{"id":11977,"date":"2023-11-22T14:48:40","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T14:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/22\/biden-funding-both-sides-of-israel-hamas-war\/"},"modified":"2023-11-22T14:48:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T14:48:40","slug":"biden-funding-both-sides-of-israel-hamas-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/22\/biden-funding-both-sides-of-israel-hamas-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden funding both sides of Israel-Hamas war"},"content":{"rendered":"

A popular meme depicts salvos of Israel\u2019s Iron Dome interceptors on their way to counter scores of Hamas rockets over a skyline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under Israel\u2019s interceptors, one caption reads:\u00a0\u2018My tax dollars.\u2019 Under the Hamas rockets, another caption reads:\u00a0\u2018Somehow also my tax dollars.\u2019<\/p>\n

This might be humorous if it didn\u2019t capture a tragic truth:\u00a0as Israel fights to dismantle Hamas terrorists in Gaza following their barbaric Oct. 7 attacks, President Biden finds himself funding both sides of the war.<\/p>\n

Backed by overwhelming congressional support, the U.S. has strongly invested in Iron Dome and other security cooperation with Israel over many administrations.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration, however, decided to reverse President Donald Trump\u2019s cuts to taxpayer-funded assistance to the Palestinians and resume the risky practice of annually sending hundreds of millions in aid, including to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip where aid is at danger of diversion.<\/p>\n

The State Department\u00a0internally warned\u00a0the incoming Biden administration about the \u2018high risk\u2019 that \u2018Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza.\u2019\u00a0But Biden resumed aid to Gaza anyway.<\/p>\n

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In May 2021, I learned firsthand about this \u2018high risk\u2019 when I visited Israel after its 11-day war with Hamas.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and colleagues briefed me on how Hamas diverts aid using what the Palestinian terrorist group euphemistically calls \u2018taxation\u2019 and other extortive means.<\/p>\n

It was jarring to learn how Hamas steals water pipes and other civilian infrastructure to manufacture rockets that target Israel \u2013 a brazen weaponization of aid that Hamas\u00a0recently bragged about\u00a0in online videos.<\/p>\n

When Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently appeared before the Appropriations Committee, I\u00a0asked him\u00a0whether he could guarantee that taxpayer-funded aid to Gaza was not used to help Hamas execute the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.\u00a0He repeatedly declined to make that guarantee.<\/p>\n

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Regretfully, this isn\u2019t the only example of Biden funding both sides of major conflicts.<\/p>\n

Amid Israel\u2019s war on Hamas, the U.S. has sent two carrier strike groups to the region to deter Iran and its terrorist proxies like Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Yet, in recent years, Biden has also enriched Iran \u2013 which seeks nuclear weapons and is the world\u2019s biggest state sponsor of terrorism \u2013 through non-enforcement of sanctions on Iranian energy exports.<\/p>\n

According to OPEC data, during Trump\u2019s maximum pressure campaign, the Iranian regime\u2019s revenue from illicit exports of crude oil and condensate\u00a0totaled\u00a0$19.4 billion in 2019 and $7.9 billion in 2020.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In contrast, Biden\u2019s non-enforcement of sanctions beginning in 2021 allowed Iran to amass over $66 billion by the end of 2022, a number that is likely to be well over $100 billion by December 2023.<\/p>\n

These figures\u00a0don\u2019t include\u00a0tens of billions in Biden-authorized sanctions relief and ransom payments to Iran since he took office<\/p>\n

The war in Ukraine is another example.<\/p>\n

Biden has so far provided $116 billion in aid to help Ukraine defend against Russia\u2019s invasion.\u00a0Yet the administration is also funding Putin\u2019s war machine by allowing Russia to continue exporting oil and gas under a price cap regime.<\/p>\n

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While Western sanctions initially decreased Russian budget revenues, Russia learned to circumvent them. In fact, in 2022, Russia\u00a0earned\u00a0even larger annual revenues from oil than in 2021, and oil exports\u00a0at times exceeded\u00a0pre-war levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s high time for Biden to end policies that allow the world\u2019s worst regimes and terrorist groups to profit.<\/p>\n

In the Middle East, this means fully enforcing and expanding U.S.-led secondary sanctions on Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This also means embracing policies that ensure taxpayer-funded aid to Hamas-controlled areas do not benefit Hamas or any other Palestinian terrorists.<\/p>\n

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In Ukraine\u2019s conflict, this means fully enforcing and expanding secondary sanctions to crush Russia\u2019s energy exports just like Trump\u2019s maximum pressure campaign did to Iran\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Equally important, Biden must end his war on domestic energy production and allow our nation to lead in the international markets as we\u00a0achieved\u00a0during the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

When asked why Biden refused to fully enforce sanctions and let Iran sell tens of billions in illicit oil exports, NSC spokesperson John Kirby\u00a0inexplicably answered:\u00a0\u2018Supply and demand have to be balanced.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same logic of \u2018avoiding destabilizing energy markets\u2019 also clearly underpins the administration\u2019s approach to Russia.<\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s be clear:\u00a0Biden\u2019s war on domestic energy \u2013 with\u00a0onerous\u00a0environmental regulations,\u00a0rejections\u00a0of new oil leases at unprecedented rates, and\u00a0threats\u00a0to tax so-called \u2018windfall profits\u2019 \u2013 destabilized global energy markets and drove prices up around the globe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now we see the administration turning to Russia, Iran and even Venezuela to \u2018balance\u2019 the energy markets \u2013 all while enriching our foes.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t how the leader of the free world should act.\u00a0The better alternative is for energy markets is to rely on American drillers rather than terrorist killers.<\/p>\n

Oscar Wilde once said life imitates art.\u00a0Under President Biden, U.S. foreign policy more frequently imitates memes.\u00a0Yet this tragedy is entirely avoidable.<\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A popular meme depicts salvos of Israel\u2019s Iron Dome interceptors on their way to counter scores of Hamas rockets over a skyline.\u00a0 Under Israel\u2019s interceptors, one caption reads:\u00a0\u2018My tax dollars.\u2019 Under the Hamas rockets, another caption reads:\u00a0\u2018Somehow also my tax dollars.\u2019 This might be humorous if it didn\u2019t capture a tragic truth:\u00a0as Israel fights to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}