Daily Briefing: WEDNESDAY’S “NEWS OF THE WEEK IN REVIEW” (August 18, 2021)

MEDIA-OCRITIES OF THE WEEK

Biden Says Kabul’s Fall to Taliban ‘Not Inevitable’ as Fighting Rages:  The Defense Post, July 9, 2021“Joe Biden on Thursday defended the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, saying it was “not inevitable” that the country would fall to the emboldened Taliban, and confirmed the US exit would be completed by August 31. But he also admitted that nearly 20 years after American forces toppled the Taliban regime in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, it was “highly unlikely” Kabul would be able to control the entire country. The US military has “achieved” its goals in Afghanistan — killing Osama bin Laden, degrading Al-Qaeda and preventing more attacks on the United States, Biden said in a White House speech. “We are ending America’s longest war,” he said …  “The status quo is not an option,” Biden said of staying in the country. “I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan.” “The United States cannot afford to remain tethered to policies created to respond to a world as it was 20 years ago,” he said. “We need to meet the threats where they are today.” Biden said the United States “did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build” and that the Afghan people alone should determine their future. But he acknowledged the uncertainty about what that future would look like. Asked if a Taliban takeover was “inevitable,” the president said: “No, it is not.”

Jen Psaki Is Mocked For Saying Taliban Should Consider Its ‘Role In The International Community’ Amid Its Rape And Pillage Of Afghanistan: Rob Crilly, Daily Mail, Aug. 11, 2021

“With the Taliban making rapid advances across Afghanistan, the White House tried a new tack on Wednesday as it defended President Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops: Appeal to the Taliban’s better nature.  Press Secretary Jen Psaki said there was no getting away from the fact that Afghan government forces were struggling, but added: ‘The Taliban also has to make an assessment about what they want their role to be in the international community.’ It was part of a strategy designed to nudge them to the negotiating table. But the immediate impact at home was a wave of ridicule.  ‘Psaki won’t be able to tempt them to civility with a seat on the Human Rights Council or expect them to show up to a global warming get-together with Greta Thunberg,’ said Jim Carafano, national security expert at the Heritage Foundation. ‘This is an administration acting like a deer in the headlights on this issue.’ 

 “Palestinian armed groups during the May fighting flagrantly violated the laws-of-war prohibition on indiscriminate attacks by launching thousands of unguided rockets towards Israeli cities.” — Human Rights Watch acting Middle East and North Africa director Eric Goldstein.  (CTV News, Aug. 12, 2021)

“President Biden told the world on Monday that he doesn’t regret his decision to withdraw rapidly from Afghanistan, or even the chaotic, incompetent way the withdrawal has been executed. He is determined in retreat, defiant in surrender, and confident in the rightness of consigning the country to jihadist rule. We doubt the world will see it the same way in the days, months and years ahead. Mr. Biden refused to accept responsibility for the botched withdrawal while blaming others. He blamed Donald Trump’s peace deal with the Taliban and falsely claimed again that he was trapped. He blamed his three predecessors for not getting out of Afghanistan. He blamed the Afghans for not fighting hard enough, their leaders for fleeing, and even Afghans who helped us for not leaving sooner. The one group he conspicuously did not blame was the Taliban, who once harbored Osama bin Laden and may protect his terrorist successor.” – WSJ Editorial.  (WSJ, Aug. 16, 2021)

“That is a false choice, as the editorial board points out. The President had options for a modest U.S. presence in the country to keep the Taliban at bay. Now his decision to follow through has led to a debacle as the U.S. conducts a chaotic evacuation and Afghan citizens flood the capital’s airport in desperation. The comparisons to Saigon are apt, writes Bill McGurn, but the similarity to President Jimmy Carter’s weak handling of the Iranian hostage crisis may be more fitting.” – WSJ editorial board regarding President Biden’s decision to leave Afghanistan “with no regrets.”  (WSJ, Aug. 17, 2021)

‘You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.” Winston Churchill’s words to Neville Chamberlain following the Munich agreement echo grimly across Washington this week as the Biden administration reckons with the consequences of the worst-handled foreign-policy crisis since the Bay of Pigs and the most devastating blow to American prestige since the fall of Saigon.” – Walter Russel Mead in op-ed titled “Biden’s Chamberlain Moment in Afghanistan.”  (WSJ, Aug. 16, 2021)

“Do you not understand you’re dealing with a medieval religious fanaticism that no more cares about the opinions of posh salons in Georgetown and Manhattan and Paris than they do about the chair you’re sitting in? These are people who believed in this when they had power before. They’ve been in combat for 20 years waiting to come back. And the notion that they’d be dissuaded ’cause they couldn’t shop on Fifth Avenue or in Paris…” – for US Ambassador to the UN and Trump advisor John Bolton.  He responded to the question by NPR host Noel King, “Couldn’t isolating them, refusing to speak to them, create the exact kind of conditions that allowed for al-Qaida to thrive and allowed for 9/11 to happen?”  (NPR, Aug. 16, 2021)

“There are Afghans falling to their deaths off of our retreating aircraft.  Has @thejointstaff resigned yet?” — Former U.S. Navy SEAL Rob O’Neill, who killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 slamming the Biden administration and taking aim at General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a series of tweets calling on Milley to resign.  (Daily Wire, Aug. 16, 2021)

“They telegraphed and delayed our departure date, maximizing the Taliban’s planning abilities, and they abandoned Afghanistan at the peak of Taliban fighting season. They allowed critical weapons technology to fall into the hands of the enemy. Perhaps most inexplicably, they abandoned the most important airbase before they ensured safe passage for Americans leaving the country. This is why the world’s media is plastered with images of American planes taxiing down runways overrun with Afghans. But this is not merely the consequence of seven months of disastrous Biden policy, it is the failure of the entire American regime. Every major institution in our country revealed itself as a farce.” – journalist J.D. Vance.  (The Federalist, Aug. 16, 2021)

“Twenty Years, Four Presidents and a Mission That Went Awry–.a classified intelligence assessment presented to the Biden administration this spring said Afghanistan could fall  largely under Taliban  control within two to three years after the departure of international forces.” — journalist David Zucchino.  (The Economic Times, Aug. 17, 2021)

SHORT TAKES

HAMAS CONGRATULATES TALIBAN ON AFGHAN TAKEOVER (Gaza) — The Islamic group Hamas has congratulated the Taliban for their swift takeover of Afghanistan and the end to the United States’ 20-year presence in the country.  (VIN News, Aug. 16, 2021)
 
MOROCCO, ISRAEL AGREE TO OPEN EMBASSIES IN 2 MONTHS (Jerusalem) — Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yair Lapid announced the news during his two-day visit to Morocco on August 11-12. The minister said that both countries also agreed to open embassies in Tel Aviv and Rabat in the next two months. The announcement comes as part of the two countries’ determination to boost relations on all levels. Lapid held several meetings and talks with Moroccan officials, including Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita. (Morocco World News, Aug. 12, 2021)
 
UAE: MACHINES THAT PRODUCE WATER FROM AIR PLACED IN PARKS, BEACHES IN ABU DHABI (Abu Dhabi) — The Abu Dhabi-based Al Dahra Holding had sent a delegation to Israel last October following the signing of the Abraham Accords on September 15, 2020, to explore partnerships in sectors such as agriculture, water and technology. One of the strategic partnerships that emerged from that visit was with Israeli-based technological company Watergen that produces water from the air. Following a water analysis project that was conducted by the Abu Dhabi Municipality, the quality of water provided by Watergen was found to be “excellent”. (Khaleez Times, Aug. 10, 2021)

POLISH PARLIAMENT CUTS OFF RESTITUTION TO HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS (Warsaw) — Poland’s parliament passed a law preventing former Polish property owners, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants, from regaining property expropriated by the country’s Communist regime. The adopted amendment to Poland’s administrative law would make it impossible for those who had owned property to appeal unfavorable judicial decisions. It affects Jewish and non-Jewish owners whose properties were seized during the Holocaust or the Communist era. (United With Israel, Aug. 12, 2021)

UK JEWISH STUDENTS REJECT CALL TO REPLACE LEADING DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM (East Anglia) — Jewish students at the University of East Anglia  rejected efforts to replace the leading definition of antisemitism, less than two years after its adoption by the school’s student union. The day prior, the student group Decolonize UAE published a call to divest from companies “facilitating illegal Israeli settlements” and replace the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which has been adopted by scores of governments, universities and other institutions. (WIN, Aug. 12, 2021)

BILLIONS SPENT ON AFGHAN ARMY ULTIMATELY BENEFITTED TALIBAN (Kabul) — Built and trained at a two-decade cost of $83 billion, Afghan security forces collapsed so quickly and completely — in some cases without a shot fired — that the ultimate beneficiary of the American investment turned out to be the Taliban. They grabbed not only political power but also U.S.-supplied firepower — guns, ammunition, helicopters and more. The Taliban captured an array of modern military equipment when they overran Afghan forces who failed to defend district centers. Bigger gains followed, including combat aircraft, when the Taliban rolled up provincial capitals and military bases with stunning speed, topped by capturing the biggest prize, Kabul, over the weekend. (VIN News, Aug. 16, 2021)
 
BIDEN’S DEFENSE SECRETARY HAS NO PLANS TO RESIGN OVER AFGHAN DISASTER (Washington) — Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has not offered his resignation to President Biden following the complete collapse of the U.S.-trained and equipped Afghan military and has no plans to do so.  A day after victorious Taliban forces rolled into Kabul with little opposition, Pentagon officials said they are now focusing their attention on securing Hamid Karzai International Airport so the remaining Americans in the capital can be safely evacuated. “It’s a fluid and dynamic situation,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “There will obviously be things that I don’t know because things are continuing to unfold.” (The Washington Times, Aug. 16, 2021)

INTEL AGENCIES WARNED OF AFGHAN COLLAPSE AS BIDEN PUBLICLY DOWNPLAYED POSSIBILITY (Washington) –– U.S. intelligence agencies warned of the collapse of the Afghan military and government at the hands of a resurgent Taliban over the summer, as President Biden publicly downplayed the possibility of a government rout. While Biden assured Americans on July 8 that the Afghan regime’s disintegration was far from inevitable, quieting fears of a “Saigon-like” foreign policy fiasco, previous intelligence reports indicated that Afghan security forces as well as the seat of government in Kabul were weakening and could falter. Immediately before the events of last week, the U.S. intelligence community was largely in agreement that the Afghan government could endure for at 90 days at most, providing at least some breathing room for an organized, efficient withdrawal of American boots on the ground. This prediction was already a downgrade from a spring assessment, however, which gave the Afghan regime two years to hold together. (National Review, Aug. 17, 2021)

AROUND 11,000 AMERICANS REMAIN IN TALIBAN-HELD AFGHANISTAN: WHITE HOUSE (Afghanistan) — About 11,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan, the White House said Tuesday. U.S. officials are urging Americans to travel to the Hamid Karzai International Airport, if they’re not there already, to fly out of the country. Taliban fighters were positioned outside the airport, but the terrorist group “have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. (Epoch Times, Aug. 17, 2021)

STATE DEPARTMENT SENDS STRANDED AMERICANS NOTE SAYING U.S. ‘CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SECURITY’ EN ROUTE TO KABUL AIRPORT (Kabul) — Americans who requested to be evacuated from Afghanistan received a note from the State Department informing them that the U.S. can’t “guarantee” their security on the way to the Kabul airport, CBS News reported on Tuesday. The State Department has a list of roughly 5,000 Americans who have requested to leave Afghanistan and roughly half of them received the note.  (National Review, Aug. 17, 2021)

WHEREABOUTS OF AFGHANISTAN’S LAST JEW UNKNOWN AS KABUL FALLS TO TALIBAN (Kabul) — As  the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan’s capital, the fate of one particular Afghan has raised concerns in the international Jewish community. The whereabouts of Zebulon Simantov, Afghanistan’s last Jewish resident, are currently unknown. He has said that he would leave the country if the Taliban returned to power. “After our important festivals [the September High Holidays period], I will leave Afghanistan,” he told Radio Free Afghanistan in March. “If the Taliban return, they are going to push us out with a slap in the face.” (World Israel News, Aug. 17, 2021)