Believe what I do, not what I say - Biden’s policies inflame the Middle East and enable Iranian terror in the region and the world

In this two-part editorial, I examine how Biden’s policy and treatment of Israel since October 7 demonstrate clearly that despite his words of support for Israel, his administration continues to support Iranian interests over the Jewish state, America’s most important Middle Eastern ally. 

This Middle Eastern policy is a continuation of the policy of former President Barack Obama, which was meant to reset the power structure in the Middle East to allow for US withdrawal from the region. In reality, as I demonstrate here, what the policy has done is significantly degrade Middle Eastern security, and push the chances for peace between Israel and Arab countries further away. It also significantly degrades US and Western standing. 

In the first part, I focused on Biden’s treatment of Israel since the outbreak of the October 7 war, while in this second part, I will focus on how that policy compromises US and Western interests in the region. 

[This column was written before Iran's unprecedented direct attack on Israel, which I believe is just another example strengthening my points below, and will be addressed in depth in Part 3.]

Part 2

Equally troubling though, despite repeated talk of preventing an escalation of the conflict in Gaza to the rest of the Middle East, the Biden administration has not taken the necessary steps to achieve that goal. Even before the start of Israel’s ground campaign, the Biden administration began to weaken Israel’s international position by warning about civilian casualty numbers and humanitarian crises. 

However, Biden has not even protected US and Western interests in the Middle East. Since October 7, there have been several attacks against US forces in the Middle East. On January 28, Iran-affiliated militias killed three American soldiers and wounded 34 others in a drone strike on a US military post on the Jordan-Syria border. There have been more than 165 attacks since October 17, 2023, and more than 250 since January 2021. Most of these attacks have seen little response from the US with the exception of an occasional drone strike against insignificant militant groups loosely affiliated with Iran. There has been no strategic strike aimed at creating deterrence. 

Even after these attacks by Iranian-backed groups, the Biden administration approved a waiver allowing Iran to access $10 billion of previously frozen funds. The administration has also done nothing about Iran’s illegal oil exports to China.

The Biden administration has also done practically nothing against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen after the group started attacking ships traversing the Red Sea. The US assembled a multinational coalition to defend against one of the smallest rebel terror groups on the planet, and conducted symbolic strikes against Houthi military assets in Yemen, which did nothing to deter the group from continuing to attack vessels in the Red Sea. In fact, the Houthis conducted a missile strike on a US Navy destroyer, which was intercepted, and a successful strike on a British-owned commercial vessel on January 26. 

Despite a late December 2023 report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warning that Iran had dramatically accelerated its production of high-enriched uranium, the United States did not request an emergency IAEA board meeting to hold Iran accountable. 

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank has accused Biden of trying to appease Iran through this failure to directly confront its actions. 

However, appeasement is not the right word. 

During his term as president, Biden has provided around $100 billion to the Iranian terror regime. This includes significant revenues from the non-enforcement of US oil sanctions over the last three years, a $6 billion ransom payment, and a $10 billion sanctions waiver renewed in November. In March, Biden gave the ayatollah’s terror regime another $10 billion in sanctions relief, while claiming that “no money has been permitted to enter Iran.”

The same day that Biden gave sanctions relief to a regime that it publicly admits is sponsoring terror across the Middle East, Biden levied sanctions against two Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria and three settlers. One has to ask: Which is the greater threat to peace in the region, Iran or a few Jewish settlers conducting retaliatory attacks against Palestinians? 

That same day, Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer publicly called for Netanyahu to be replaced, echoing statements by Biden, who said that the premier is “hurting Israel more than helping.” 

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,” Senator Schumer said. “I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel.” 

While Senator Schumer is allowed to express his political opinion openly, the comment is beginning to look like part of an attempt to overthrow Netanyahu, not an attempt to express an opinion. 

Trying to overthrow the Israeli government in the midst of a difficult war, limiting its access to the weapons it needs to fight the war effectively, and supporting Hamas propaganda about a humanitarian crisis in Gaza – when Israel is fighting more carefully in Gaza than almost any country has ever fought in any urban conflict in the last 100 years – begins to look like a consistent policy in line with that proposed by Doran and Badran. 

I propose asking a simple question: Who is benefiting from this foreign policy? 

Several analysts, such as the team at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies have suggested that Biden has a policy of appeasement due to a fear of escalation. 

The explanation argues that there are several war zones and hotspots around the world and Biden is attempting to keep those from flaring up into larger conflagrations. However, recent US steps in the Middle East have not prevented an increase in attacks. 

The clear winner of most of Biden’s Middle East policy has been Iran. 

Biden’s appeasement of Iran is not just dangerous to Israel, it is dangerous to America and the Western world. 

Biden’s policy of appeasement towards Iran practically guarantees that escalation will happen through a projection of weakness. Already in the Middle East, Iran-linked militia attacks against US positions in Iraq and Syria continue regularly. The Houthi rebels, a laughably weak force in comparison to the US military, are practically crippling trade through the Red Sea, which is critical for trade in Europe and the US. 

In the recent surgical airstrike in Damascus, widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi – a senior IRGC commander responsible for cooperation with Islamic resistance movements in Israel, Lebanon, and Syria – Biden immediately sent a message to Iran denying any US knowledge or involvement in the attack. 

Such a move does not demonstrate strength, but submission. 

And it shows. In Iran, the mullahs feel free to ramp up uranium enrichment, in contrast to their statements that all nuclear material is only for civil use, while also fearlessly cracking down on dissidents hungry for a democratic revolution. 

The Biden administration seems to have forgotten that in Iran’s apocalyptic philosophy, Israel is only “the little Satan.” It is the United States, which is “the great Satan” and which the mullahs dream of destroying. Biden has removed almost all the “red lines” that could trigger an American military response towards the Islamic Republic. 

If the Biden administration successfully cripples the Israeli attempt to remove Hamas from Gaza and establish a de-radicalized Palestinian city-state there, then Israel will not be able to engage the Iranian threat with its full resources. This would not only lead to an escalation of Mideast violence, as Iran would work to strengthen its positions, but it would guarantee the successful development of a nuclear weapon by the Iranian regime. 

The fact of the matter is that Iran is less likely to use a nuclear weapon against Israel, and risk doing so much damage to other Muslim nations, even if they are Sunni, rather than Shia. But hitting the United States would allow it to make a valiant strike at “the great Satan” while galvanizing the support of various Islamic factions. 

Unfortunately, Biden's foreign policy in the Middle East is not just deadly for Israel. As the predominant state sponsor of terrorism in the world, Iranian aggression will have dire effects on Israel and is guaranteed to plunge the Middle East, and possibly the world, into further conflicts. 

Despite the rapprochement last year between Iran and Saudi Arabia, there is little agreement between the two. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has persistently expressed his desire for normalization with Israel as a means of securing Saudi, Egyptian, and UAE interests in the Middle East. Those interests would be devastated by a stronger Iran.

For the last three years, Saudi Arabia has reportedly sought certain security guarantees from the US as part of a normalization deal with Israel. The Biden administration has been resistant to giving them those guarantees. 

The time may have come for Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE to move forward without the United States and build the alliances that would strengthen their mutual interests. It is quite possible that the US, under the Biden administration, does not, in fact, desire the same Middle Eastern power balance as its democratic allies. 

While it is certainly probable that a return of a Trump administration would bring the return of a more favorable Middle East policy for Israel and its current and future Arab partners, it may not have time to wait. According to recent reports, Iran is weeks, if not days, away from developing sufficient fuel for a nuclear weapon. 

If Israel does not finish its war against Hamas, and construct an alliance with Saudi Arabia against Iranian aggression, then the “Realignment” that Doran and Badran spoke about may be a failure equal to or greater than that of Neville Chamberlain in the days leading up to World War II. Israel cannot sit by as another Shoah (Holocaust) develops on its doorstep. The time to act, even independently of its “greatest partner” may have already arrived.