Funding Hamas, Respecting Iran, Pretending all is Fine

US Foreign Policy Today

There are a few news items that have not made headlines even though they are consequential to the continuing regional war in the middle east.

The first is a report by Israel’s most senior Arab affairs correspondent, Ehud Ya’ari.  Ya’ari is 79 years old and was, for years, the main Arab affairs correspondent for Channel 2 news and has written many books on the Israel-Arab conflict.  He is an old style journalist who does not report on rumors he has heard without checking the facts first. 

According to Ya’ari, (video in Hebrew here) Hamas, by commandeering the humanitarian aid being sent into Gaza and reselling it at inflated prices to the Gazans has made over $500 million since the start of the war.    The massive amounts of aid sent in by the West and the Arab world has, as so many have stated, gone to Hamas warehouses where they take what they need and sell the rest.  We have written about this in the past (Biden Counts Trucks While People Suffer) , as have many others.    Essentially, the humanitarian aid racket is an in-kind donation to Hamas, a terrorist organization.  Biden and Blinken, by their obsession with sending in ton after ton of aid, without making sure that it goes to the Gazans instead of Hamas, has been illegally funding a terrorist organization.  

The second news item that fits what  we have spoken about (Next Stop: Jordan), but does not fit the narrative of the US State Department, is the Iranian desire to overthrow the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.   Reuters reported on May 15 that Jordan foiled an Iranian attempt to smuggle arms to the Moslem Brotherhood in Jordan for the purpose of carrying out acts of sabotage in the country.  The Moslem Brotherhood is closely tied to Hamas.  Iran has smuggled arms into the West Bank via Jordan before this was not for use in Jordan itself.    The Iranian “proxy” attack on US forces in Jordan a few months ago had two goals – to “encourage” the Americans to leave Jordan and to help destabilize the country.  This is a follow on to that attack.

Jordan borders both Israel and Saudi Arabia and therefore is the springboard to controlling Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia and of course Jerusalem in Israel.    Control of these holy cities by Iran would give them prestige and power in the Moslem world that they don’t currently have since they are neither Arab nor Sunni.   By placing Hamas in charge of Jordan they will have a Sunni puppet government there who could threaten Israel daily and allow Iranian forces and proxies to raid directly into Saudi Arabia with the goal of destabilizing the Saudi Kingdom and taking over the two most holy cities in Islam.  They will then have the power to decide who can and who cannot perform the obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca.

The third news item, reported in Axios and elsewhere is that the US and Iran held “indirect” talks in order to get their help in avoiding a wider regional war.   One has to imagine that the Islamic Republic of Iran must be scratching their heads in wonder over what it must do to convince the Biden-Blinken team that there already is a regional war and that the Islamic Republic itself already is at war with the United States as it attacks and kills US sailors and soldiers via its proxies.

Once again, the US is treating the Islamic Republic of Iran as its equal as both “great powers” stand by and watch their “allies” fight it out.  As if Iran is the equivalent of China now or the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the US holds secret talks to make sure there is no true victory of their ally over Iran’s ally.   

This is “balance of power” diplomacy as farce.  

Iran is stage managing everything from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon in their attacks on Israel.  They are supplying arms to and managing the Houthi’s closing down of shipping in the Red Sea while Biden-Blinken have the US Navy all but stand down.  They supply and command their proxies in Iraq, Syria and even Bahrain as they attack US positions on a regular basis – but for this administration, they are their equals.   With the death of the Iranian President Raisi, it would not surprise if Biden were to send someone, maybe even a senior person to the funeral of the “butcher of Teheran”.

The entire US policy in the middle east has turned into a farse.  Rather than looking reality in the eye, the administration has a checklist that they need to check off.   The main line item on this checklist is of course “Humanitarian aid” – which really means, give Hamas the funds it needs to keep its war and terror machine going.    The second one is avoiding what already exists – a regional war.  The third item is more general – pretend your allies will always be there.