Kamala Harris’ shameful betrayal of Israel threatens an Iranian nuclear calamity

The Vice President couldn’t even bring herself to call Netanyahu a close ally. No wonder Tehran is emboldened

Historians will look back at the Biden-Harris presidency as a period of unmitigated US decline on the international stage. From the humiliating Afghanistan withdrawal that returned the Taliban to power, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the last three and a half years have been one disaster after another for the world’s superpower. And with the globe’s biggest state sponsor of terror, Iran, moving towards becoming a nuclear weapons power, the situation is only getting worse.The spectre of an Iranian regime armed with nuclear weapons is a terrifying prospect. It would blackmail the Middle East, threaten Europe, and menace the entire free world. No European capital, including London, would be safe from its reach. Yet the feckless Biden-Harris administration is doing nothing to prevent this nightmare from happening. It’s reportedly even pressuring Israel to refrain from taking action against Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Instead of projecting strength in the face of Iranian aggression, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have kowtowed to the mullahs by weakening sanctions, unfreezing Iranian funds, and attempting to revive the hugely flawed Iran nuclear deal. The Iranian regime has become far more assertive since Biden and Harris took office, and it is no coincidence that Tehran’s proxy movement, Hamas, launched its barbaric assault on Israel on October 7 last year against a backdrop of a White House perceived as weak-kneed and indecisive.Biden and Harris have also treated the leader of America’s closest ally in the region, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with barely disguised disdain and even hostility. Harris couldn’t even bring herself to call him a “close ally” in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS last night.
Harris also disgracefully boycotted Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress in July and has been highly critical of Israel’s military operations to combat Hamas in Gaza. Biden has at times been barely on speaking terms with his Israeli counterpart, and as commander in chief of the United States has been sorely missing in action for much of his presidency. Significantly, Tel Aviv is thought not to have informed Washington of its plans to strike Hezbollah targets the other weekend, signaling a clear lack of trust in the Biden-Harris administration.Instead of giving wholehearted support to Israel at a critically important time, as the Israeli people literally fight for their survival against an array of terrorist groups armed, funded and supplied by Iran, the Biden-Harris team have sent mixed messages as part of a broader appeasement approach towards Iran. The constant, reckless calls from the White House for a “ceasefire” in both Gaza and Lebanon only serve to benefit Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian dictatorship.It is also clear that the clueless Biden-Harris team has no real plan to halt Iran’s path to a nuclear weapons breakout. This is an immensely dangerous kamikaze-style approach that will have catastrophic consequences for the West and for America’s allies in the Middle East.It will be the responsibility of the next US administration to clear up the mess. As my Heritage Foundation colleagues Robert Peters and Nicole Robinson write in a major new report, the United States must “field the capabilities required to destroy Iran’s weapon capabilities, including options for destroying hardened and deeply buried nuclear targets,” including the key facilities at Natanz and Fordow. In addition, they argue, Biden’s successor should fully reimplement the more than 1,500 Trump-era terrorism, missile and nuclear sanctions applied against the Iranian regime, as well as supply Israel with the vital weapons, air and missile defences and intelligence it needs to defend itself.It is simply staggering that the world’s greatest power, the United States, is sleepwalking while the Middle East is on fire, and as an Islamist terrorist-supporting tyranny is about to be armed with nuclear weapons. This is an incredibly perilous moment, one that demands the kind of robust and decisive leadership that is sorely absent at this moment. Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, America is in retreat, while its adversaries feel increasingly emboldened.In the last year, the brave and spirited Israelis have demonstrated the kind of leadership we need to see from the next president of the United States: tremendous courage under fire, a willingness to confront and destroy evil, and a determination to project strength, resolve and determination.
Nile Gardiner is director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC