by 
By ROBERT SPENCER
Yes, we’re on Hamas’s side now. It’s as official as it can get without Old Joe Biden asking Congress for a declaration of war against Israel: the Biden regime has thrown the weight of the United States government behind the effort to save Hamas. As Israel begins its action in Rafah against Hamas’s last significant forces, Biden apparatchiks have come out strongly in support of the jihadis, attempting to kneecap Israel’s efforts by withholding crucial and previously agreed-upon arms shipments.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Biden and his henchmen “paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that the country was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S., Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.”
The Israelis were supposed to receive “1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs,” but the Biden regime is so livid at the prospect of Israel moving against Hamas’ last stronghold that it is leaving it short of the arms it thought it could count on having at the beginning of the operation. Meanwhile, amid all the controversy, no one is asking what arms Hamas has in Rafah or how they paid for them. How much of Hamas’s materiel was paid for with the $10 billion that Old Joe’s handlers sent to Hamas’s money men in Tehran in March? The Biden regime sent that money without any conditions or warnings about how the gravy train would stop if the Iranian regime didn’t toe the line.
Then there was the $9.1 billion that the regime is sending to Gaza, accompanied by all sorts of warnings that it must not fall into the hands of Hamas. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his colleagues are not deaf, dumb, and blind, and they weren’t born yesterday, so they surely must be aware of the fact that there is no force in Gaza powerful enough to keep this money out of the hands of Hamas, or even interested in doing so. $9.1 billion to Gaza is $9.1 billion to Hamas, and the Biden regime must know that. And its apparent response to that fact is to withhold an arms shipment to Israel.
The Biden gang pressures Israel and not Iran or Hamas because this is all about securing the Arab Muslim vote in Michigan and elsewhere. The pressure on Old Joe has been high for months. Back in November, Nihad Awad, executive director of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who infamously said that he was “happy” about Hamas’ Oct. 7 jihad massacre of 1,200 Israelis, declared at a pro-Hamas rally: “No cease-fire, no votes. No votes in Michigan, no votes in Arizona, no votes in Georgia, no votes in Nevada, no votes in Wisconsin, no votes in Pennsylvania. No votes for you anywhere if you don’t call for a ceasefire now.” A ceasefire, like cutting off Israel’s arms shipment, would allow Hamas to survive. That’s why Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Ramallah) agreed, adding: “The American people won’t forget. Biden, support a ceasefire now. Or don’t count on us in 2024.”
Old Joe wants to be able to count on them. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the regime had paused “one shipment of high payload munitions” and explained, “We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself. But that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah.”
Contrary to Austin’s assurances, the upshot of all this is unmistakable. The Biden regime is doing what it can to deprive Israel of what’s necessary to ensure that it has the means to defend itself, while assuring the Israelis and the world that it is doing all it can to help. It is doing all it can to help, all right, but the object of its largesse is Hamas, not Israel. The U.S. government has gone all-in on saving Hamas, just as Israel has a chance to realize its stated goal of destroying the organization forever.
Why is the Biden regime betraying an ally, a course of action that could have repercussions with other allies and potential allies for generations to come? Why has the regime essentially switched sides in Israel’s conflict with the same jihadis who scream “Death to America” as well as “Death to Israel”? It’s all about getting that vote in Michigan, as well as expressing the left’s hatred for particularity and for groups that refuse to efface all their individuality and join the collective. But the longer this keeps up, the Biden regime will not just imperil Israel, but the nation that had been the Jewish state’s great defender. Not that any of its apparatchiks will care about that.