Americans have looked on in horror as pro-Hamas sympathy and genocidal Jew-hatred have erupted across college campuses, on city streets and up to Capitol Hill in the aftermath of the jihadist group’s monstrous Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
But perhaps even more horrific is how prevalent the “buttoned-up” version of this worldview is at the highest echelons of the US national-security and foreign-policy apparatus — and how the Biden administration’s Middle East agenda reflects it.
For the latest example, look to the social-media accounts of the CIA’s associate deputy director for analysis.
Amy McFadden, a decorated intelligence officer once responsible for overseeing the production of the all-important President’s Daily Brief, shared Palestinian propaganda on her Facebook page just two weeks after the Black Sabbath massacre, the Financial Times reports.
The woman who serves as one of three officials “responsible for approving all analysis disseminated inside the agency” changed her cover photo to an image of a man waving a Palestinian flag in a keffiyeh-patterned shirt — a design euphemistically referred to as a symbol of Palestinian “solidarity” popularized by the late Palestine Liberation Organization terrorist-in-chief Yasser Arafat.
McFadden previously posted “a selfie with a sticker saying ‘Free Palestine’ superimposed on the photograph,” FT says.
It is bad enough for an American official to share a domestic political message on social media.
It’s infinitely worse when not just any official but a senior intelligence hand publicly promotes a foreign political cause — in this instance, Palestinian nationalism, right after Hamas’ Nazis executed a catastrophic and savage attack overwhelmingly supported by Palestinian Arabs against one of America’s foremost allies.
The Free Beacon adds that McFadden had in recent days liked a LinkedIn post from the International Crisis Group promoting an article critical of Israel for “making the utter defeat of Hamas its top priority.”
Another senior Biden national-security official once led that very conflict-resolution-focused nonprofit.
His name is Rob Malley.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama sidelined Malley as an adviser when it was revealed that while leading the ICG’s Middle East program, the Hamas apologist had met with the group’s members.
Nevertheless, Malley resurfaced as President Obama’s lead negotiator on the Iran nuclear deal, a pact that enriched and empowered the world’s leading state sponsor of jihad — including its proxy Hamas.
Today, Malley has been sidelined again, this time from the Biden State Department, where he was working as special envoy to Iran to reprise the nuclear deal.
Malley had his security clearance pulled, went on leave and is under FBI investigation.
Why? Perhaps because evidence indicates the ICG hired analysts — serving under Malley while he was its president — who participated in an Iranian influence operation against America.
Malley recruited one alleged agent of influence, Ariane Tabatabai, to serve on his Biden administration Iran team.
She would leave and become chief of staff to the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of defense for special operations.
As The Post’s Miranda Devine reports, Tabatabai also recently became a US reserve naval intelligence officer.
Despite being rumored to be under investigation, Tabatabai has somehow retained her high-level security clearance.
Another high-level Israel-hater: Maher Bitar, the senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council.
While a boycott-divestment-sanctions activist as a Georgetown student, he served as an executive board member for Students for Justice in Palestine, organizing virulently anti-Israel conferences.
He then interned at the Hamas-captured UN Relief and Works Agency and pursued like-minded think-tank and academic work — building a paper trail of writings demonizing Israel — before working his way to the top of the US national-security apparatus.
Imagine the extent to which these four individuals alone may have compromised our security.
Then consider the impact of the hundreds of like-minded officials who have signed onto dissent cables and protest letters since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, demanding the administration work to impose a cease-fire — rewarding and protecting Hamas while punishing and imperiling Israel.
Finally, recognize that while less radical and radioactive on their face, top officials such as Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have overseen a Middle East policy consistent with the one they pursued during the Obama-Biden administration.
Team Biden’s overarching goal has been once again to make Iran the regional strong horse, coddling the mullahcracy and its proxies as if they are pillars of stability in the region and putting the screws to Israel, as if it is the key irritant.
Post-Oct. 7, the Biden administration has provided rhetorical support for Israel and to date continued to provide it with munitions.
But it is arguably trying to maintain the sinister status quo to the greatest extent politically possible, and Israel self-evidently feels it must play nice given Team Biden’s leverage over it.
The White House has sought to protect Iran by de-linking it from the attack its Hamas proxy perpetrated; refusing to enforce, snap back and impose new sanctions on the mullahcracy; and deterring Israel from striking Hezbollah while letting Iran’s proxies attack American assets with impunity.
On the other hand, the White House has delayed, micromanaged, imposed suffocating strictures on and executed a whisper campaign against Israel’s leader of and now pressured it into freezing its offensive against Hamas, effectively resupplying the terrorist group.
What’s more, Washington has sought to pre-dictate the terms of “peace” in Gaza, calling for Hamas-lite — the Palestinian Authority — to rule over the strip and perhaps a Palestinian state.
One can draw a clear link from the Biden administration’s personnel to its policy.
The administration may claim its jihadist appeasement and hostility toward Israel is somehow in good faith and rooted in the US national interest.
But the reality is it’s pursuing a policy increasingly indistinguishable from that championed by the progressives and Islamists on the march in America and across the West.
Benjamin Weingarten is editor at large at RealClearInvestigations.
1 comment:
Biden would rather have 10000 cute Abagails die than for him to lose in the election
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