Israel
Biden reportedly close to picking Israel critic for press secretary
Last week, President-elect Joe Biden was reported to have a vocal critic of Israel as a top pick to be his press secretary, according to NBC News White House Correspondent Geoff Bennett.
On November 18, Bennett tweeted in a thread that multiple sources had told him and two of his NBC News colleagues that Karine Jean-Pierre, a longtime campaign adviser and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s chief of staff, had emerged as a “top candidate” for the job. No final decision has been made yet about who will be appointed to the position. Additionally, with the report being a week old, it is not known if Jean-Pierre is still on Biden’s shortlist for the role.
Jean-Pierre was also was senior adviser and national spokesperson for MoveOn.org, a progressive activist group with anti-Israel views, and is a vocal critic of Israel herself.
The Biden Campaign didn’t respond to this reporter’s request for comment.
In an opinion piece she wrote for Newsweek in March 2019, Jean-Pierre praised Democratic politicians for not going to that year’s AIPAC conference, saying, “boldly choosing to prioritize diplomacy and human rights over the power of a lobbying organization.”
In the same piece, she made other controversial accusations and statements about Israel and AIPAC, including accusing of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of committing war crimes, citing a United Nations commission report around the time of the article saying that Israeli soldiers likely committed war crimes against Gazan protesters.
Pro-Israel groups in Washington, DC have enjoyed a boon of policy success under President Trump’s administration, who has succeeded in getting many historic enemies of Israel such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan to join Egypt and Jordan in recognizing and establishing normal diplomatic ties with the Jewish State.
During the campaign, Biden said that he would bring back the daily White House press briefings that Trump got rid of during his tenure in the Oval Office.
If appointed, Jean-Pierre would be the first Black woman to serve in the role, as well as another person who is a reported top contender, Symone Sanders.
This reporter reached out to the Biden transition team for immediate comment on if Jean-Pierre is still on the president-elect’s shortlist but received no response.
You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.
Israel
As Biden-Harris Push Ceasefire, Hezbollah Murders Seven
Follow Steve Postal: @HebraicMosaic
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While the Biden-Harris administration pushes for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, Hezbollah murdered seven people in two missile attacks in Haifa and Metula. This marks the deadliest day inflicted by Hezbollah on Israel since Hezbollah’s rockets murdered 12 Druze children in a soccer field in Majdal Shams in July.
In any ceasefire, Israel wants the ability to strike in the event that Hezbollah attacks. As this is a non-starter for Hezbollah and Lebanon, the Biden-Harris administration needs to abandon the ceasefire fantasy.
Instead, what Israel needs is operational freedom to continue to dismantle Hezbollah. And Israel continues to make significant gains against the terror group. In the past week alone, Israel has:
- Continued To Eliminate Arch-Terrorists
The IDF killed Mustafa Ahmad Shahdi, who was the Deputy Commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces. Shahdi had been responsible for orchestrating many terror attacks in Israel and for orchestrating battles against IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon. Shahdi had previously led the Radwan Forces in Syria from 2012-2017. The Radwan Forces were responsible for preparing for a failed October 7-like attack on Israel from Lebanon.
The IDF eliminated Muhammad Khalil Alian, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Anti-Tank Missile Array of the Hajir arena in Hezbollah’s ‘Nasser’ Unit.
The IDF eliminated three additional Hezbollah arch-terrorists, including Ahmed Jafar Maatouk (Commander of Hezbollah’s Bint Jbeil Area), Maatouk’s successor, and the head of artillery for Hezbollah. These three terrorists had orchestrated several attacks on IDF troops from the Bint Jbeil area.
- Continued to Destroy Hezbollah Infrastructure
The IDF eliminated a Hezbollah cell in the group’s Aerial Defense Array, and also hit a Hezbollah command post. Both of these sites were embedded in civilian infrastructure in Beirut.
The IDF attacked command centers and weapons depots belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces and its Munitions Unit in Al-Qusayr, Syria. The Munitions Unit stores weapons for Hezbollah, and the group had recently expanded into Al-Qusayr. Israel has also been targeting Hezbollah Unit 4400, which smuggles weapons from Iran to Syria to Lebanon.
The IDF discovered more sites belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces in Lebanon, including a fully stocked “underground hideout,” and four weapons storage facilities that housed RPGs, rockets, mortars and other weapons.
The IDF also attacked Hezbollah command and control centers in Baalbek and Nabatieh in Lebanon. The IDF dismantled an additional underground Hezbollah command center. The command center was about eight meters underground and housed half a ton of explosives stockpiled by Hezbollah in preparation for attacking Israel. Chief of the General Staff LTG Herzi Halevi put it succinctly: “We have been saying for years that Hezbollah is preparing the area of the border for war. To the countries that doubted it, to the UN, to the UNIFIL force that was [stationed] up here…We caught this in time, before it was too late, and this infrastructure must not return here in future generations.”
The IDF destroyed 130 ready-to-fire launchers, and confiscated 4 armed mobile launchers that had about 160 ready-to-fire rockets. The IDF seized 11 truckloads of weapons from underground compounds in southern Lebanon. These weapons included “Kornet missiles, launchers, hand grenades, various types of rifles, and other weapons.”
And lastly, the Israeli Air Force bombed fuel storage in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. This fuel was stored by Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 for use in future attacks against Israel.
While the Biden-Harris administration continues to push for a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel should continue to pursue victory against Hezbollah.
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