Is Joe Biden trying to lose the election?
That’s the best explanation for why his administration is actively considering letting refugees from Gaza into the United States.
The proposal is still preliminary and may be limited to Gazans with family already here.
But doing this at all is an astonishingly bad idea.
It’s bad policy, bad politics, and it’s Biden yet again trying to make law without asking Congress.
That’s quite a trifecta.
The cherry on top is that it’s unlikely to satisfy left-wingers and Muslim voters who think Biden isn’t doing enough to oppose Israel’s response to Hamas’ terror attack.
Start with the policy: Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan want no part of more people from Gaza.
It’s no secret why, and it’s not just the economic cost of taking in penniless people from a place that’s had a sky-high unemployment rate for many years.
Gaza’s population is full of radicalized Islamists and antisemites.
Gazans have consistently caused trouble whenever they have been imported into other countries.
Gaza hasn’t had elections since voting for Hamas in 2006, and Hamas has ruled it by force since ejecting the Palestinian Authority in a bloody coup in 2007.
But nobody doubts that Hamas remains popular with many, if not most, Gazans.
Why bring Hamas supporters here?
Who thinks they won’t start acting on their beliefs when they get to America?
Has Biden looked at what’s going on right now?
Don’t we have enough radicals and antisemites already, causing havoc on college campuses and terrorizing American Jews?
The next thing you know, Biden will send these people to Ivy League schools, then forgive their college debt with our money.
US asylum and refugee policy is supposed to advance our national interests, such as taking in dissidents from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union who would strengthen us and weaken our opponents by switching sides.
It’s not supposed to import enemies of America just to help the president get re-elected.
Then there’s the politics.
Biden is worried about Muslim communities in Michigan and Minnesota, states he needs in order to get re-elected.
He’s also terrified of young college leftists staying home on Election Day.
And he probably overstates how many people are like them because left-wing zealots are overrepresented among the young staffers in his own White House and on Capitol Hill.
But he’s forgetting most of the American people.
Biden’s immigration policies have been more unpopular than Biden himself since the first months of his presidency, with polls these days showing nearly 2-to-1 disapproval.
The last thing he needs is to spotlight his worst instincts on his most unpopular policy at precisely the moment when places like Columbia University are enflamed by pro-Hamas radicalism.
This is no time to take orders from Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
It’s time to pull down Palestinian flags and raise Old Glory, as NYPD cops did at City College.
It won’t even work.
The pro-“intifada” radicals are so high on their own self-righteousness about “genocide” that they don’t seem to care if their antics are helping Donald Trump.
Besides, the people funding the anti-Israel movement aren’t going to be bought off with a trickle of refugees; they’re playing for bigger game.
And even Biden hasn’t been fool enough yet to completely handcuff Israel.
Biden and Kamala Harris are cutting back their usual schedule of college commencement speeches because they’re worried about getting embarrassed by demonstrators.
The protests are only going to get more painful for them from here until the Democratic convention in Chicago.
This will hound them so long as the Gaza war drags on, no matter how many refugees they take in.
And then, those refugees will be here for decades after the 2024 election.
Finally, this is yet another example of Biden going it alone without input from Congress, even members in his own party.
He already did that when loosening the asylum rules for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, a move he had to swiftly follow with pledges to resume deportations to that country.
Big policy decisions like this shouldn’t be made unilaterally by the executive without lawmakers.
But Biden’s eyes are on two dates in November: Election Day and his 82d birthday.
He’s not thinking about the long term anymore, just about his immediate political future.
And he can’t even grasp when he’s putting that at risk, too.