I think it was David Goldman who predicted this would happen a few weeks ago, but the impact of it now is shocking: Israel, America's top ally in the Middle East, is now moving towards the China orbit.

According to Breitbart News's Frances Martel:

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen asked China to “influence” Iran to cease developing its illegal nuclear weapons program, inviting Beijing to play a bigger role in the Middle East as relations with the United States under leftist President Joe Biden have deteriorated.

Cohen (pictured) made the request in a conversation on Monday with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, a day before held a massive parade to mark its annual “Army Day” in which it once again threatened to destroy Israel. President Ebrahim Raisi specifically vowed “the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv” and debuted what appeared to be new military hardware, a drone model not yet seen in public.

...

Describing the talk with Qin on Twitter, Cohen said that he had encouraged Qin to have China participate in convincing Iran to cease developing nuclear weapons.

“I spoke today with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. I called on him to exert his influence on Iran to stop the progress of the nuclear program,” his statement read, “which poses a danger to many countries in the Middle East and the world.”

“The State of Israel will act in any way to prevent the terrorist regime in Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” Cohen concluded.

Yet it all makes a certain amount of sense and so shouldn't be. 

As the U.S. gets bogged down in Ukraine, and Russia aligns with China as both states win friends and influence around the world, Israel is pretty on its own now. The magnificent Abraham accords of President Trump's era, making peace for Israel and Saudi Arabia and a string of other nations after it, has been eclipsed by China's "peacemaking" between Saudi Arabia and Iran, freeing up the mullah-ruled state to focus its malevolence on tiny Israel alone. For Israel, its best option may be to move under China's wing so China can stop Iran.

What's more, Joe Biden has messed up relations with both critical allies. He demonized Saudi Arabia as a "pariah" state over internal human rights matters, even though Saudi Arabia, broadly speaking, has actually improved a lot, letting women drive cars and the like. He did this even as he needed them to pump oil for him, having surrendered U.S. energy sovereignty to the green lobby in the states, and the Saudis laughed in his face and cut production. As for Israel, it's the same kind of demonization, with Biden vowing to not meet with Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyau, over his disagreement on Israel's judicial reforms, which are frankly none of his business. 

Meanwhile, Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan sent an additional message to friend and foe alike that U.S. military prowess isn't what it's cracked up to be based on its substandard military leadership and that the U.S. will abandon its allies to terrorists. Even the U.S.'s NATO allies were left high and dry in that awful pullout.

Israel is a tiny country and while it doesn't demand anyone to fight for it, it does benefit from having a large ally such as the U.S. Now that Biden has demonized and abandoned it, what other choice does Israel have but to move over into another big ally who will ensure they not be attacked and destroyed. It's disturbing stuff because both countries are tech innovators, and if they get together on that, which is exactly what China will want, it could be very grim news for U.S. strategic capabilities.

It's a culmination of a string of errors from Joe Biden, from errors on energy security, to errors on military engagement, to errors on just what the heck the U.S.'s foreign policy priorities are. Do we want to yell at Israel (and the Saudis) or do we want actual allies who will do their part to check China's influence?

The only thing one can conclude from all this Biden incompetence is that prescient statement of President Obama's, which foresaw what a Biden presidency would accomplish: "Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up."

If Biden can't even hold onto Israel, what does that say about our influence in the world and the state of our foreign policy?

Image: Screen shot from a camera shot aimed at a live television set, filtered with FotoSketcher.