US President Joe Biden appears more worried about the Israeli government's plan for judicial reform than the growing support among Palestinians for terrorism against Israel.
He seems more concerned about a plan to fix the deeply broken judicial system in Israel than about Palestinian threats to destroy Israel and kill as many Jews as possible.
While Biden has not hesitated to publicly criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government over the judicial overhaul plan, he has yet to speak out against the Palestinians' support for terrorism and their ongoing campaign to isolate and delegitimize Israel.
We did not see Biden raise any objection over the Palestinians' "Pay for Slay" policy, which rewards terrorists and their families for the murder of Jews. We did not see Biden raise any objection over the Palestinian leaders' glorification of terrorists, who are being celebrated as "martyrs" by a majority of Palestinians. We did not see Biden raise any objection over the thousands of Palestinians who regularly take to the streets to celebrate the murder of Jews in terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists.
As Biden was criticizing the democratically elected prime minister of Israel, senior (unelected) Palestinian officials were continuing to use every available podium to spread more libels against Israel. These falsely include that it is committing massacres against the Palestinians and "stealing their property."
Has Biden ever shown any concern that the Palestinians are living under highly undemocratic regimes, with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip? Has Biden or anyone from his administration ever asked the Palestinians why they do not have a functioning parliament?
It is worth noting that the Palestinian Legislative Council has been inoperative since 2007, when the Iranian-backed Hamas terror group violently seized control of the Gaza Strip after toppling the US-backed Palestinian Authority and killing possibly hundreds of Palestinians.
On March 28, Biden told reporters that the Israeli government "cannot continue down this road" with its judicial reform plan and stressed that he is not going to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House "in the near term."
Earlier this year, Biden told The New York Times that any fundamental changes to Israel's judicial system should be based on a consensus to get legitimacy from the public and be sustainable.
He also called Netanyahu in early March and "expressed concerns" over the plan.
The crisis Biden has triggered with Israel because of his recurring criticism of a badly-needed judicial reform plan is great news for Iran and its Palestinian proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), two of the many Islamist terror groups that openly call for the elimination of Israel.
Media outlets affiliated with Iran and its terror proxies also seem to be taking delight in reporting about the crisis, and highlighting Biden's statement that he is not going to invite Netanyahu to the White House "in the near term."
Iran's official media has also gleefully underscored the crisis between the Biden administration and the Israeli government.
"White House snubs Netanyahu," rejoiced a headline in the mullah's newspaper, Tehran Times. "For now, it looks like Netanyahu has to wait by the postbox before an invitation letter arrives from Washington DC."
By sparking a crisis with Netanyahu and the Israeli government, Biden has succeeded in bringing happiness to the enemies of both Israel and the US, perhaps in an effort that will be fruitless, to appease them. The message the Biden Administration is sending is that you are rewarded if you an enemy of the US but punished if you are a friend.
Iran and its terror militias are not only enemies of Israel, but the US too. That is seemingly why they often burn Israeli and US flags together when they take to the streets to demonstrate against Israel and the US.
Biden has placed himself alongside the mullahs of Iran, who are expressing hope that the protests against the Netanyahu government will lead to the "collapse of the Zionist regime."
"The current internal and external conditions of the illegitimate regime have been unprecedented over the last seven decades," remarked Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
"The Zionist regime's status is so shaky that many are hopeful the regime will collapse by internal factors. This important incident will happen soon with God's help and the people of Palestine and the region will get rid of the cancerous tumor [Israel]."
When the mullah's media outlets talk about the "external conditions" affecting Israel, they are mainly referring to the tensions between the Israeli government and the Biden administration.
The mullahs are clearly happy to see Biden's attacks on the Israeli prime minister, who has been spearheading efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
There is no doubt that the mullahs, together with their agents Hamas and PIJ, now believe that the crisis Biden has sparked with Israel will hamper, hinder or even halt Netanyahu's efforts.
The mullahs are surely aware that any Israeli military action against Iran would require some form of coordination between the US and Israel.
The mullahs are also undoubtedly delighted to see the Biden administration turn its back on its major ally and the only democracy in the Middle East: Israel. In the view of the mullahs and most of Israel's enemies, the US has always been the "Great Satan" that stands in the way of achieving their goal of destroying the "Little Satan" Israel.
Basically, Iran does not want any democratic presence in the Middle East and has presumably been attacking US interests in the area to force the US to pull out.
As Biden and his administration remain obsessed with the Israeli government and would love to reverse the results of the last election in Israel, which saw Netanyahu and his allies score a victory, they have nevertheless failed to voice concern over the Palestinians' repeated calls for murdering Jews.
A public opinion poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in mid-March showed that 68% of Palestinians support the formation of terror groups such as the Lions' Den, whose members have carried out a series of shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians over the past few months.
The poll found that 71% of the Palestinians support the Palestinian terror attack in which Jewish brothers Hallel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19, were killed in early March.
Moreover, the poll showed that Palestinian support for a return to armed confrontations (a euphemism for terrorism) with Israel has increased from 55% late last year to 58%.
The Israeli government's judicial plan is probably not perfect, but it could not be more dangerous than Iran's continued effort to produce nuclear weapons or the Palestinians' rising support for terrorism.
The Biden Administration appears unperturbed that more than 70% of Palestinians polled support the cold-blooded murder of two innocent young Jewish brothers by Palestinian terrorists in early March.
The Biden Administration claims that it views a plan to reform Israel's judicial system as the biggest threat to security and stability in the Middle East. This makes the mullahs and all the Islamist terrorists happy.
In reality, it looks to many in the Middle East as if the Biden Administration's objection to long-overdue judicial reforms is really just a pretext for trying to bring down the democratically-elected Israeli government and replace it with a new government that will allow the US to accept that Iran may have all the nuclear weapons it wants, perhaps with some feckless "compromise," such as "so long as it does not field them." This would be a deeply terrible plan that the Biden Administration might, alarmingly, decide to accept.
The current US anti-Netanyahu approach will do nothing except empower Iran and its proxies, Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and incentivize them to carry out more terror attacks – not only against Israelis, but against Americans as well.
The Biden administration would do well to understand that those who want to kill the Jews also want to see dead the friends and allies of the Jews. That is why it would be most helpful for America's national security if Biden and his officials immediately defused the tensions and ceased their rhetorical attacks against a small country that is in reality America's only true friend and most trusted ally in the Middle East.
Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
