everyone from Biden on down has warned Israel against actually following the law and allowing the Jewish owners to reclaim the property.
Biden funded Iran, backed the terrorists inside Israel, and then warned the Jewish State against “provoking” them by allowing Jews to take part in a parade or allowing courts to follow the law.
On May 10th, well before the fighting began, Biden’s people ordered Israel not to evict any of the Muslim squatters and to cancel the annual Jerusalem Day celebrations. Netanyahu tried to appease Biden by rerouting the parade and asked the Supreme Court to postpone a decision.
Despite these efforts at appeasement, the Islamic violence escalated anyway. But that hasn’t stopped the Biden administration and its media allies from blaming Israel anyway.
That’s how this game of diplomatic Catch 22 with Israel always works.
The Supreme Court, which is independent and doesn’t answer to either Biden or Netanyahu, refused to halt the eviction case. That hasn’t stopped the Biden administration from continuing to make illegal demands that another nation’s supreme court should refuse to follow the law.
But Biden is also moving to open a consulate for the ‘Palestinians’ in Jerusalem to counteract the embassy that President Trump moved to Jerusalem. The consulate would violate Israeli sovereignty and would be illegal under United States law. Neither bothers Biden.
There’s also no reason to set up a consulate to the terrorists in Jerusalem except to violate Israeli sovereignty over the city and stake a claim to the Jewish city for Hamas and the PLO.
The Palestinian Authority operates out of Ramallah. The Russians and Chinese have their diplomatic missions in Ramallah. That’s not out of sensitivity to Israel, just common sense.
Biden wants to set up a consulate to the PA miles away from the terror state regime that he wants to have close diplomatic relations with. State Department personnel told the media that during the war they thought they were “flying blind” without a consulate. But a consulate in Jerusalem puts them no closer to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority’s government than the embassy they already have in Jerusalem does. If Biden wants a consulate close to Abbas, he could erect one in Ramallah. Otherwise the consulate could operate out of the embassy.
Secretary of State Blinken claims that Biden wants a consulate in Jerusalem “to be able to more effectively engage not just the Palestinian Authority, but Palestinians from different walks of life, the NGO community, the business community, and others.”
Countries don’t have diplomatic relations with NGOs and businesses, but with countries. France doesn’t operate a consulate to Coca Cola or the Sierra Club.
But if Biden and Blinken want to “engage” the non-profit NGOs that are funded by the State Department, the European Union, George Soros, and other anti-Israel billionaires to wage a campaign against Israel, they can just open a consulate in D.C., Brussels, or the Open Society Foundations in Berlin. And the Muslim “business community” of the 600 Hamas millionaires in Gaza, (falsely depicted as an “open air prison” in the media’s disinformation campaign) would be best engaged by opening a consulate in Gaza City right next to the AP’s offices.
There’s no legal or rational reason for Biden to open a “Palestinian” consulate in Jerusalem.
Biden wants a terrorist consulate in Jerusalem for the same reason that every Democrat White House insisted on keeping the US embassy in Tel Aviv 40 miles from the actual location of the Israeli government in Jerusalem. The State Department didn’t complain it was “flying blind” through multiple wars by refusing to have close access to the Israeli government.
It was more important to make a point by refusing to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The Soviet Union and European media made a point of referring to Tel Aviv as shorthand for Israel’s government the way that we would refer to London as shorthand for the British government which was like insisting that the White House is really in Boston.
Deutsche Welle, Germany’s state-owned broadcaster, falsely captioned a recent photo of Blinken and Netanyahu meeting in Jerusalem as “Blinken met with Netanyahu in Tel-Aviv”.
It’s not just Iran that refers to Israel as “the regime in Tel Aviv”.
That’s the denialist mindset behind Biden’s push to open a terror consulate in Jerusalem. Biden’s people, especially his pro-terrorist point man Hady Amr are, as the State Department often accused Israel of doing, “creating facts on the ground” for the PLO and Hamas.
And no politician has been more hypocritical and dishonest about Jerusalem than Biden.
In 1990, Biden co-sponsored Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 which condemned “ambiguous statements by the Government of the United States concerning the right of Jews to live in all parts of Jerusalem”.
Two decades later, Biden became a key figure in attacking the right of Jews to “live in all parts of Jerusalem”.
In 1992, Biden co-sponsored Senate Consecutive Resolution 113 stating that “Jerusalem must remain an undivided city” and in 1995 co-sponsored the Jerusalem Embassy Act declaring that “Jerusalem should remain an undivided city” and “be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel”. All the way back in 1984, Biden was saying, “I happen to support this move”, but “I think it is the wrong fight to make it this time.” And it always went on being the wrong time.
When President Trump called Biden’s bluff by moving the embassy to Jerusalem, Biden conceded that “I wouldn’t reverse it. I wouldn’t have done it in the first place.”
Biden promised to open a consulate to the “Palestinians” in Jerusalem and he’s on it. The proposed consulate has no legitimate government function because it’s not in Ramallah.
The only purpose of the consulate is to undermine President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem.
After years of enthusiastic speeches at AIPAC, Biden offered a sonorous video in 2020 warning of a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza and telling Israel that it needed to stop Jewish “settlements”.
Biden threatened Israel that if it didn’t keep Jews from living on land claimed by the terrorists, it would “choke off any hope for peace” and undermine support from Democrats.
During his campaign, Biden promised, “I will reopen the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem”.
He’s not reopening it to “engage Palestinians”, but to counter Israel’s claim to Jerusalem. After decades of pretending that he supported recognizing a united Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, Biden is doing everything he can to undermine Israel’s presence in Jerusalem.
In 2013, Biden told AIPAC that he was jealous because Obama “gets to be the one to say ‘This year in Jerusalem'”. In 2021, he’s promising, “This year in Jerusalem” to the terrorists.
Wellington says
Want to know how bad it is? Biden couldn’t tell you anything about the Balfour Declaration, the creation of Transjordan in the early 1920’s, the 1947 UN partition plan. And who Moshe Dayan was or even David Ben-Gurion.
Biden is a dummy, the first President in American history who is in early dementia stage. He reminds me, a la Disraeli, of an opponent politician, i.e., one who has few ideas and all of those are wrong.
I really don’t think that even many conservatives, never mind the rabble who now constitute the Left, quite comprehend just how stupid Biden is.
But here’s the worst of it: The Democratic Party of the USA has now become not only an enemy of the only free polity in the Middle East, it has become an enemy of America.
declaration
tim gallagher says
I agree with what you say, Wellington. It is a huge worry to have Biden in charge. (well, I guess he is definitely not in charge and just takes orders and is a figurehead). Yesterday morning, on radio 2GB in Sydney, there was mention of a really bizarre lecture at Yale University, where some lecturer talked about her fantasies of shooting white people dead. I looked it up on google and the lecturer was named Dr Aruna Khilanani. I was wondering whether you heard this news. It seemed such a troubling report. On the radio, the presenter said that people who support Yale University financially have said they will be taking away their support over this sickening lecture. It is such a weird world. If a white person had mentioned fantasies of shooting black people dead, imagine the outcry.
Wellington says
Actually, tg, this was related here in America on many conservative outlets (including the Gutfeld program on Fox News which ripped this idiot of a doctor to shreds via much humor). Leftist media outlets (examples being The New York Time, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, NPR and MSNBC) are complete sycophants where Biden and the Democrats are concerned and virtually never cover anything negative about them, though there is indeed so much that is negative to cover about the Leftist fools out there running the country, but then one has to realize that media fools covering political, academic and Hollywood fools will inevitably produce, a no-brainer here, foolish reports.
The Leftist media still are obsessed with Trump, for instance story after story just the other day about how he wore his pants backwards though he didn’t. And since the fraudulent Biden has been in the White House, the MSM has been asking really tough questions about such important matters of state like his favorite ice cream flavor and making statements about how wonderful and romantic the marriage of Joe and Jill has been—it’s all beyond nauseating and definitely potential barf material but the nausea is actually relieved by the fact that the Main Stream Media (Lame Stream Media to be more exact) has entered into self-parody world and is, by the year, being made fun of more and more by people sick of this mendacious and stupid rot. I would say that certainly 50% of America, and perhaps as much as 75% of America, is fed up with the Leftist Media, the Democratic Party virtually in its entirety, RINOs, Hollywood and, arguably most of all, the teacher unions whose members are inculcating into American students a deep hatred for America (and let’s not forget that even math is racist).
For the record and all that. Hope you and yours are doing well across the Pacific pond.
tim gallagher says
Thanks for the reply, Wellington. I’m glad to hear that so many of the average people in the USA are getting fed up with some of the loony nonsense that is getting around these days. I think it would be the same here in Australia. I heard about the insane,supposed, racist aspect of mathematics. I immediately thought that they will make maths easier for all and then we’ll have bridges and buildings falling down because engineers won’t have to bother to be precise in their mathematical calculations. I mainly watch and listen to fairly conservative, I would day sensible, commentators, and they are always saying (along with me and many others) , “This is insane” and “That’s nuts” and “the world has gone mad” about the latest load of crap that some far left university type person has come up with. I was stunned when I heard about this woman admitting to fantasising about murdering white people in some kind of lecture at Yale. I saw that “reporter” ask Biden what flavour ice cream he was eating. It was shown on the video of him being decidedly creepy around very young girls. It was shown as an example of how Biden is given an unbelievably easy run by some of the media. Things are going OK here except that I hate cold weather (it’s not cold by the standards of many countries) and we have been hit by a cold snap. I hate the winter more and more as I get older and I think I may have to clear out and go and live in tropical north Queensland, up near the Great Barrier Reef. I doubt whether I will ever do it. The down side is the ferocious cyclones they get up there. I would miss my family and friends too much anyway. It’s just a pipe dream I indulge in every winter..
gravenimage says
This was nasty, nasty stuff, Tim–and many Americans have indeed been sickened by it. That she was speaking at one of the nation’s greatest universities makes it all the worse.
tim gallagher says
I agree about the extreme nastiness of what this person was saying. It was mentioned in a short spot on the morning radio program. 2GB have a man named Harley Carnes, an American, who gives a bit of the news from the USA every day Monday to Friday. They have another man, Adam Gilchrist, an Englishman, who gives a bit of news from the UK. each day. I fin them both interesting and often quite humorous. I was stunned by this woman’s bizarre and troubling fantasising about murdering white people. As I said up above, imagine if a white person gave a speech saying they wanted to go out (or fantasised about) and murder black people. The world is nuts these days in so many ways. However, I’m sure that huge numbers of average people must have the same reaction that I do. I hear some of the cancel culture stuff and the transgender stuff and I wonder if it is some kind of April Fool’s Day joke. I don’t know how some people can sit around and actually think up this extraordinarily weird stuff and then not be embarrassed to actually put their bizarre notions out there for public comsumption..They definitely live on another planet.
gravenimage says
Exactly, Tim. But this sort of barbarism against white people seems to be more and more acceptable–including in academia. Very scary stuff.
tim gallagher says
Yes, gravenimage, I believe that anti-white racism, and also anti-Jewish sentiment, are all the rage these days. It is like some fashion and maybe will fade away. I said to a couple of my left wing friends that I thought anti-white racism was all the rage a while back and they said, of course ( the left wing orthodoxy, no doubt) that “there is only racism”. I thought their answer was rubbish because people are definitely saying stuff about white people these days that almost nobody will say about non-whites. As you say, it is scary, but also sickening.
Infidel says
Netanyahu, or any Israeli leader for that matter, should slam the phone whenever any pretentious pretenders like Hillary Clinton yell at them. Too bad that one can’t slam a smartphone: maybe iOS and Android should include one more button w/ a symbol for slamming the phone ??, and send a major explosion sound at the other end whenever the person hanging up hits that
gravenimage says
Biden’s war on Jerusalem: Violating Israeli sovereignty and US law to support Islamic terrorists
………………
Just disgusting.
mortimer says
The Pally hypocrites are the worst of savages … pretending to be as innocent as lambs.
Genocide is the middle name of almost every Pally.
Walter Sieruk says
That old goat Joe Biden by being so much against the sovereignty of the Jewish State of Israel over Jerusalem as well as other places and areas that belong to Israel ,such as the West Bank, really means that Biden has the ignorant gall of striving against the Sovereignty the Will of God , therefore this means Biden is dead set against God.
For in the Bible, God have given in,Jerusalem and the West Bank to the Jewish people..This us the Will of God, Genesis 28:13-15. 35:10-12. Deuteronomy 32:48,49. Psalm 105:7-11. 135:4. In other words the Jews have all this land by Divine Right, in addition, the Jewish people should have this land by historic rights as shown in First Kings 4:20,21, 24,25. 8:55, 56.
Shame on Biden for his wicked agenda, on Judgement Day he will have to answer to God as to why he want against Him, Romans 14:12.
OLD GUY says
Biden is the biggest mistake American voters have made based on the assumption that the voters made the decision. It is hard to understand people like Biden who has a great education and has been in Washington all these years and still can’t seem to do anything that is RIGHT and of BENIFIT to America and the FREE world. My guess is there is a hell of a lot of Middle East oil money and American foreign aid money flowing through Washington that buys a lot of influence for those wishing to destroy the free world.
You know it seems like those who benefit the most the Elite, Wealthy, and Powerful in our society are not much different than the Crime bosses, Criminal organizations and Cartels, only interested in what they want no matter the out come to the rest of the society. Thats really SAD.