As Americans suffer from financial strain due to soaring inflation rates and skyrocketing gas prices, President Joe Biden thought it would be best to put others first by pledging hundreds of millions in aid to terrorist-sponsoring regimes.
On Friday, Biden made a commitment to provide hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to the Palestinians at a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
“The United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring the Palestinians, Israelis and both sides closer together,” he said. “Palestinian people deserve a state of their own that’s independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous.”
In their joint statements, Abbas urged Biden to continue reversing former President Donald Trump’s policies on aid and other issues, and Biden pledged to help improve the day-to-day lives of the Palestinian people.
“I know that the goal of the two states seems so far away, while indignities like restrictions on movement and travel or the daily worry of your children’s safety are real, and they are immediate,” the president said.
Biden’s high-stakes visit to the Middle East has spurred bipartisan criticism from U.S. lawmakers, especially after he announced that he would be reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran.
Jim Carafano, The Heritage Foundation’s vice president of foreign policy and national security, urged Biden to put “maximum pressure” on the Islamic country and keep Trump-era sanctions in place.
“Lifting these sanctions in exchange for short-term restrictions on Iran’s uranium-enrichment program will put money in the regime’s pockets that it will undoubtedly use for destructive purposes, just as it did following the 2015 deal. Biden’s pathetic embrace of failed agreements that enrich and empower our adversaries shows that he is a president to be taken advantage of,” Carafano said.
The president also took flak from families of 9/11 victims who fear that Biden might agree to keep concealed documents that show the Saudi government’s ties to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in exchange for a deal on oil or Middle East peace.
“Our biggest fear is that President Biden uses the 9/11 families and use these documents as a chip or trade us as part of a larger deal to help bring down the cost of oil or convince the Saudis to stop carpet bombing Yemen,” said Brett Eagleson, whose father was among the victims of 9/11.