Is Biden normalizing Hamas?

 The crisis between the White House and Israel continues to escalate. The State Department reacted angrily to Israeli statements that the U.N. Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire had undermined negotiations to release Israeli hostages held by Hamas, calling the Israeli statement “inaccurate in almost every respect.” President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken took umbrage at Israel’s response after the U.S. abstention allowed the resolution’s passage without explicitly linking a ceasefire to the release of hostages.

Israel is right, however, but should not be surprised. Biden approached the 2020 elections by arguing the adults would be back in charge, but his team’s true legacy is normalizing Hamas in a way once unthinkable.

Consider former Secretary of State John Kerry, who technically joined the White House as an unconfirmed environment czar but really acted as a foreign policy adviser on par with Blinken. Kerry has a soft spot for Hamas. Just weeks into President Barack Obama’s administration, for example, Kerry became the first U.S. lawmaker to visit Gaza since Hamas took control in a bloody coup against its Palestinian coalition partners. Kerry not only met with officials but also brought back messages and proposals, essentially becoming Hamas’s mailman. He legitimized a pariah group. 

The Biden team also hired Rob Malley, Blinken’s chum and confidant, despite Malley’s long-standing ties to Hamas. Such ties were extensive enough that they were too much, at least initially, when Obama was assembling his team. Malley, whose father worked for the PLO and whose mother worked for Algerian militants, is now under investigation for alleged leaks of classified material to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Top White House officials also appear tolerant of, if not sympathetic to, Hamas. Yale Law School has been a feeder for both the Obama and Biden administrations. It is a chummy place, dedicated more to building networks among future leaders than the practical study of law.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan and his principal deputy Jon Finer both attended Yale Law School with Darryl Li, now an academic but at the time a voice critical of Israel and advocating the normalization of Hamas. Yale Law students are seldom silent about topics in which they believe. While informal influence networks are hard to document, neither Sullivan nor Finer spoke up to shut down Hamas advocacy or the group’s calls for the elimination of the Jewish state.

Top Biden officials continue their lip service about Hamas being a designated terrorist organization, but Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin legitimize it with their intervention in Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 assault and Jerusalem’s efforts to eradicate Hamas terrorist infrastructure. After all, there is little nuance to the Biden team’s choice: either side with a democratic ally against a U.S.-designated terrorist group or else normalize that terrorist group.

When it comes to condemnation of terrorism, any discussion of shades of gray essentially suggests some terrorism is more acceptable than other terrorism. There can be no difference between the U.S. demanding ceasefires in Rafah and outside powers a decade ago hypothetically demanding the U.S. cease attacking the Islamic State in order to feed that group and its hostages.

Biden’s invitation for Recep Tayyip Erdogan to visit the White House on May 9 further reflects tolerance of Hamas. Erdogan is not only Turkey’s president, but he is also, alongside Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, the world’s greatest cheerleader and support for the terrorist group. In effect, Biden and likely Blinken, Sullivan, and Finer are setting the stage for Erdogan to bash Israel and endorse Hamas from either the Rose Garden or the Oval Office.

U.S. leadership is meaningless without moral clarity. Some critics and cynics suggest Biden is turning on the Jewish state only because the Israel-Hamas war puts swing-state Michigan in play in 2024. They are wrong, however. Biden may respect Israel as his post-Oct. 7 speech reflected, but his aides are the most anti-Israel, pro-Hamas team ever assembled. Biden’s words are meaningless. His legacy will be Hamas’s survival, normalization, and empowerment.

Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2941800/is-biden-normalizing-hamas/