President Biden on Friday said his decision on whether to debate President Trump ahead of Election Day is dependent on his opponent’s ‘behavior.’ 

Biden was asked on Friday, the day after his State of the Union address, if he would debate Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. 

‘Depends on his behavior,’ Biden said. 

Biden’s comments come after Trump challenged him earlier in the week to a debate ‘anytime, anywhere, anyplace.’ 

Trump, the 2024 GOP frontrunner and presumptive nominee, posted his offer on his Truth Social on Wednesday afternoon — just hours after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, his last-standing Republican opponent, suspended her campaign. 

‘It is important, for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate Issues that are so vital to America, and the American People,’ Trump posted Wednesday. ‘Therefore, I am calling for Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE! The Debates can be run by the Corrupt DNC, or their Subsidiary, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).’ 

The Biden campaign fired back shortly after Trump’s invitation on Wednesday. 

‘I know Donald Trump’s thirsty for attention and struggling to expand his appeal beyond the MAGA base — and that’s a conversation we’ll have at the appropriate time in this cycle,’ Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told Fox News Digital. ‘But if he’s so desperate to see President Biden in prime time, he doesn’t have to wait!’ 

Tyler invited Trump to watch the State of the Union on Thursday night. 

Trump gave a live play-by-play during Biden’s address, reacting throughout. 

Biden invoked Trump nearly a dozen times in his State of the Union address, but never by name. He repeatedly referred to him as ‘my predecessor.’ 

Trump told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview after the address that Biden ‘suffers from a terminal case of Trump derangement syndrome,’ and said the president was ‘angry’ and ‘mentally disturbed’ throughout his speech. 

‘He did a terrible job,’ Trump said. 

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is urging the House’s agriculture committee to reject the Exposing Agriculture Trade Suppression (EATS) Act in the 2024 farm bill over concerns the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) will continue dominating control of the U.S. pork industry. 

‘The Chinese Communist Party has been stealthily encroaching on the U.S. agriculture industry for some time now,’ Luna told Fox News Digital in a statement.

On Friday, Luna will send a letter to the committee warning the EATS Act could undermine state laws and standards for agricultural production, posing a threat to American farmers in the pork industry while benefiting foreign-owned companies. 

‘If the House Agriculture Committee adopts this harmful proposal, it will hurt thousands of American farmers, and substantially benefit foreign-owned farms that have come to dominate the domestic U.S. pork industry — especially pork production in the United States under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing,’ Luna wrote. 

Opponents of the bill, like the Humane Society of the U.S., argue it would effectively roll back nearly 1,000 local animal welfare laws that would create ‘the extreme confinement of egg-laying hens, baby veal calves and breeding pigs, while threatening other animal welfare laws, such as those dealing with cruel puppy mills and the slaughter of horses, dogs and cats for their meat, as well as wildlife trafficking.’

Luna agreed. 

‘The EATS Act is simply a veiled attempt by these foreign-owned corporations to subvert the will of American voters, who chose to adopt a series of measures through ballot initiatives and state lawmaking to allow more space for animals raised for food production,’ Luna’s letter states. ‘The EATS Act proposes to unwind these legitimately enacted animal housing standards, and the Chinese government, with its profound level of control of pig production in the United States, stands to reap a substantial benefit.’

Several GOP represenatives signed onto the letter with Luna: Matt Gaetz, Jeff Van Drew, Byron Donalds, Andy Biggs, Nancy Mace, Matt Rosendale, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Bob Good. 

They wrote that they are ‘gravely concerned about infiltration of American pork production by foreign adversaries, principally the CCP.’

Smithfield Foods, a Virginia-based pork producer, is wholly owned by the CCP, the letter notes, and controls nearly 26% of the U.S. pork market. The big meat producer also supports the EATS Act.

‘A Brazil-based agribusiness giant, JBS, controls an additional 14% of pig production, meaning just two foreign companies control production and distribution of 40% of the U.S. pork supply,’ Luna added. ‘That level of foreign control is unprecedented in any other sector of American agriculture. Rather than do their bidding in the upcoming Farm Bill, we should be working to reduce this level of penetration in our pork industry so that we can restore the dominance of domestic pork producers in our homeland.’

In January, a GAO report detailed the findings of its investigation of the Biden administration’s failure to track Chinese investment in U.S. farms. 

The report revealed the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has failed to consistently share timely data on foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land as required under the 1978 Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). Further, Pentagon officials told investigators that USDA needs to regularly provide more up-to-date and specific AFIDA data, according to the report.

USDA’s most recent data suggests that, as of 2021, foreign investment in U.S. agricultural land grew to approximately 40 million acres. Additionally, Chinese agricultural investment in the U.S. increased tenfold between 2009 and 2016 alone.

Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report. 

No Labels took another step toward forming a bipartisan presidential ticket in November’s general election, as the centrist group’s delegates huddled during a virtual gathering on Friday.

No Labels announced that the roughly 800 delegates who took part in the meeting voted to give a thumbs up to fielding what No Labels has described as a ‘unity ticket’ in the presidential election.

‘They voted near unanimously to continue our 2024 project and to move immediately to identify candidates to serve on the Unity presidential ticket,’ No Labels national convention chair Mike Rawlings said in a statement.

But the move comes as some high-profile potential candidates for the No Labels ticket have taken their names out of contention.

For over a year, No Labels has mulled a third party ticket, as it pointed to poll after poll suggesting that many Americans were anything but enthused about a 2024 election rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

And No Labels had long said that it would decide whether to launch a presidential ticket following Super Tuesday, when 15 states from coast to coast held nominating primaries and caucuses.

Trump is now considered the presumptive Republican nominee after winning 14 of the 15 GOP nominating contests on Tuesday. Trump’s last remaining rival — former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — dropped out of the 2024 race on Wednesday.

Biden also ran the table on Super Tuesday, winning 14 of the 15 Democratic contests. And Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota — one of the two long-shot challengers to the president — suspended his White House bid on Wednesday.

Both Biden and Trump will formally clinch their party nominations in the next week or two, and their campaigns have now moved into general election mode.

No Labels — as expected — didn’t name its presidential and vice presidential picks on Friday but instead voted to kick off a formal selection process that would lead to the naming of candidates in the coming weeks.

But former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a former No Labels leader who was considered a potential contender for the group’s ticket, recently took his name out of contention as he announced a run this year for an open Senate seat in his home state.

And moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is not seeking re-election and who flirted with a White House run, has also said he won’t launch a presidential bid.

There was plenty of speculation that Haley would consider running on a No Labels ticket if she were to drop her Republican White House bid. No Labels had expressed interest in her earlier this year.

But Haley repeatedly nixed joining a No Labels ticket, most recently on Tuesday in an interview on ‘Fox and Friends.’

‘What I will tell you is I’m a conservative Republican. I have said many, many times, I would not run as an independent. I would not run as No Labels, because I am a Republican, and that’s who I’ve always been,’ she reiterated.

No Labels said it is already on the ballot in 16 states and currently working in 17 other states to obtain access. 

There’s been a chorus of calls from Democrats warning that a No Labels ticket would pave a path to victory for Trump in November, but the group dismisses that criticism.

‘That’s not our goal here,’ Lieberman told Fox News Digital late last year. ‘We’re not about electing either President Trump or President Biden.’

Following the No Labels meeting on Friday, Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the moderate Democratic group the Third Way, said in a statement following Friday’s No Labels meeting, ‘What part of ‘No’ is so hard to understand? Time and again, voters, candidates and election experts have told No Labels that a third-party presidential ticket can’t win and would help Trump.’

But Rawlings praised his group’s proceedings. He emphasized that ‘earlier today, I led a discussion with the 800 No Labels delegates from all 50 states. These citizen leaders have spent months discussing with one another the kind of leadership they want to see in the White House in 2024. These are some of the most civic-minded, thoughtful, and patriotic Americans I have ever met. They take their responsibility seriously.’

– The Republican Party is once again completely under the thumb of former President Donald Trump.

The former president’s picks to serve as chair and co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) – Trump ally and North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley and daughter-in-law Lara Trump – were unanimously confirmed on Friday by voice votes as the RNC held a recently planned general session.

‘Over the next eight months, the RNC will work hand in glove with President Trump,’ Whatley declared in his acceptance speech.

And Lara Trump, speaking minutes later, emphasized that ‘we have one goal. The goal on November 5th is to win. And as my father-in-law says, bigly.’

Whatley, who was the RNC’s general counsel, succeeded longtime chair Ronna McDaniel, whom Trump picked to steer the national party committee after he won the White House in 2016. Her departure on Friday came after Trump earlier this year repeatedly urged changes at the committee – after lackluster fundraising last year and his opposition to the RNC’s presidential primary debates – which essentially pushed McDaniel out the door.

‘The state of our party is strong,’ McDaniel declared in her departure speech.

And pointing to the RNC’s fundraising rebound in January and February, McDaniel touted ‘the best two months of fundraising the RNC has ever had when we didn’t occupy the White House.’

While fundraising will be a major focus going forward, as the Trump campaign and the RNC aim to compete with the rival Democratic National Committee and President Biden’s campaign, continuing and beefing up already existing RNC programs dedicated to election integrity will also be a top priority.

‘Everyone in this room and every voter across the country knows that we must protect the sanctity of their vote,’ said Whatley, who’s been a strong supporter of Trump’s unproven claims that his 2020 election loss to Biden was due to massive voter fraud.

After highlighting that he ‘worked closely with Chairwoman McDaniel to build our election integrity program from scratch,’ Whatley stressed ‘we will do more.’

Trump also installed campaign adviser Chris LaCivita as RNC chief of staff. LaCivita, a longtime Republican strategist and RNC veteran, will continue to keep his role as one of the two top advisers steering Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

‘The RNC today. It’s not going to look the same next week. There’s obviously going to be changes,’ LaCivita told reporters ahead of the gathering. But he declined to get into details.

The RNC gathering came in the same week Trump swept 14 of the 15 GOP primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday – which moved him much closer to officially locking up the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. It also comes just two days after Trump’s last rival for the nomination – former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – dropped out of the race.

‘He’s the presumptive nominee. He’s going to be our nominee. He’s going to be the guy to beat Joe Biden, and it’s normal for the presumptive nominee of the party to run the RNC,’ longtime RNC committee member from Mississippi, Henry Barbour, told Fox News on the eve of the meeting.

New Hampshire GOP chair and former RNC committee member Chris Ager, who attended the meeting, emphasized that ‘Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee and this is the party of Trump.’

‘The people at the RNC know and like Mike Whatley, so he’s a good choice and Lara Trump is a trusted adviser to the president, so why not give him the tools he needs to get the job done. If he trusts those people, let’s give him what he needs to get that win in November,’ Ager told Fox News ahead of the meeting.

Trump’s takeover of the RNC is far from controversial. It is traditional, as a presidential election cycle moves from the primaries to the general election for the presumptive nominee of the party out of power, to take control and merge operations. 

Barbour emphasized that while ‘there’s always some drama’ at RNC meetings, ‘it’s really important that the party pull together… and we need the former president leading us on that, bringing us together as a party so we can win not just the White House but the Senate, the House, state, local.’

However, there was some controversy in recent weeks over concerns that the cash-strapped RNC would be forced to pay some of Trump’s massive legal bills. 

The former president faces four major criminal trials and a total of 91 indictments, as well as a $355 million civil fraud judgment which Trump’s appealing. A political action committee affiliated with the former president has shelled out nearly $80 million in the past two years to pay Trump’s many lawyers.

The RNC paid some of Trump’s legal bills when he was in the White House and after he left office. However, McDaniel said two years ago that the committee would stop paying those bills once Trump became a candidate again.

LaCivita said in recent days that the RNC would not be paying the bills. The Trump campaign told Fox News on Wednesday that the committee would  ‘absolutely not’ be providing any of its funds to alleviate Trump’s legal costs.

‘Hard no. Absolutely not. Asked and answered,’ a spokesperson reiterated.

Barbour recently proposed a non-binding resolution stating that RNC funds could not be used for Trump’s legal bills. However, the resolution was nixed after Barbour was unable to earn the support of RNC members from at least 10 states.

‘A small group of us offered a resolution to the committee that essentially said that the number one job and the only job of the RNC is to win elections. And if that’s our job, we need to spend our money on that and not on paying anybody’s legal bills,’ Barbour told Fox News.

He emphasized that ‘while we came up short… it was an important conversation and the Trump campaign has confirmed indeed that they have no plans to spend any RNC dollars on it and will not do it.’

‘We appreciate that very much,’ he noted.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, called for the charges against the Gold Star father who interrupted President Biden’s State of the Union address to be dropped.

Steve Nikoui, 51, is the father of Marine Corps Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, one of the 13 U.S. service members killed when an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport during the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. 

He was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police on Thursday evening after shouting ‘Abbey Gate’ multiple times from the House gallery during Biden’s speech. Abbey Gate was the location of the 2021 attack.

McCaul revealed to reporters on Friday morning that Nikoui told him earlier about his intention to interrupt the address.

‘I talked to Steve prior to his announcement on the floor. I said, look, this is between you and your god and your conscience and your son, and the other families,’ McCaul said. ‘I think they feel that their children have been completely, you know, blown off by this administration, the president’s never called to say ‘I’m sorry.’ And that is why he spoke up.’

The senior Republican warned the Gold Star dad that he would likely be escorted off the House floor if he protested.

‘I didn’t encourage him to do it… it was his choice to make, and it was a powerful one,’ McCaul said.

Law enforcement said Nikoui was arrested on charges of crowding, obstructing or incommoding. He was a guest of Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla.

McCaul called the charges ‘petty.’

‘I guess he resisted arrest, and I get that, I was a federal prosecutor many years, but in this type of case, I mean, the charges seem a little overbearing given the fact this is a man who lost his son in Abbey Gate to the bombing in a really screwed up situation,’ McCaul said.

The Texas Republican’s committee has been actively investigating the August 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal and the decisions that led to it.

Fox News Digital reached out to Nikoui, U.S. Capitol Police, Mast’s office and Speaker Mike Johnson’s office, but did not immediately hear back.

– The Republican Party on Friday will formally once again become what in reality it has been for eight years – the party of Trump.

That is when the voting members of the Republican National Committee (RNC), who are gathering for a quickly called general session, are expected to overwhelmingly vote to confirm a key ally of former President Trump and Trump’s daughter-in-law to serve as national party committee chair and co-chair.

The RNC gathering, which was scheduled in the last couple of weeks, comes in the same week Trump swept 14 of the 15 GOP primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday – which moved him much closer to officially locking up the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. It also comes just two days after Trump’s last rival for the nomination – former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – dropped out of the race.

‘He’s the presumptive nominee. He’s going to be our nominee. He’s going to be the guy to beat Joe Biden, and it’s normal for the presumptive nominee of the party to run the RNC,’ longtime RNC committee member from Mississippi Henry Barbour told Fox News on the eve of the meeting.

Additionally, New Hampshire GOP chair and former RNC committee member Chris Ager, who is also attending the meeting, emphasized that ‘Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee and this is the party of Trump.’

Longtime RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, whom Trump picked to steer the national party committee after he won the White House in 2016, is stepping down at the meeting. Her departure comes after Trump earlier this year repeatedly urged changes at the committee – after lackluster fundraising last year and his opposition to the RNC’s presidential primary debates – which essentially pushed McDaniel out the door.

In her place, Trump picked North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley to succeed McDaniel. Whatley, the party’s general counsel, is also a Trump ally and strong supporter of the former president’s repeated claims that his 2020 election loss to President Biden was due to massive voter fraud.

The former president also picked his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, for RNC co-chair. She is expected to focus on fundraising for the committee and on media appearances.

Trump is also installing campaign adviser Chris LaCivita as RNC chief of staff. LaCivita, a longtime Republican strategist and RNC veteran, will continue to keep his role as one of the two top advisers steering Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

‘The people at the RNC know and like Mike Whatley, so he’s a good choice and Lara Trump is a trusted adviser to the president, so why not give him the tools he needs to get the job done. If he trusts those people, let’s give him what he needs to get that win in November,’ Ager told Fox News.

Trump’s takeover of the RNC is far from controversial. It is traditional as a presidential election cycle moves from the primaries to the general election for the presumptive nominee of the party out of power to take control and merge operations. 

Barbour emphasized that while ‘there’s always some drama’ at RNC meetings, ‘it’s really important that the party pull together… and we need the former president leading us on that, bringing us together as a party so we can win not just the White House but the Senate, the House, state, local.’

However, there has been some controversy in recent weeks over concerns that the cash-strapped RNC would be forced to pay some of Trump’s massive legal bills. 

The former president faces four major criminal trials and a total of 91 indictments, as well as a $355 million civil fraud judgment which Trump’s appealing. A political action committee affiliated with the former president has shelled out nearly $80 million in the past two years to pay Trump’s many lawyers.

The RNC paid some of Trump’s legal bills when he was in the White House and after he left office. However, McDaniel said two years ago that the committee would stop paying those bills once Trump became a candidate again.

LaCivita has said in recent days that the RNC would not be paying the bills. The Trump campaign told Fox News on Wednesday that the committee would  ‘absolutely not’ be providing any of its funds to alleviate Trump’s legal costs.

‘Hard no. Absolutely not. Asked and answered,’ a spokesperson reiterated.

Barbour recently proposed a non-binding resolution stating that RNC funds could not be used for Trump’s legal bills. However, the resolution was nixed after Barbour was unable to earn the support of RNC members from at least 10 states.

‘A small group of us offered a resolution to the committee that essentially said that the number one job and the only job of the RNC is to win elections. And if that’s our job, we need to spend our money on that and not on paying anybody’s legal bills,’ Barbour told Fox News.

He emphasized that ‘while we came up short… it was an important conversation and the Trump campaign has confirmed indeed that they have no plans to spend any RNC dollars on it and will not do it.’

‘We appreciate that very much,’ he noted.

In the wake of the attacks on Israel October 7, the role that the media network Al Jazeera has played cannot be understated. It is an arm of the regime in Qatar, which serves as a safe haven and benefactor for Hamas, which perpetrated the largest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. 

In a new report from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Yigal Carmon outlines how the Qatari-owned media empire promotes Islamist terror worldwide. That cooperation between Hamas and Al Jazeera is no more clearly evident than how it covered the attacks of October 7.  

The network aired ‘exclusive’ clips of the attacks, and Carmon explains, ‘This footage could only have been obtained from Hamas itself. The Al Jazeera reporter abandoned any pretense of neutrality, proclaiming gleefully that ‘the settler walls… collapsed… along with the iron image of the arrogant occupation army.’  

Within the rules and regulations to obtain press credentials at the United States House of Representatives, it is said, ‘they will not act as an agent for, or be employed by the Federal, or any State, local or foreign government or representatives thereof.’ These are generally the rules for any press credentials across government, in the U.S. Senate, White House, etc.  

And yet, Al Jazeera retains this access, and in 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice required that the media network register as a foreign agent in accordance with Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) laws.  

Former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen outlined why in a report prepared for Congress, explaining that the network ‘repeatedly undermines U.S. interests in the region by supporting extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and [the] Al-Nusrah [Front]. […] Moreover, Qatar uses its state-owned, state-funded, state-directed and state-controlled Al Jazeera Media Network to project this vision to the U.S. public.’ 

Since October 7, and the ensuing conflict, Al Jazeera has plainly been operating as an official mouthpiece for Hamas. In his report for MEMRI, Carmon explains, ‘Since October 7, Al-Jazeera has been airing official military announcements and threats by Hamas spokesmen – as well as by other terror organizations – on an almost daily basis, serving as a semi-official amplifier of Hamas messaging, often featuring outlandish claims of military successes by the group.’ 

Al Jazeera takes its operations past the Middle East and endangers Americans and Jews worldwide. In a November op-ed for the Hill, Michigan Republican Rep. Jack Bergman explained, ‘Al Jazeera itself has already been used by the state of Qatar to conduct surveillance operations to damage members of the Jewish community who actively support a strong relationship between the U.S. and Israel — a worldview broadly shared by an overwhelming majority of Congress. The conclusion is unavoidable: Al Jazeera is clearly an intelligence operation run by Qatar.’ 

Bergman went on, ‘But while our Arab allies have no trouble identifying Al Jazeera as a terrorism-promoting propaganda organ of the Qatari government (the primary funders of Hamas), the network still enjoys a strange and unwarranted reputation as an objective and independent Arab voice among many in the West…’ 

Members of the media network aren’t just lending their support for Hamas in the sphere of public relations, but in concrete assistance as well. Their support isn’t just ideological, but material as well.  

In 2021, the Israel Defense Forces bombed a Hamas-controlled building which was home to AJ’s offices in Gaza at the time. But it’s since the outbreak of the war in Gaza after the brutal attacks of October 7, that even more damning information has come to light.  

According to the IDF, Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Washah was a member of Hamas, linked by a laptop the IDF found. Information on the laptop showed that Washah, 37, from central Gaza’s Bureij neighborhood, is a ‘prominent commander’ in Hamas’s anti-tank missile unit. In late 2022, he began working on research and development in the terror group’s air force. Two years ago, he posted a photo of himself shaking hands with October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar. 

Since October 7, and the ensuing conflict, Al Jazeera has plainly been operating as an official mouthpiece for Hamas. In his report for MEMRI, Carmon explains, ‘Since October 7, Al-Jazeera has been airing official military announcements and threats by Hamas spokesmen – as well as by other terror organizations – on an almost daily basis, serving as a semi-official amplifier of Hamas messaging, often featuring outlandish claims of military successes by the group.’ 

In January, the IDF presented evidence that two Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike were terrorist operatives and said that they were operating drones that put soldiers at risk. 

On February 13, another Al Jazeera journalist was injured. On the day of the attack, he reportedly posted that he hoped Palestinian children would ‘play with their heads,’ referring to Israeli victims. Israel described him as ‘a deputy company commander in Hamas’s Eastern Battalion of Khan Yunis.’ 

Bergman is one of many members of Congress who remain deeply concerned about Al Jazeera’s role, telling me, ‘It is abundantly clear to me, and to my colleagues, that Al Jazeera is a component of the Hamas/Qatari intelligence operation against the United States – and their operation is designed to promote and protect Hamas, as well as spread virulent antisemitism. Congress should take action immediately.’ 

The Hamas attacks of October 7 were historic: Not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed in a single day. The terror group went on a rampage at a music festival and through small villages in border communities; murdering, kidnapping, raping and brutalizing thousands of not just Israelis, but individuals holding dozens of nationalities. Six American citizens, and the bodies of two more, are still held in the Gaza Strip by terrorists, and dozens of American citizens were killed in the attacks. It’s time to recognize the role that Al Jazeera played and continues to play in these atrocities. 

President Biden’s decision to drop food aid directly into the Gaza Strip may seem at first like a benign effort to help suffering civilians during war. But it’s actually a symptom of a broader agenda to establish an independent bilateral relationship with the Palestinians separate and distinct from the U.S. alliance with Israel.

Previously, American provisions of aid to Gaza and/or West Bank have been coordinated with the Israeli authorities, as are similar donations from countries such as Egypt, Qatar and UAE. 

But now President Biden is taking things into his own hands and radically shifting the dynamics of the U.S.-Israel relationship by not only dropping food but also considering the pre-emptive American recognition of a Palestinian state.

Such an action would not only justify the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel as a legitimate path to statehood – it would have potentially disastrous consequences that only Congress may be able to stop.

The wisdom of rewarding Hamas with dumps of the humanitarian aid from which they have cut their own people while they are still holding Americans hostage can be debated, but this issue is much broader. 

From the earliest days of the Biden administration, re-starting the flows of U.S. taxpayer money to the Palestinians and the various organizations that support them frozen under President Trump has been a top priority, with assistance to date at well over a billion dollars. 

In addition, President Biden has requested another $9 billion in his emergency supplemental for general humanitarian purposes. Some – if not all – would go the Palestinians in an unprecedented grant, presumably for the rebuilding of Gaza, giving America a massive ownership stake in the future of the strip.

While Biden’s ambassador the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, did veto an Algerian-authored U.N. Security Council resolution last month condemning Israel and calling for a cease-fire, the administration made clear it was an issue of wording, not substance. 

In an extraordinary move, the U.S. has circulated its own draft resolution on the topic, which included ‘support for a temporary cease-fire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released, and calls for lifting all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale…’ and declared that ‘that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement including potentially into neighboring countries.’

While the U.S. draft has not yet gotten a vote in the Security Council, there is no reason to think that it has been tabled, especially given Vice President Kamala Harris’ overt calls for a cease-fire on Sunday.

But the food drop and the U.N. resolution, as bad as they are, are only a prelude to an official and unilateral U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state without an agreement with Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. 

Such a step would be an astonishing declaration of equivalence between Israel and the Palestinians in American policy – most shockingly because the policy is being driven by Biden’s electoral prospects in December, not any legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians. 

Senior Democrat lawmakers such as Rep. Ro Khanna, of California, are now publicly calling for the ‘something bold’ the Biden administration anonymously floated last month explicitly for domestic political reasons, which is hardly a valid reason to upend decades of U.S. policy in the Middle East, not to mention reward a horrific terrorist attack on Israelis and Americans alike.

The administration’s food dump into Gaza must not be mistaken for disinterested charity but be recognized for the stalking horse for the much more significant policy shift that it is. If Biden presses ahead with the plan to recognize a Palestinian state, Congress will have to act to preserve the U.S.-Israel alliance at this critical time.

Any requests for additional aid for the Palestinians should be expressly prohibited in the upcoming funding vehicles. And Congress should clarify that without the administration submitting any recognition of a Palestinian state to the Senate for passage as a formal treaty, it will be nothing more than an executive action that Biden’s successor can and should reverse with the stroke of a pen.