LARRY KUDLOW: The Biden administration continues its policy of appeasement and its fear of Iran

With all the toing and froing between President Biden and his various spokespeople, including National Security Council adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and various meetings and phone calls between them and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top people... I still can't answer this question: is the Biden administration handcuffing Israel? 

For example, here's NSC adviser Sullivan on one of the Sunday talk shows, stressing the IDF's responsibility to distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians and protect the lives of innocent civilians as they conduct this military operation. Take a listen to the actual full quote: 

JAKE SULLIVAN: Hamas, this brutal terrorist organization that conducted the attack, is hiding behind the civilian population, which puts an added burden on Israel to differentiate between the terrorists and innocent civilians, but it doesn't lessen their responsibility under international humanitarian law and the laws of war to do all in their power to protect the civilian population.

So, you know, folks, you tell me: what did he just say? 

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It sure looks like the Bidens are placing the burden on Israel. And, by the way, hat tip to the excellent New York Post editorial today. Why don't they rephrase those kinds of statements and put the burden on Hamas? Or, while the Bidens seem to oppose an outright cease-fire, what is all this talk about a "humanitarian pause? "Humanitarian pause" sounds like a ceasefire. Surely, it would help Hamas. 

All of the aid groups, by the way, the United Nations, World Health Organization – boy, there's a winner – and all the others: they're all pro-Hamas. 

I don't see how any of this stuff could possibly help Israel, at all. 

Let's not forget, please, three weeks later, that Hamas killed 1,400 civilians on October 7th. Israeli civilians! They beheaded kids. They murdered grandmothers. They indiscriminately killed people at a peace concert, including Americans. Many others, from different countries, were killed and taken hostage as well. 

Now, why aren't the Biden people emphasizing the mass barbaric slaughter when they talk about such things? Let me just repeat this for one second: 1,400 innocent civilians were murdered by Hamas on October 7th. Alright. Now, why don't the Bidens quit blaming Israel for something Israel did not do? Incidentally, Israel is dropping leaflets they're broadcasting wherever possible for civilians to temporarily try to get out of Gaza City in the north and go down south to steer clear of the bombing. 

The question I ask is: where are the Hamas leaflets? Oh, I don't see any Hamas leaflets, because they're indiscriminate killers. Why don't they rephrase those kinds of statements and put the burden on Hamas? When has Hamas or any terrorist group ever observed the 'laws of war,' which is what Biden and Sullivan and Blinken are always saying?  And, as The New York Post says, it seems like the Biden-Sullivan rhetoric amounts to a "warning to Israel that they'll hold Israel responsible for the results of the Hamas war crimes."

Some additional points today. To this day, to this moment, neither Joe Biden or anybody else in his gang has acknowledged Iran's direct role in financing, sponsoring, and planning the Hamas attack. Biden is still playing footsie with Iran. There is no evidence that Biden is strictly enforcing the economic and energy sanctions on Iran. And, in a sense, Biden has been complicit in financing the Hamas massacre, by loosening the Iranian sanctions, especially on the oil sales to China – our enemy. 

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Also, Iranian-backed terror groups have launched about twenty attacks on U.S. military assets. Biden's response? Pathetic. He lobbed a couple of missiles at an unmanned ammo depot someplace in Syria. 

Now, here's what should have been done. The strikes against the U.S. come from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. It's the Islamic version and it's in Iraq. And, as General Jack Keane told me this weekend on radio, he believes – and I concur – the United States should have bombed their command and control center in Iraq.  

And there's also a training center there. And that, too, should have been hit. And that would have sent a message to Iran and would have taken out the command and control center that is guiding the attacks on U.S. military assets. But no, no, no, no, no. Aside from casting doubt on Israel's effort to survive, the Biden administration continues its policy of appeasement and its fear of Iran. 

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There's no deterrence, only appeasement. And, I'll tell you, that appeasement policy, which has not yet been acknowledged by Biden or certainly not changed by Biden, that appeasement policy led directly to the tragic Hamas massacre of 1,400 Israelis on October 7th, because of the direct involvement of Iran and the fact that, to use former President Trump's phrase, the Bidens continue to coddle Iran.