Editors Notes: Biden heard the words of Israeli PMs, but didn't actually listen - comment

If there is one thing President Joe Biden likes doing is repeating emotional stories from his past, as he has been doing since October 7, by quoting the late Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. 

If only the American president would internalize the words of Meir, as well as other attitudes she had to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he may have not halted crucial security aid to Israel in the past two weeks. 

Biden warns about halt of weapons shipments

Biden warned Israel early Thursday morning that he’d halt US weapons shipments earmarked for Gaza if the IDF embarks on a major military operation against Hamas in Rafah. 

“I’ve made it clear that if they [Israel] go into Rafah... I’m not supplying the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah,” Biden told CNN while campaigning in Wisconsin.

Earlier, on Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Appropriations Committee the US had already paused one shipment to Israel of payload munitions due to concerns over Rafah. 

Let’s go back to Golda Meir’s conversation with then-senator Biden. In 1973, Biden visited Israel, as he mentioned in a speech at the beginning of this war, in October 2023. 

“We walked outside in that – that sort of hallway outside her office to have some photos,” he said of meeting Meir. 

“We were standing there silent, looking at the press. She could tell, I guess, I was concerned. She leaned over and whispered to me – she said, ‘Don’t worry, Senator Biden. We have a secret weapon here in Israel... We have no place else to go.’”

Other historical sources actually quoted Meir a bit differently, where she related to the Arab world: “We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs – we have no place to go.”

Meir spoke of a weapon. She implied that Jews need to be tough and at times brutal with defending its borders, since this is our only homeland; the only place we can actually live freely as Jews. Meir’s statement couldn’t be more relevant 50 years later. 

If only Biden would have internalized this issue, he wouldn’t think twice before bragging to the entire world that he has literally blocked American weapons that Israel needs in order to defend itself from a horrific terrorist organization that killed more than 1,200 civilians and soldiers, as well as kidnapping hundreds. 

A terrorist organization that also sees the US as an enemy. 

Another historical meeting between Biden and an Israeli prime minister was rolling across social media this week. 

On June 22, 1982, Biden, then a senator from Delaware, challenged Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin during his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, threatening to halt aid to Israel.

In response, Begin forcefully countered in an epic monologue, which has become even more relevant this week. 

“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid,” Begin told Biden. “It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history.

Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. 

We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”

According to the many reports on this meeting, back in 1982, the American senator reportedly banged his fist on the table. Begin wasn’t pleased with this attitude. 

He responded. “This desk is designed for writing, not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the US lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do?

“We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats. Take note: we do not want a single soldier of yours to die for us.”

According to an official source whom I spoke with on Thursday, Biden has essentially “buried the [hostage release and ceasefire] deal,” by announcing that he would delay the military aid for Israel. 

“What incentive does he have to speak about what he claims to be the US’s number one ally?”

The source asked. “He literally threw their ally under the bus.” According to this source, Biden has not only buried the deal with Hamas, but also with “cutting a deal with Lebanon,” in order to allow citizens of Israel’s North to return home, but also “deterring Iran,” and “ensuring Taiwan and South Korea that they don’t need a nuclear bomb.”

SOME 80% of voters support Israel in its ongoing conflict with Hamas with older demographics showing the strongest backing, a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released on April 29. 

Additionally, 72% of voters favor an IDF operation in Rafah to bring the conflict to an end, whereas 28% believe Israel should withdraw and allow Hamas to maintain control over Gaza.

The question is: Why won’t the US sanction Iran? Why aren’t they pressuring Qatar to put their foot down even more on Hamas? Why aren’t they sanctioning Hamas supporters around the US? Instead, they are punishing their so-called greatest ally. 

Many sources have also confirmed that the Biden administration has delayed Saudi normalization with Israel. 

The simple reason is the obsessiveness of the US with a two-state solution, while Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman doesn’t really care about such a solution – but cannot ignore it since the Americans have been publicly promoting it – something that the Saudi public sees as important. 

“The US screwed up Saudi normalization because they insisted on forcing a two-state solution as a criteria for this move,” a senior Israeli government source said this week.

Back to the wise quotes from our only female prime minister. “We are the only country in the world whose neighbors do not say, ‘We are going to war because we want a certain piece of land from Israel,’ or waterways or anything of that kind,” she said to 60 Minutes in 1973. 

“We’re the only people in the world where our neighbors openly announce they just won’t have us here. And they will not give up fighting and they will not give up war as long as we remain alive. Here.”

She was also quoted saying, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

SO DEAR President Biden, you know all of this. I’m not teaching you anything new. Let’s add to this that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also taking his time, a bit too much, with making decisions and moving forward, both diplomatically and militarily. 

Netanyahu and his government have made many mistakes in the past seven months. He also has too many members of his cabinet who keep on speaking up in extreme ways.

But President Biden, we literally have no place to go. And no, as Begin told you, we won’t sit back and wait for someone else to eliminate Hamas. 

As the US didn’t wait for anyone to kill Osama Bin Laden. It was the US who chased him down.

Listen to two of our late prime ministers. They may have been tough and a bit blunt, but in this region, unfortunately, that is the only way to survive.