Biden and betrayal
In “Biden and the American pay-for-slay law” (April 12) we learn that US President Joe Biden, in apparent violation of US law, has begun streaming tens of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority – even while it is spending an estimated $350 million per year in bounties to incentivize and reward the killing of Israelis.
Last summer a rumor circulated that Russia was offering bounties to Afghan militants to kill US soldiers, yet the US was doing nothing. It is instructive to recall how then-candidate Biden spoke about pay-for-slay at that time:
Biden said president Donald Trump’s alleged inaction in the matter of pay-for-slay was a “betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm’s way. It’s a betrayal of every single American family with a loved one serving in Afghanistan or anywhere overseas... But I don’t just think about this as a candidate for president. I think about this as a dad, a father who sent his son to serve in harm’s way for a year in the Middle East and in Iraq, and I’m disgusted on behalf of those families whose loved ones are serving today,” Biden said.
In other words, when Biden claimed the Russians were paying bounties to kill Americans, he was “disgusted” and condemned the president’s inaction, but now that he knows the PA is paying bounties to kill Israelis, his disgust is suddenly absent and he is directing significant sums of money their way – unconditionally, asking nothing of them in return. As money is fungible, these generous monetary gifts from Biden are indirectly financing the murder of innocent Jews. Now it is my turn to feel betrayed and be disgusted. ARLINE BROWN Fort Lauderdale nuclear proliferation efforts aimed at obtaining an Iranian nuclear arsenal.
The world owes Israel a debt of gratitude for delaying or destroying these illicit nuclear proliferation efforts. Will the world understand this? Will the Biden-Harris administration, currently engaged in a sure-to-fail policy of appeasement toward Iran, finally see that their approach will only lead to an industrial-strength Iranian nuclear arsenal?
DANIEL H. TRIGOBOFF, PH.D.
Williamsville, New York
Regarding “Palestinians ‘optimistic’ about new peace talks” (April 11), here we go again. Fatah officials are absolutely giddy with the prospects of a return to the Obama/Biden era. They are salivating over the Quartet (the US, the UN, the EU and Russia) “reactivating” the failed policies of the past: a Palestine in all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, with its capital in eastern Jerusalem and “refugees” flooding into Israel.
The PA talks of a “renewed commitment to the twostate solution.” Where’s the renewal? The US has always favored a two-state solution, including during the Trump administration.
US president Donald Trump proposed the Peace to Prosperity Plan, which included two states and a $50 billion development fund to kick-start the Palestinian economy. Its map gave the PA more land than Jordan and Egypt occupied from 1948 to 1967 and provided Israel with border security.
The Trump plan, not the Obama plan, is the practical starting point for PA-Israeli peace talks. The Arab League, not the Quartet, could facilitate progress. Even China has offered to sponsor talks. Unfortunately, American policy looks set to waste another four years. LEN BENNETT
Ottawa, On.