Joe Biden, who came in fourth place in the Iowas Democrat caucus to choose the Democrat candidate to run for president in 2020, has been touted as being a supporter of Israel. However, a closer look at his record reveals that this may not be the case.
In 1982, then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin met with senators at the U.S. Capitol. In what was intended as a clear threat of quid pro quo, Biden told him the expansion of West Bank settlements would endanger support for foreign aid to Israel. Begin reportedly said, “Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the U.S. 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.”
In a PBS Newshour interview in November, Biden was asked if he agreed with the platforms of the other Democrat candidates who said they supported withholding aid to Israel based on allowing Jews to live in Judea and Samaria.
“Not me. Look, I have been on record from very early on opposed to the settlements, and I think it’s a mistake,” Biden said. “And President Netanyahu knows my position. But the idea that we would draw military assistance from Israel, on the condition that they change a specific policy, I find to be absolutely outrageous…. Anyway, no I would not condition it, and I think it’s a gigantic mistake.”
The quid pro quo threat is ironic since President Trump was brought up for impeachment based on allegations that he threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine unless they helped to investigate claims of corruption against Joe Biden and his son Hunter. It is interesting to note that an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China launched by the Republicans in the Senate several months ago has gone largely unreported by the mainstream media.
Biden was elected as the 47th Vice President of the United States, serving for both of Obama’s terms. Under Obama, he advocated strongly for the Iran nuclear deal which led to the current Iranian expansionism in the region. Iran supports terrorism around the world and has openly stated its intention to destroy Israel. Though he claims to be a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Biden claims to have a close relationship with the current Israeli Prime Minister but when Netanyahu decided to address a joint session of Congress in March 2015 to oppose the Iran deal, Biden did not attend the speech. The Netanyahu government also embarrassed Biden by announcing 1,600 new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem in the middle of the then-vice president’s 2010 trip to Israel, which Biden condemned as “precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.”
It is interesting to note that when Biden was on an official visit to Israel in March 2016, a Palestinian terrorist went on a stabbing spree on the beach in Tel Aviv, killing an American tourist and wounding 11 others. Biden’s wife and grandchildren were near the scene of the attack while the VP met with then-President Shimon Peres nearby. The American victim was Taylor Force, an active-duty military veteran and Christian native of Texas. A bill was named in his honor and was made into law, stopping U.S. payments to the Palestinian Authority based on their payment to terrorists and their families.
