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FOREIGN POLICY

State Department’s Middle East policy assessed Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/3zER3Ez

Conventional wisdom vs. evidenced-reality

According to the late Prof. John Kenneth Galbraith, “the notion of conventional wisdom… is commonly understood as knowledge that is accepted within a certain community or among the general public…. [They] tend to hold on to opinions and ideas that fit with their established worldviews. Accordingly, conventional wisdom provides an obstacle for the acceptance of new knowledge or novel and original thinking….

“To its adherents, conventional wisdom provides comfortable padding against inconvenient truths and the complexities of reality…. This is a prime manifestation of vested interest. For a vested interest in understanding is more preciously guarded than any other treasure…. Acceptable ideas are disinclined to change….

“In the struggle between what is correct and what is agreeable, conventional wisdom had a tactical advantage…. There are many reasons why people like to hear articulated that which they approve…. It serves the ego: the individual has the satisfaction of knowing that other and more famous people share his conclusions….

“The enemy of conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events [evidence].… The fatal blow to conventional wisdom comes when conventional ideas fail signally to deal with some contingency to which obsolescence has made them palpably inapplicable.… The concept of conventional wisdom accentuated the difference between established truths – fundamentally out-of-touch with contemporary challenges – and new knowledge….”

Yale University’s Prof. Harlan Krumholz adds: “In science, what seems obvious may not be true, and what is accepted as conventional wisdom, may sometimes be based on flawed assumptions.” 

China and the US: Whose Side Is the Administration On? by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18761/china-taiwan-us

One hopes that [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s Taiwan visit is also intended to reassure free Asia that America will militarily defend Pacific democracies, despite the failure of the US either to deter Russia from invading Ukraine or adequately to defend it after it was invaded.

Above all, the US, must not submit to the Chinese Communist Party’s threats. Pelosi should proceed to Taiwan with as large a bipartisan Congressional delegation as possible. If she bows to demands to stay away, China will be incentivized to attack Taiwan effectively the next day. Backing down at this point would only establish a pattern that all Beijing has to do to intimidate America is bark.

After America’s humiliating defeat in Afghanistan and the “far too little, too late ” response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, any cancellation of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan would be seen the world over as yet another spineless US surrender.

The only question is if this administration finally has the political will to stop appearing weak, scared and permitting China to dictate US policy. The administration’s record so far: it has sold oil from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, meant for hurricane damage and other emergencies, not only to China, but to the offshoot of a firm there in which President Biden’s son, Hunter, had “invested heavily”; it has cancelled the China Initiative, thereby allowing China to continue stealing intellectual property with impunity; it has ignored China’s purchase of massive amounts of American farmland and land near US military bases; it appears about to lift tariffs for China that will permit China to dictate US trade policy but only negligibly curb inflation; it is permitting China to collect genetic data from Americans citizens for potential biological warfare against the US.

China this weekend, according to reports, privately delivered a message to US national security officials reinforcing an earlier Chinese Foreign Ministry statement: if US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi goes ahead with her planned August visit to Taiwan, it would be met with a “resolute and strong measures.”

China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian stated on July 19 that the visit “would seriously undermine Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The Ukrainian Verdun The United States is nearing a gut-check on Ukraine. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/27/the-ukrainian-verdun/

Five months after Russia invaded Ukraine, the war is now reduced to one of attrition. The current dirty, grinding slog is fought mostly with artillery and rockets. Everything from Ukraine’s shopping centers to apartment buildings—and the civilians in them—are Russian targets. 

Most outsiders have already forgotten the heroic Ukrainian winter repulse of the botched Russian shock-and-awe effort to sweep into Kyiv, decapitate the government, and declare the eastern half of the country a Russian protectorate within mere days.

Months later, the long war devolves further into a contest of mass and weight—tons of explosives blowing up pathways for massed troops grabbing a few more charred miles of ruined landscape.

Vladimir Putin bets he can throw in more men and more shells than Ukraine and its Western suppliers can match. He is quite willing to “win” by laying waste to eastern Ukraine even if it means losing three Russian soldiers for every Ukrainian. 

When war becomes such gridlocked carnage, each side looks to new game-changing diplomacy, strategies, allies, or weapons to break the deadlock.

For Putin, such escalation means more flesh, steel, and explosives. His country is 28 times bigger than Ukraine, and over three times more populous, with an economy 15 times larger. 

As for Putin’s financial reserves, the Western oil boycott means increasingly little to him when 40 percent of the planet’s population in India and China are eager to secure near-limitless Russian energy. 

Another 750 million people in Europe once talked tough. But as a second winter nears, their gas and oil imports from Russia will further wither. Then their Churchillian rhetoric may chill. 

So, the Ukrainian war increasingly will depend on endless U.S. aid and escalation.

To stop the Russian steamroller, Ukraine demands sophisticated American missiles to sink Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Kyiv requests shipments of U.S. jet fighters to knock down Putin’s missiles and planes.

It asks for more rockets and artillery to ensure tit-for-tat retaliation for every incoming Russian shell and bomb. Kyiv negotiates for more Western intelligence to take out more Russian generals and more lift capacity to stage airborne raids into Mother Russia itself.

Ambassador Nides: ‘Nothing Political’ About Biden’s Visit to East Jerusalem But the visit became political when the Israeli flag on the presidential vehicle was removed. Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/07/ambassador-nides-nothing-political-about-bidens-hugh-fitzgerald/

Joe Biden’s visit to east Jerusalem, without any Israeli official allowed to accompany him, and with the Israeli flag on his car replaced with a Palestinian one, was not meant to send a political message about the status of Jerusalem, according to the US Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides. A full report on Nides’ naively enthusiastic remarks is here: “Biden’s east Jerusalem visit was not meant as political statement – interview with Nides,” by Lahav Harkov, Jerusalem Post, July 18, 2022:

…“The capital of Israel is Jerusalem,” Nides said. “The president said it, I said it, it is the position of the US.”

But Biden did not say anything about Jerusalem being the “undivided” capital of Israel. He left open the possibility of a future Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem. Some say that he semaphored vexilogically his support for that Palestinian capital to be placed in Jerusalem. 

Biden’s visit to the Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem on Friday was “a healthcare event, nothing to do with politics,” the ambassador said. “It had nothing to do with the status of Jerusalem. We could not have been clearer about it. Those who want to make it political, that’s their problem. It was about giving money to these hospitals.”

That visit became political when the Israeli flag on the Presidential vehicle was removed and replaced by a second American flag, when that vehicle travelled to the hospital in east Jerusalem. It became political, too, when the Bidenites refused to let any Israeli accompany the President on his trip to the hospital. These were meant, unhappy Israelis believe, as signs of support for the Palestinian claim to east Jerusalem.

Arabs: ‘US President Decided to Tamper with [Middle East] Security for No Reason…’ by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18753/arabs-us-tamper-middle-east

Arabs point out that one of Biden’s biggest mistakes was that he took America’s Arab allies for granted while embarking on a policy of appeasement towards Iran’s mullahs.

“The behavior of the Obama and Biden administrations regarding Iran and Afghanistan served as a wake-up call for the countries of the region.” — Ali Hamadeh, Lebanese Journalist, Annahar, July 20, 2022.

“Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya were stable countries until the US president decided to tamper with their security for no reason other than his fascination with the discourse of the left and the extremist [Muslim] Brotherhood….” — Saudi political analyst Mohammed Al-Saed, Okaz, July 18, 2022.

“I remember a little over a year ago how Biden described his relations with Riyadh when he said that they were partners and not allies, then removed the [Iranian-backed] Houthis from their designation as terrorists and then returned to the Iranian nuclear agreement.” — Mohammed Al-Saed, Okaz, July 18, 2022.

The Arabs are telling Biden that they do not appreciate or respect weak leaders and remain concerned about his appeasement policy toward the mullahs and their proxies in the Middle East.

Many Arabs believe that US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to the Middle East was a failure, mainly because the Arab countries still do not have confidence in his administration’s policies. The Arabs point out that one of Biden’s biggest mistakes was that he took America’s Arab allies for granted while embarking on a policy of appeasement towards Iran’s mullahs.

Biden’s Saudi Arabia Visit Was Worse Than an Embarrassment The president’s 24 hours in Jeddah were dominated by photos of his fist bump with Mohammed bin Salman. Things went downhill from there. By Karen Elliott House

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-should-have-stayed-home-crown-prince-mohammed-jeddah-oil-security-iran-nuclear-deal-pariah-ukraine-putin-opec-11658147469?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Meetings between leaders of important nations are usually worthwhile even if they yield no immediate results. But there are exceptions. One was Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 Munich meeting with Hitler. Another: President Biden’s sit-down with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week.

The president’s 24 hours in Jeddah were dominated by photos of his fist bump with the de facto leader of a kingdom Mr. Biden had labeled a pariah. Things went downhill from there. Mr. Biden insisted that, in front of the entire U.S. and Saudi delegations, he had labeled the crown prince the killer of Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi Minister of State Adel al-Jubeir was quick to say he didn’t recall hearing that. When Mr. Biden was asked if the foreign minister was telling the truth, he said no—implying that a key Saudi official was a liar. Even the New York Times questioned if Mr. Biden’s account was accurate, noting that he has a history of describing events other meeting participants don’t recall.

So much for rebuilding U.S.-Saudi cooperation, which was Mr. Biden’s goal. This trip was worse than a missed opportunity. It damaged U.S. security interests in the Middle East by highlighting to the world that neither Saudi Arabia nor other Gulf states trust the U.S. enough to make any sacrifices to renew badly frayed relations. In a speech to Arab leaders, the president proclaimed: “We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran.”

“Two Kinds of Detente” David Goldman

https://lawliberty.org/two-kinds-of-detente/

Historian Niall Ferguson, the official biographer and occasional alter ego of Henry Kissinger, proposed to “dust off that dirty word détente and engage China” in a June 5 essay for Bloomberg News. Wrote Ferguson:

Back in the 1970s, that little French duo-syllable was almost synonymous with “Kissinger.” Despite turning 99 last month, the former secretary of state has not lost his ability to infuriate people on both the right and the left—witness the reaction to his suggestion at the World Economic Forum that “the dividing line [between Russia and Ukraine] should return to the status quo ante” because “pursuing the war beyond that point could turn it into a war not about the freedom of Ukraine … but into a war against Russia itself.”

Ferguson distinguished himself earlier this year as a skeptic of Western policy towards Ukraine, writing for example on March 9:

Western media seem over-eager to cover news of Russian reverses, and insufficiently attentive to the harsh fact that the invaders continue to advance on more than one front. Nor is there sufficient recognition that the Russian generals quickly realized their Plan A had failed, switching to a Plan B of massive bombardment of key cities, a playbook familiar from earlier Russian wars in Chechnya and Syria.

A Look Back at the First Disastrous ‘Two-State Solution’ Victor Sharpe

“It is not from 1947 or 1967 that the relentless aggression against Israel by the Arab and Muslim world and the so-called Palestinians began. To fully understand its origins, we must go back to the early years of the 20th century.”

It was oh so predictable that Joe Biden’s disastrous visit to first Israel and then to Saudi Arabia would not augur well for peace but exacerbate the situation by continuing to unearth the rotting corpse of the failed Two-State-Solution and encourage false Palestinian sovereignty over the eastern half of Israel’s ancient and ancestral 3,000 years old Jewish capital: Jerusalem.

The Biden regime wishes to perpetuate the so-called status quo in the city by giving another $100 million dollars of American taxpayer money to the Palestinian Authority, a terrorist organization, even as it incites more violence and is directly responsible for the killing of Israeli men, women, and children on an almost daily basis. This is a hideous stain upon America, for it is those U.S. dollars that provide the Palestinian Arab terror boss, Mahmoud Abbas, with the means to continue his murderous policy known as “Pay to Slay.” All the murderous terrorists whom Abbas sends to kill Israeli civilians are paid a generous pension if they are jailed by Israel. If they are killed while in the execution of their barbarous campaign of carnage, then the money goes to their families. This is how American taxpayer money is being used.

Joe Biden’s Middle East trip David Wurmser

https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/situation-report-joe-bidens-middle-east-trip/

The final verdict on the trip appears to be that the Saudis, Bahrainis, and UAE trust Israel more than the U.S.

President Biden spent almost a week in the Middle East recently, during a period of critical regional importance, and manages to depart having alienated nearly every major player.

Iran is reaching the breakout point on a nuclear weapon. Israeli leaders were eager to speak face to face with their American counterparts about applying more muscle into forcing Iran to back down.  The Saudis expected a shift in U.S. policy on both Iran and about the criticism of the Saudi government for the Khashoggi affair. Riyadh was signaling a willingness to turn over a new leaf in the U.S.-Saudi relationship by increasing oil production and moving quickly to establish deeper public relations with Israel.

The Palestinians expected the United States to press Israel into allowing the reopening of the formal U.S. consulate to the Palestinians. The consulate, located on Agron Street (in the pre-1967 western half of Jerusalem), was closed during the Trump administration. Reopening it would signal a shift aligned with American and global progressives and more hostile to Israel. Jordan, in addition to backing the Palestinians, expected the United States to reinforce its demand to erode, or even erase, any Israeli sovereignty over any part of eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.

Virtually nobody was pleased by the outcome of the trip, however.

Nikki Haley Calls Biden’s Iran Policy ‘Slap in the Face’ to Israel By Diana Glebova The former U.N. ambassador also warned that the administration’s overtures to Tehran were ‘dangerous for America.’

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/nikki-haley-calls-bidens-iran-strategy-slap-in-the-face-to-israel/?utm_source=

As President Biden finishes his diplomatic trip to the Middle East, Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the U.N. under Donald Trump, criticized the administration’s approach to Iran, calling it “dangerous for America.”

“Iran is selling drones to Russia and attacking American troops, and President Biden still wants to make a deal with the Ayatollahs. It’s a slap in the face to Israel and our Arab allies, and dangerous for America,” Haley said in a statement to National Review.

“By refusing to stand up to Iran, he yet again shows weakness when we should be showing strength,” she added.

Iran was a primary subject during Biden’s trip, intended to counter Russia’s growing presence in the Middle East. Biden vowed to stay tough on Iran’s nuclear program during his visit and pledged to use military force “as a last resort,” despite keeping talks open with a country drawing nearer to being able to build nuclear weapons.

Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 on account of Tehran’s work on ballistic missiles and the limited scope of the terms in the agreement, and Biden has worked to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) throughout his presidency.

Recent reports show Iran is coming close to having enough enriched uranium to building a nuclear weapon, is targeting to kill U.S. officials and is holding military negotiations with Russia.

Russian officials visited Iran at least twice in the past month to look at weapons-capable drones, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN along with satellite imagery of the airfields.

“We have information that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs,” Sullivan told CNN in a statement.

The president assured Middle Eastern leaders the U.S. is “committed to ensuring Iran never gets a nuclear weapon” on Saturday following the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting.