I try to be respectful of major political leaders, especially the President of the United States. The Chazal teach us (see Z’vachim 102a) that Moshe Rabbeinu exhibited respect for Pharaoh as he addressed him, due to the need of kavod ha’malchus, respect for leadership. As much as I loathed President Obama, I refrained from showing him disrespect in the public arena other than pointing how dangerous his policies were.
Last week, I saw a clip of some protester approaching President Biden, screaming a few profanities at him. Mr. Biden stared at him like a deer in the headlights, till his aides whisked him away. Although I am not a big fan of Biden, to say the least, I cringed when watching that. A little respect for the Office of President is due. Without it, we have the chaos that the country is currently experiencing.
I will confess that Joe Biden makes it very difficult to remain restrained when referring to him. I find him politically, mentally, and ethically challenged in many ways. It strains the limits of understanding how he could be the leader of the Free World.
Yet, I will offer a distinct honor to Mr. Biden. As you are surely aware, Neville Chamberlain was the prime minister of Great Britian before World War II. In an effort to make peace with the ominous Hitler ym”sh and his war machine, Chamberlain set out to meet with him in Munich. He returned to a huge throng of British citizens while brandishing a flimsy bit of paper. “I believe it is peace in our time,” Chamberland boastfully declared. Mr. Chamberlain and Hitler signed a non-aggression pact that would cede the German-speaking Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany in return for Germany agreeing not to invade Poland. That was September of 1938. Less than a year later, Hitler invaded Poland.
You might think that the world would learn a lesson from the Chamberlain experience: Appeasement will never solve a conflict with an enemy. Peace through strength, or victory, will. Unfortunately, the world has learned nothing – including Israel.
Israeli prime ministers, including Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Perez, and Ariel Sharon, all had illusions that being generous to the Arab enemy would encourage them to make peace. Oslo I, II, and III proved that an illusion. The disengagement from Gaza in 2005 not only failed to bring peace, but it brought about war and unprecedented national and international anti-Semitism.
The winner of today’s Neville Chamberlain Award is our own President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.
We must never forget that it was President Barack Obama, when Biden served as his vice president, who concocted the Iran Nuclear Deal. That deal was a total appeasement to the Ayatollahs of Iran, predicated on the false hope that giving them boatloads of money and recognition in exchange for a fictitious promise not to develop nuclear weapons too soon, would make them peaceful. Just about every Democrat was on board with this nefarious treaty. President Trump, mocked as he was, understood the perils of the deal and broke from it.
Some of my children wonder why I am so hung up on disparaging Biden. After all, the election is not until November. My answer is that Biden’s first reaction to the atrocities of October 7 was magnificent in his unqualified support of Israel. Then he became politically aware of the Muslims of Dearborn and the left-wing flank of his Democratic Party. Things began to change rapidly. Now there are reports of the White House stopping the shipment of arms to Israel. Almost the same day, Mr. Biden issues a statement decrying all forms of hate, including anti-Semitism and non-existent Islamophobia and, for good measure, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian Arab hatred, whatever that’s supposed to mean. (Note that the Muslims received a 3-1 mention.)
Who knows? Maybe the political winds will change and he will find it necessary to show solid support for Israel again – although the damage is done as we witness the handcuffing of Israel in Gaza and the social unrest in universities from coast to coast. Just this weekend, four precious IDF soldiers were killed, and others wounded, due to Biden’s insistence that Israel sit on its hands and not finish the job in Rafah.
But most important is that we do not forget that he appeased and continues to appease Iran, which is the cause for the entire conflagration in the Mideast.
I am concerned that we may tend to forget that, come November. I am afraid that Jews will go back to their political mommy: the Democratic Party. And others will forget how Mr. Biden got us into this mess in the first place. They will forget his failures in Afghanistan, transportation, the economy, interest rates, gas prices, illegal immigration, lack of support for the police, and social unrest. Whatever he has touched has turned to dust. I feel I must keep hammering away at that.
Yes, I know Donald Trump is erratic. But his intuition on almost every political matter has been proven correct: from the Iran Deal and the American Embassy in Jerusalem to the Abraham Accords.
Few people today deserve the coveted Neville Chamberlain Award as our dear current president.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
