17th Oct 2023

Biden of Israel

March 21 1980: Sen. Joseph Biden (D.Del.) declared that Begin seriously underestimates the resentment of the American people over new settlements” and “the Begin government is dead wrong in establishing new settlements. ” But, he pointed out, “Israel is in the U.S. security interest” and Israel, “free, strong and unintimidated is a strategic asset of the U.S.” He asked Vance “What is Israel’s role in our security position regarding the Persian Gulf” oil fields?

August 22 1980: Secretary of State Edmund Muskie was advised orally and by telegram by leading Senators to veto the UN Security Council resolution on Jerusalem.

Sen. Jacob Javits (R.NY) reached Muskie at his vacationing place in Maine Tuesday night and expressed displeasure at the Carter Administration’s planned abstention vote. Muskie’s reply, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned, was that the Administration had given a great deal of thought to the resolution.

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Yesterday morning, 13 Senators led by Frank Church (D. Idaho), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, and Javits, its ranking minority member, urged Muskie by telegram to veto the resolution since it would invoke, for the first time, punitive actions against Israel.”

Joining Church and Javits in the telegram, which was hurriedly originated yesterday morning and rushed to Muskie, were Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D.NY), Richard Stone (D.Fla.), Robert Dole (R.Kons.), John Danforth (R,Mo.), Paul Laxalt (R.Nev.), Harrison Williams (D.NJ), Joseph Biden (D Del.), Bob Packwood (R. Ore.), Alan Cranston (D.Cal.), Richard Lugar (R.Ind.) and Paul Sorbanes (D.Md.).

May 4 1981: Sen. Joseph Biden (D. Del.), a leading opponent of the proposed U.S. arms package deal for Saudi Arabia, strongly chastized the American Jewish community and Israel here last night for not reacting immediately in opposition to the Reagan Administration’s plan to supply offensive weapons to the Saudis.

Addressing members of the national executive committee of the Zionist Organization of America, Biden, the second ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned that the Administration will initiate tactics that will modify the American arms package.

He cautioned, however, that the dangers to U.S. and Israel security will continue. The Senator said he intended to join Sen. Alan Cranston (D. Calif.) in sponsoring a resolution of disapproval in the Senate as soon as the Administration’s proposal arrives on Capitol Hill. “If we do not make the fight now,” Biden said, the appetite of Saudi Arabia” will not be satiated.”

May 2 1983: Sen. Joseph Biden (D. Del.), called on President Reagan today “to read the message of Congress” and ship F-16 jet fighter-bombers to Israel. He also urged the President to halt all arms sales to Arab nations in the Middle East and declared that the U.S. should begin to treat Israel “as an ally and brother and not wash dirty laundry in public.”

Biden, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke at the luncheon session of the 83rd national convention of the Zionist Organization of America here. He said American public opinion is beginning to understand what is at stake in the Middle East, “that oil is not a weapon, that the Israelis are the ones who have made concessions in Lebanon ” and that it is the Syrians, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Lebanese government which are “intransigent."

August 18 1983: In the major address of the [Hadassah] banquet, Sen. Joseph Biden (D. Del.) declared that the failure of President Reagan’s peace initiative has contributed to the improvement in Israeli-U.S. relations.

“The Reagan initiative was born out of the naivete shared by the last Administration,” Biden explained. He said it was based on King Hussein of Jordan, Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat and the Saudi Arabian regime being “capable of independent action” when even if they were positive toward negotiations with Israel, “they are not capable of independent action.”

Biden said that Hussein was expected to demonstrate a “courage” that he did not have to go it alone in the Arab world, while Arafat, “even if he wanted to, and I believe he does not, is incapable of bringing along the PLO on any negotiated settlement with Israel.” The Saudis have had to make “deals” to keep their oligarchic regime in power and are not “institutionally capable” at this time of supporting peace with Israel, Biden maintained. But he noted that if either Jordan or Arafat had agreed to go along with the negotiations, Israel would have been painted as intransigent because the U.S. public would not have understood the Israeli refusal to go along based on Israel’s knowledge of the inability of the three parties to negotiate peace.

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Biden, who said he supported Israel’s efforts to destroy the PLO in Lebanon, said the Lebanese action brought U.S.-Israeli relations to an all time low last year. But he said the situation has improved now for two other reasons.

One is Moshe Arens replacing Ariel Sharon as Defense Minister. The other is the Israeli-Lebanese agreement for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon which “made it crystal clear to the United States and to the world that the party that was intransigent was not Israel but Syria and the PLO.”

September 29 1983: If the Israelis were to pull their troops out of Lebanon tomorrow, the Reagan Administration would “have apoplexy,” a ranking member of both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence told the United Jewish Appeal-Federation Women’s Campaign Leadership Conference.

Sen. Joseph Biden (D. Del.) warned the 200 leaders of the Women’s Campaign from New York City, Long Island and Westchester that if the Reagan Administration’s commitment of marines in Lebanon ends badly, the blame will fall on Israel. This, he said, would be unjust. The United States, he said “is in Lebanon because of United States interests, not because of Israeli interests.”

Biden emphasized that “We have an obligation as a government to educate the American people to the vital role that Israel plays in the United States security interests. Israel’s presence in Lebanon is vitally important. The Reagan Administration would have apoplexy if (Israeli Premier-designate Yitzhak) Shamir said tomorrow, ‘I’m bringing all the troops home’.”

The Senator said, “If the Administration does not put forward candidly why it has decided to be in Lebanon, the blame will eventually fall on Israel, not on this Administration’s policy.” Biden has been an outspoken critic of Secretary of State George Shultz’s statements that the Administration would not feel bound by legislation invoking the War Powers Resolution and authorizing the U.S. marines to remain in Lebanon for 18 months.

November 13 1984: Biden addressed the 59th anniversary convention of the Herut Zionists of America at the Hotel Pierre. The two-day gathering closed last night. The Senator, who was re-elected to a third six-year term last week, told the convention delegates, “My first order of business in the new Senate will be to educate my colleagues on the financial sacrifices Israel has made as a result of Camp David.”

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Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the second ranking Democrat on the committee, said the “three myths” which “propel U.S. policy in the Middle East” are “the belief that Saudi Arabia can be a broker for peace, the belief that King Hussein (of Jordan) is ready to negotiate peace, and the belief that the Palestine Liberation Organization can deliver a consensus for peace.”

December 12 1984: A leading member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed Sunday night that the U.S. refinance Israel’s debt, as it has done for other countries in severe economic straits.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the second ranking Democrat on the Committee, said he and Sen. Daniel Inouye (D. Hawaii) would draft a refinancing plan for Israel when the new Senate goes into session next month. Biden spoke at the Annual Metropolitan Dinner of the Zionist Organization of America here.

He noted that the U.S. has been able to refinance the debt service of other economically troubled nations such as Mexico, Nigeria and Argentina. He also chided those who complain that the U.S. provides excessive economic and military aid to Israel. "The U.S. spends over $100 billion a year on NATO and worries about spending $2.7 billion on Israel," he said.

Biden, long one of Israel’s staunchest friends in Congress, observed "that the consciousness of guilt" over what America left undone to prevent the Holocaust "does not exist for most of the younger generation. America’s most articulate spokesmen for Israel are gone, replaced by men and women with no institutional memory," he said.

"The security of every Jew in the world is tied to Israel. If Israel dies, Judaism will be in jeopardy," the Senator said, adding, "but I am confident that Israel and Judaism will survive."

March 29 1985: When the Senators were asked about the growing influence of Arab-Americans on Capitol Hill, Biden replied they were not the main reason that supporters of Israel had lost some fights in Congress, such as the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia in 1981. He said one reason is that there are no more “giants” in the Senate like Sens. Hubert Humphrey (D. Minn.), Henry Jackson (D. Wash.), Jacob Javitz (R. NY), and Frank Church (D. Idaho) who could sway the Senate with their moral force.

Biden said the major power that helped force the AWACS sale through the Senate was the large corporations with “significant economic investments” in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. He said they brought pressure upon Senators opposed to the sale from larger corporations well as from small companies on the local and state level. He stressed that “economic muscle” still plays a major role in foreign policy.

April 22 1985: Sen. Joseph Biden (D. Del.), who spoke briefly from the reviewing stand [of the Salute to Israel Parade in NYC], declared that today’s Salute to Israel Parade “is the answer to Bitburg.” He was referring to the German war cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany where, to the anguish of Jews and non-Jews, President Reagan will lay a wreath next month at the graves of German soldiers who fought in World War II, including members of the notorious Waffen SS.

March 5 1986: Sen. Joseph Biden (D. Del.) asserted Tuesday that a bill that would have reduced Israel’s debt to the United States by $3.5 billion was postponed in the Senate last December in the wake of the arrest of Jonathan Pollard for spying for Israel.

A bill that would have passed was withdrawn within 24 hours of Pollard’s arrest because “American public opinion shifted dramatically,” Biden told the nearly 3,000 young Jewish leaders attending the closing session of the United Jewish Appeal’s Fifth National Young Leadership Conference.

Biden charged that for the past two Administrations there has been a lack of “a comprehensive foreign policy” for the Middle East. He said this has allowed American public opinion to move out of focus and thereby become susceptible to reducing its commitment to Israel.

In addition, Biden noted that where Israel was once considered the “David” of the Middle East, it is now viewed as the “Goliath.” Biden also claimed that while a former generation of Jews and non-Jews viewed Israel as a moral issue because of the Holocaust, younger Americans do not.

He said the U.S. must announce that Israel is an ally and treat it like one, keeping any differences in private and not making public criticism of Israel.

Biden stressed that the strategic importance of Israel, to the United States should also be pointed out. We don’t apologize for our $100 billion commitment to NATO,” he said. “Why the hell should we apologize for a $3 billion commitment to Israel.”

April 19 1989: Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the INS, said during Baker’s testimony Tuesday that the United States should “keep in context the position we have taken for such a long time,” that “Soviet Jews have demonstrably been victims of persecution in the Soviet Union, and I see no evidence of that changing.”

“I hope we would not make the mistake of concluding that, until we have a total standard that all can agree on, we are not going to deal with a group of people who have for thousands of years, from czars to commissars, been clear victims of persecution in their country,” he added.

“Despite the remarkable changes under (Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev, I have not seen convincing evidence that, in fact, Soviet Jews within the Soviet Union are no longer persecuted,” Biden said.

February 1 1990: Two senators criticized President Bush on Tuesday for moving too slowly to waive trade sanctions against the Soviet Union. But a third said he did not necessarily disagree with the president’s judgment.

The subject came up during a Capitol Hill news conference during which the three senators proposed a $511 million aid package for Eastern Europe.

Responding to a question, Sens. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) and Paul Simon (D-Ill.) said they felt Bush should have moved more quickly to issue a waiver of trade sanctions under the 1975 Jackson-Vanik Amendment.

But Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) said it was a “close call” as to whether Bush should issue a waiver of the amendment, which denies most-favored-nation trade status to Eastern European countries until they improve their emigration policies.

... During the news conference, Biden was asked about the recent proposal by Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.) to cut U.S. foreign aid to the largest recipients, including Israel, by 5 percent. The savings would be reapportioned to Eastern European countries and Panama.

Asked about Senate support for Dole’s proposal, Biden said, “I think the prospects of it passing are zero.”

“The Dole proposal is particularly insidious, in my view,” he said. “It pits longtime allies against emerging, potential democracies.”

“I think it would be particularly dangerous if the Poles and the Hungarians” thought that the reason why they were not getting additional assistance was because of Israel, he said.

March 20 1991: Three major Jewish defense agencies testified before the Senate on Tuesday against a federal appeals court nominee who until last week was a member of private country club in Florida that allegedly discriminates against blacks, Jews and other minorities.

The groups also opposed the nomination of U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Ryskamp because of what the American Jewish Committee called the “gross insensitivity to civil rights concerns” reflected in his court rulings to date.

Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said Ryskamp had issued some “erroneous rulings” and that he had concerns about his sensitivity to minorities. But he told the nominee, “That doesn’t mean you won’t be confirmed.”

Biden speaking at AIPAC in 1992, an excellent speech, where he disparages the notion that Israel is an obstacle to peace, that there would be peace in the Middle East without Israel, and that it is ever appropriate for the US to publicly criticize Israel for anything.

Biden is responsible for the destruction of Yugoslavia and Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and part of Syria. Biden has enabled Saudi Arabia's attacks on Yemen. Ukranie's attack on its former Russian provinces and Israel's destruction of Palestine.

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