THOUGHTS

OMG, the President called the Prime Minister on 17 February. They spoke for over one hour on matters of substance. As this call did not come until 4 weeks after the Biden Inauguration, and even though it was the first call to a leader in the Middle East, so many "forever Trumpers" were projecting their own hate of Biden, Democrats and anyone other than Trump in their collective interpretation of the failure of the President to make "the call" as, perhaps, Biden was being sworn in -- after all, Jill could have held the phone and dialed it.

As was reported during the month of no call:

"While it is clear that Biden has his hands full with a myriad of domestic challenges, every day the phone doesn’t ring adds to concerns in Israel that Netanyahu is being frozen out by the new Democratic administration because of his close ties with Donald Trump and his public antagonism of Barack Obama.

The contrast between Biden and Trump is stark: Trump called Netanyahu within two days of taking office in 2017."

And, yet, the readouts of the call were clear. “'The two leaders noted their personal ties of many years and said they will work together to continue bolstering the strong alliance between Israel and the US,' the PMO readout stated." The White House stated:

"Biden affirmed his personal history of steadfast commitment to Israel's security...Biden emphasized US support for recent normalization of relations between Israel and countries in the Arab and Muslim world." 

These affirmations of the alliance won't be enough, of course, to satisfy those who choose to parse every word as if Rashi were examining Torah. I'm sure we'll read, if we haven't already: "what about Blinken, what about Malley, what about...." and more. 

Some believed that Biden's earlier silence was designed to exact some form of "revenge" for Bibi's assault on the Obama-Biden administration in his speech to Congress attacking the JCPOA; or for the Netanyahu Government's public approval of a large housing development in, as I recall, East Jerusalem on the cusp of then V.P. Biden's first official visit to Israel as Vice President; or for that passionate embrace between the P.M. and President Trump. Yet, we, as Jewish Americans, have always understood that the primacy of the Israel-United States relationship has withstood those who would undermine it because of the understanding that that relationship benefitted both nations. Clearly, Joe Biden recognizes that.

I have not wanted to devote this space to politics, but, sometimes...Joe Biden had not been in office even a week when a torrent of vitriol began to ooze out from both the usual suspects and the Jewish "forever Trumpists" who either wrote or distributed the attacks on things that had not happened (and might not ever happen) focused in the main on the portent that the Biden Administration would focus an Iran policy on rejoining the JCPOA, abandoning sanctions in place and, thereby, abandoning Israel. Biden has offered personal assurances that neither abandonment will occur.

One titled a diatribe as Biden's Drive to War in the Middle East. The author of that column somehow deduced that even before there was any "Biden Iran policy:" "Biden's Iran policy was conceived and is being implemented by the same people who negotiated the JCPOA..." Then she went on to assert, with the same absolute certainty about a policy that did not then exist, that "[T]his policy is irrational" and, demonstrating a firm grip on irrationality, the author conjured "...the Biden team's strategic fanaticism..."  

Other columns openly alleged with incredible bile that Biden foreign policy and intelligence appointments are "sinister," and that while sounding tough, the administration can be expected to "soon cave in" just because. And, worse, that the Biden Administration -- then in office for three weeks -- "...is an active threat to (Israel's) security."

On February 20 The Jerusalem Post reported:

"The United States has no plans to meet Tehran’s demand that it lift Trump-era sanctions against Iran as a prerequisite to holding talks to reenter the 2015 nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic."

And, of course, the right-wing drumbeat will go on and on; there appears  to be no hope that the Biden Administration will be given any chance whatsoever; no benefit of the doubt. 

And, I have some bad news for these folks -- Trump is not coming back. 

 

Rwexler