Letter to the Editor: Dr. Jeff Kunkes

Lost in the horror of the Ukraine debacle has been the beginning of an intifada in Israel with random murderous attacks on Israelis in the past few weeks with multiple deaths and injuries.

There has not been a specific incident that has prompted these brutal attacks. Reform rabbis have noted these attacks with regret but have not noted causation. Several actions by President Biden and his less than robust Secretary of State Anthony Blinken (and nod) probably caused this.

First Biden attacked the United States industry ending our independence in his first day in office. The wealthy lefty ideologues can afford $4.00 a gallon plus and a Tesla while this diminishing of US oil production has not improved the environment but has caused Russia, Iran, and Venezuela to make a fortune as the price per barrel rises and our need has grown with the economy booming after the unnecessary lockdowns ended.

This is also a betrayal of no taxes on the lower earners who drive further, cannot work from home, and have older cars. Every dollar increase in gas causes 40-50 cents per gallon state and federal tax and has caused us to beg Iran, Russia and Venezuela to increase their production and sell to us.

Biden has also literally begged Iran to rejoin a weaker and ineffective nuclear deal promising billions of dollars in return. This has allowed Iran to rearm Hamas, Houthi’s and Hezbollah (and Haman if we want to continue the alliteration). In addition to the poor and despicable hasty ill planned evacuation of Afghanistan where we armed an entire American-hating Muslim army, this weakness has given the go ahead to increase hostility to Israel.

On top of this the American response to the Ukrainians has been slow walked and even today new sanctions are being discussed when they could have and should have been accomplished weeks ago.

Lastly Biden has also restarted paying Palestinian families whose relatives have killed Israelis. Trump stopped this completely and also stopped funding anti American and anti-Israel NGOs in the United Nations. Not so for Biden who opened the financial floodgates stopping four years of little bloodshed and leading to the Abraham Accords which Biden Blinken and nod have been undermining diplomatically.

Also, our ambassador to Israel has shown an animus to settlements and has been trying to reopen a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem or in the American embassy further trying to erase Trump era promises fulfilled.

So, if you connect the dots, this becomes no longer a kid’s game but a real problem with dire consequences for our brothers and sisters in Israel. This has also added to the rising tide of anti-Semitism with Jews suffering the most hate crimes in America and no it is not from the right wing but from Antifa, progressives and Palestinians on campus, and Muslim fundamentalists.

We as Jews must do better and refocus our priorities.

Dr. Jeff Kunkes, Atlanta