President Joe Biden made two extraordinary statements this week after Iran attacked Israel with nearly 200 ballistic missiles.
First, he said that Israel should not attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, despite the fact that any of those missiles could soon be tipped with a nuclear warhead.
Second, he said that Israel would not attack Iran “today” (Thursday), telegraphing its military plans.
Third, Biden appeared in the White House briefing room on Friday to tell Israel not to attack Iran’s oil facilities, a possibility that he himself had raised on Thursday, sending oil prices soaring on world markets.
So — without attacking Iran’s nuclear sites, or its oil and gas facilities, what is left for Israel to strike? Perhaps Iran’s missile sites, though it is perhaps only a matter of time before Biden tells Israel that they are not allowed to hit those, either.
Biden’s statements were not brilliant ruses designed to throw off Iran’s defenses.
There are three possibilities.
One: Biden could have been trying to restrain Israel from responding to Iran, just as he did in April, when Iran first attacked Israel directly with ballistic missiles. Israel’s minimal response targeted some of Iran’s air defenses; it was a symbolic retaliation that clearly did not deter a second missile strike.
Two: Biden could be so far gone, mentally, that he is unable to filter his public comments to protect American allies and military secrets.
This second possibility is worth exploring in depth.
Recall the media hysteria that ensued in 2017 when Trump met with Russian officials, and critics claimed that he had somehow passed classified information to them. The story was repeated in 2019, when Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland. Democrats tried to subpoena the White House translator. They were convinced that Trump was revealing secrets to America’s enemies.
Yet here is President Biden, openly revealing what should be secret information — the targets and timing of an attack by an American ally on an American enemy, one that will likely be coordinated with American forces. This is what Democrats called treasonous behavior, yet it is happening in public. Under Trump, Democrats would have responded by calling for the president to be removed under the 25th Amendment. Under Biden, they are quiet, as are the media.
Which brings us to the third possibility: Biden may sincerely believe that reassuring the enemy is a way to conduct national security policy.
In June 2021, Biden met with Putin at a special “summit” in Geneva — notably, before the president had met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky — and reportedly gave hm a list of 16 targets that, he warned, Russia should not target with cyberattacks. These were supposedly critical to American infrastructure.
The astonishing gesture not only showed the Russians what our most important sites are, but also gave a virtual “green light” to hit everything else. Biden appears to have believed that playing “open cards” with Putin would be a step toward deescalation. Instead, Putin appears to have interpreted Biden’s behavior as a sign of weakness, an impression the Afghanistan withdrawal would have confirmed. Less than a year later, Russia invaded Ukraine.
There is a pervasive believe in Democratic foreign policy circles that if Americans show ourselves to be “nice,” and if we demonstrate we can be just as critical of ourselves as our enemies are, that somehow the world will like us more.
Trump horrifies them because he can be very mean, and because he is proud of America. Unlike them, he does not spell out his plans in public — whether on ISIS, or on health care. This, they say, means Trump does not have a plan.
Actually, Trump’s plans are always the same: win. (Or, as President Ronald Reagan said: “We win, they lose.”) He is unpredictable, but decisive, which is why we had four years of peace during his first term.
Biden should have kept quiet except to say Israel is perfectly within its rights to strike back — anywhere, anytime — and that the U.S. will help them, or will at least not stop them. If the enemies of America and Israel know that they could face a catastrophic response, they will not attack at all.
That was the Trump policy, and that is why there was peace in the Middle East for four years. Hamas did not attack; Hezbollah did not attack; Iran did not attack; and several Arab nations came forward to make peace with Israel.
Instead of warning America’s enemies, the president who issued his infamous, and ineffective, “don’t” to Iran after October 7 is now telling Israel “don’t,” and weakening us all.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.