Biden’s Disgraceful Smear of Israel Is No Laughing Matter

By Philip Klein

Friday, July 15, 2022

 

As tempting as it is to simply chuckle at President Biden’s bumbling and catalogue of inane statements, on Friday, in a ham-handed attempt to connect with a Palestinian audience, he launched a disgraceful smear of Israel.

 

“My background and the background of my family is Irish American and we have a long history of uh, not fundamentally unlike the Palestinian people, with Great Britain and their attitude over the years for 400 years,” Biden said.

 

Here’s the video.

 

In the framework that Biden has set up here, Israel is presumably the colonial power that is oppressing other people out of sheer religious bigotry. This is absolutely disgusting. There has been a Jewish presence in Israel for thousands of years. Modern Israel serves as a crucial ally for the United States and as a safe haven for the most persecuted religious group in world history. To indulge his stupid analogy a bit further, Irish Catholics seeking independent control over their homeland did not fight toward the goal of conquering England and driving the British from their own homeland and denying its right to exist altogether. Yet for decades, Arabs have sought to drive Jews out of the region through war and terrorist attacks. If the British lost control of Ireland, they still had England. What happens to Israeli Jews if they lose Israel?

 

Earlier this week, in remarks that got attention because the gaffe-machine Biden referred to the “honor of the Holocaust,” he also said, “Wherever we find it in the world, we make real on the promise of ‘never again’ by taking it on.”

 

After today’s insult, his words ring especially hollow.