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With Biden failing, Israel must lead the West

“Top Story” with Jonathan Tobin and guest Hugh Hewitt, Ep. 138

The Biden administration’s foreign-policy team has sown confusion among both friends and foes of America. According to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, by always counseling Israel never to “escalate” confrontations with terrorists like Hamas and the rogue regime in Iran, President Joe Biden is only helping those bad actors.

He is joined by talk-show host Hugh Hewitt, who says the president’s mistaken policies are partly the result of an effort to revive former President Barack Obama’s legacy in the form of a dangerous Iran nuclear deal, his belief that he must appease Israel-haters at home if he is to win re-election and his commitment to a lifetime’s worth of failed ideas. Above all, he says, Biden believes that “never escalate” is the only answer to foreign-policy problems.

That’s why Biden is demanding that Israel not finish off the Hamas terrorists in Gaza and refrain from retaliating against Iran for its firing of missiles and drones at the Jewish state. Hewitt says that the United States is currently being led by an “infirm” man and advised by men like Secretary of State Antony Blinken who are equally clueless.

He says, “this is actually in a situation where Israel has to step into the position that the United States used to hold, which is to lead the West,” since neither Biden nor any of the other leading Western nations seem currently capable or willing to take necessary action against Islamist terrorists and their paymasters.

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Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS “Think Twice” podcast, both the weekly video program and the “Jonathan Tobin Daily” program, available on all major audio platforms and on YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won 60-plus awards for his columns, commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.
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