Since last year's Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, no U.N. agency has garnered as many headlines as UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

The U.N. agency, created in 1949, had one primary purpose — to resettle purported Arab Palestinian refugees and their descendants, created in the wake of the Arab states' failure to annihilate the nascent state of Israel following its establishment in 1948.

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For someone who has declared himself to be a Zionist, US President Joe Biden sure has a funny way of showing it.

On April 4, in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden reportedly harangued Israel, all but threatening to cut off military aid to the Jewish state unless it capitulated to his demands.

As Reuters succinctly noted, "US President Joe Biden effectively gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an ultimatum on Thursday: Protect Palestinian civilians and foreign aid workers in Gaza or Washington could rein in support for Israel in its war against Hamas militants."

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In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israeli civilians, President Joe Biden showed sympathy and support for Israel. Even as news of that day's horrors, including the death of 30 Americans, continued to come out, Biden's sympathy and support was not shared across his administration. As the war reaches its six-month mark, those anti-Israel voices within the administration and the Democratic Party are pushing Biden further and further away from his initial position.

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On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas carried out a brazen, large-scale attack on communities in the south of Israel. The offensive, dubbed "Al-Aqsa Flood," entailed the breaching of the border fence separating Israel from the Gaza Strip by hundreds of militants, and subsequent systematic assaults on population centers, social gatherings, and other soft targets. The results were horrific; Hamas' campaign of terror left more than 1,200 Israelis dead in the largest slaughter of Jews to take place since the Holocaust more than eight decades earlier. In response, Israel has launched a large-scale military offensive in the Gaza Strip – a protracted campaign that, six months later, is still ongoing. Its goals are two-fold, albeit potentially contradictory. The first is to remove Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip, degrade the group's strategic capabilities, and prevent it from ever presenting a threat to Israeli security ever again – an objective that, Israeli officials have made clear, will require the establishment of a new "security regime" in the enclave. The second is to secure the return of the 130-plus hostages that remain in Hamas captivity. In tandem with its military offensive against Hamas, however, Israel has experienced a deeper strategic shift. A sea change is now taking place in Israel's approach to security affairs, informed by the errors and miscalculations that made the atrocities of October 7th possible.

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"Today, the people of Israel are under attack, orchestrated by a terrorist organization, Hamas." So said President Joseph R. Biden six months ago last Sunday.

He went on to speak of the "innocent people murdered, wounded, entire families taken hostage by Hamas."

He made clear that "the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back. ...My administration's support for Israel's security is rock solid and unwavering."

So, when did the rock start to crumble, and the wavering begin?

I'd say last month when Mr. Biden allowed a U.N. Security Council resolution backed by Moscow, Beijing, and 22 Arab states, to pass.

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Israel looks increasingly isolated on the world stage. But one country has stood unwaveringly by Israel's side: Germany. It stands out as a model of support. Not because it gives Israel a free pass on every controversy. But because it has not buckled on its fundamental pro-Israel positions, even when international pressure builds.

First, let's acknowledge that Germany's strong pro-Israel positions are rooted in the country's need to right historic wrongs. As Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated, "German history and our responsibility arising from the Holocaust make it our duty to stand up for the existence and security of the State of Israel."

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The Palestinian in the clinic at one of Israel's highest security prisons near Beersheba had a persistent pain in the back of his neck. He trembled and had trouble walking. Yuval Bitton, then a 28-year-old dentist just a year out of medical school, suspected that his patient might be suffering from a C.V.A., an ischemic cerebrovascular accident, resulting from a life-threatening brain tumor. "He needs to be hospitalized, immediately," Bitton advised the prison doctors.

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A new ban on foreign-appointed imams in France is aimed at combating Islamist separatism, but the policy risks making matters worse by handing future decisions about hiring imams over to local groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The French move is an example of a political decision that sounds superficially positive. Unfortunately, it fails to address the complex, often unofficial processes by which Islamist ideology is currently disseminated. As such, it offers an object lesson in what not to do, worthy of close observation.

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I can't believe we're having this discussion in September 2023, just as the fall respiratory virus season commences and we're experiencing a new wave of COVID-19, but the politicizers of COVID won't let up. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) this week introduced legislation that "would prohibit any federal official, including the President, from issuing mask mandates applying to domestic air travel, public transit systems, or primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools."

There was also the ill-timed article by John Tierney in City Journal on August 27th claiming that "maskaholics are incorrigible" and everyone should reject masks because "we're rational."

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While the ongoing protests in Syria's southern province of al-Suwayda' against the Syrian government and its policies are noteworthy, the tribal uprising in the eastern countryside of the eastern province of Dayr al-Zur against the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is arguably of greater significance, as it amounts to an actual armed revolt that has posed a serious challenge to the SDF's authority over the area- an authority that was only established because of the American-led campaign against the Islamic State. In turn the revolt raises very serious issues about U.S. policy in the region and the supposed ongoing American mission to ensure the "enduring defeat" of the Islamic State.

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