Compare And Contrast: “Condemnation”-Worthy Israeli And Palestinian Symbolism During Biden Visit

I know that this jarring juxtaposition – coming as it does from our pro-Israel President – has already been hashed out at length. But most of those discussion happened in the context of Obama and Biden’s lack of response to the Palestinian Authority, after Abbas responded to Biden’s peace visit by holding a ceremony in honor of a child-murdering, American-killing terrorist filthbag. Nonetheless mere silence in the face of Palestinian incitement won’t do from this pro-Israel White House. Instead what’s called for is active reward:

“In a phone call between Netanyahu and Clinton, the Israeli PM reportedly conveyed a detailed list of gestures Jerusalem was willing to perform… These measure likely include the release of Palestinian prisoners, the removal of West Bank checkpoints and perhaps even a willingness to transfer West Bank territories to PA control.”… Oddly, I see no mention of trust-building moves demanded of the Palestinians after their calls to “rage” and the celebratory naming of a square after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi. Isn’t some gesture being asked of them?

So Biden showed up in Jerusalem. Just afterward a mid-level Israeli housing official from the most junior party in the government bureaucratically advanced the construction of 1,600 East Jerusalem homes, thereby violating exactly zero agreements. Biden declared that the symbolic import of the decision was a threat to the peace process, and Clinton all but detonated the US/Israeli special relationship.

Then Biden showed up in Ramallah. Just afterward Palestinian President Abbas joined officials from his faction to honor this terrorist cretin, violating every anti-incitement commitment that the Palestinian Authority has ever signed. Meanwhile Palestinian officials from all factions incited violence in Jerusalem, the pretext being that the Jews had restored a historic synagogue which Arab leaders had gleefully declared destroyed forever. The symbolic import of Palestinian behavior failed to raise similar ire from the White House – not for lack of requests from Israel – while Obama himself lied about condemning the riots:

Dozens of Palestinian students from the youth division of Fatah, the party led by “moderate” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, gathered in Ramallah in the West Bank on Thursday to rename the main public square in honor of Dalal Mughrabi, the woman who in 1978 helped carry out the deadliest single terrorist attack in Israel’s history. Mughrabi was the leader of a Fatah PLO terror squad… They first killed a renowned American photojournalist (who was incidentally the niece of U.S. Democratic party Senator Abraham Ribicoff) who was taking nature photos, then hijacked a bus and commandeered another, embarking on a bloody rampage that left 38 Israeli civilians dead, 13 of them children. Fatah representatives at the ceremony on Thursday described Mughrabi as “a courageous fighter who held a proud place in Palestinian history.” “We are all Dalal Mughrabi,” declared Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of the Fatah Central Committee.

Unlike Netanyahu’s brother-in-law, I don’t think that Obama is an antisemite. I just think that he provides bracing confidence and diplomatic succor to antisemites. Very, very genocidal antisemites.

References and related after the jump…

References:
* Obama Isn’t Anti-Israel Because… Umm… Err… Because He Just Isn’t OK? [MR]
* End the hypocrisy against Israel [Washington Examiner]
* NJDC: Biden Is Pro-Israel Because… Umm… Err… Because He Just Is OK? [MR]
* Bibi Seeks to Calm Obama [Rubin / Commentary]
* Palestinians Honor a Figure Reviled in Israel as a Terrorist [NYT]
* Sweden: It’s Time For The EU To Lock In Jordan’s Ethnic Cleansing Of East Jerusalem [MR]
* Israel asks US VP Biden to condemn PA naming of square after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi [PMW]
* Obama: What’s All This About Me One-Sidedly Attacking Israel? [MR]
* Netanyahu’s brother-in-law: Obama is an anti-Semite [Ha'aretz]