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Chapter 37: Woe to those who go down to Egypt and America but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, the Lord of Hosts, the Commander of Israel’s Army, or consult the LORD concerning Hamas’ Attack on Israel! The Egyptians and Americans are mere mortals and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit
Woe to those who, after Hamas invaded Israel, trusted in the Egyptians and Americans for help and support in defeating Hamas!
Do the Egyptians who worship false gods and Americans who claims that the United States of America was in no sense founded on Christianity (see Chapter 36) have Israel’s best interests at heart more so than the living and true God of Israel, the Lord of Hosts of Israel and Israel’s army?
Israel shall be preserved without aid from either Egypt or America. Jerusalem is under God's protection. Therefore, there is no reason or will be no occasion to put it under the protection of Egypt or America. Surely, those who have such a protector need not go to Egypt for protection.
Do the Rabbis and Israel’s government believe that the Holy One of Israel has not taken notice of what Hamas has done? The Armies of Hamas are as nothing in the estimation of the LORD of hosts.
The “LORD of hosts” speaks of the “God of the armies of heaven,” a great host of angelic warriors. The term, the “God the Armies of Heaven,” brings to mind and reminds us that God fights on behalf of those who are His own.
Egypt and America Betrayed Israel: On the other hand, just as the Prophet Obadiah told Israel, “All your allies will turn against you,” Israel’s allies, both Egypt and America, betrayed Israel.
Obadiah 1:7 7 “All your allies will turn against you. They will help to chase you from your land. They will promise you peace while plotting to deceive and destroy you. Your trusted friends will set traps for you, and you won’t even know about it. NLT
Ecclesiastes 1:8 tells us that there is nothing new under the sun, that history only repeats itself, and so it is with America and Egypt who betrayed Israel. Just as the Prophet Obadiah prophesied so long ago, history is once again repeating itself. The nations that Israel was at peace with, both Egypt and America, have now deceived Israel.
Israel was blind-sided by Hamas’ public “acceptance” of a ceasefire deal the Jewish state had not even seen; however, the ceasefire deal was rewritten by Egypt with America’s approval – that is the peace agreement that Hamas accepted. And, to add insult to injury, America is withholding sensitive Intelligence information from Israel that could help Israel win the war with Hamas. And, in doing so America has left Israel as easy prey to Hamas and Iran.
President Biden’s compliments that America’s commitment to Israel is ironclad are only empty words – they are not the aid that Israel is seeking by failing to give Israel help in their time of need.
When the news came out that Biden was withholding sensitive intelligence on Hamas from Israel after Hamas had accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar, everyone was blind-sided.
It quickly became apparent to Israel that the U.S. and the other mediators, the Egyptians and Qatar, had drafted “a new deal” and were not transparent about it. It is believed that the Biden administration gave Hamas assurance, via the Egyptians and Qataris, about bringing Israel’s defending themselves to an end. America and Egypt honored the demands of Israel’s enemies.
The following news articles speak for themselves. |
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JNS Jewish News Syndicate
Report: US withholding ‘sensitive intelligence’ on Hamas from Israel …..
U.S. President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90. (May 12, 2024 / JNS)
The Biden administration will share key intelligence with Israel about the whereabouts of Hamas’s leadership in Gaza if Israel agrees not to go ahead with its military operation in Rafah, according to The Washington Post.
“The Biden administration, working urgently to stave off a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, is offering Israel valuable assistance if it holds back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group’s hidden tunnels, according to four people familiar with the U.S. offers,” said the report.
The United States is seeking to delay the operation, concerned that Israel is not doing enough to ensure the safety of the over one million Gazans sheltered in Rafah should a full-scale invasion move forward, according to the sources cited by the Washington Post.
In addition to intelligence, American officials have also offered to help provide Israel with assistance for Rafah evacuees, including “thousands of shelters so Israel can build tent cities—and to help with the construction of delivery systems for food, water and medicine,” the sources said.
Israel’s military has already evacuated hundreds of thousands of people from eastern Rafah to an expanded humanitarian zone at Al-Mawasi as part of a limited operation in the city that began on May 6. As part of the operation’s initial stage, Israeli forces took control of the Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing between the Strip and Egypt.
IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Saturday night that dozens of terrorists have been killed, underground tunnels uncovered and weapons confiscated during the operation so far, stressing that the activities there “remain limited in scope and focus on tactical advances; tactical adjustments; and military advantages—and have avoided densely populated areas.”
The Rafah operation, which Israel estimates will last around two months, is being carried out in phases as opposed to a sudden, full scale invasion, according to Israel’s Channel 12.
The phased nature of the operation allows for it to be paused should a hostage release deal be reached between Israel and Hamas, according to the report.
The Biden administration last week announced the halt of offensive arms shipments to Israel over the looming operation in Gaza’s southernmost city.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said, “If they [the IDF] go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities—that deal with that problem.”
He went on to state that his administration wasn’t walking away from Israel’s security and would “continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” such as Iran’s April 14 ballistic missile and drone attack.
However, with regard to offensive armaments of the type that would likely be used in Rafah, “it’s just wrong,” he continued. “We’re not going to—we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells,” he said.
The announcement led to widespread backlash both in Israel and the United States.
“This may give them encouragement, the enemies of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel,” said Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan.
“If Israel is restricted from entering such an important and central area such as Rafah, where thousands of terrorists, hostages and the leaders of Hamas are still present, how exactly is the goal of destroying Hamas supposed to be achieved?” he continued.
According to Israel, defeating Hamas’s remaining four battalions in Rafah are essential to winning the war and securing the return of the hostages still being held by the terrorist group.
Rep. Ritchie Torres tweeted, “As the leader of the free world, America cannot claim that its commitment to Israel is ‘iron-clad’ and then proceed to withhold aid from Israel. The mixed messaging makes a mockery of our credibility as an ally. No one will take our word seriously.”
Biden’s CNN announcement came a few days after Israel was blind-sided by Hamas’s public “acceptance” of a ceasefire deal the Jewish state had not even seen.
According to Axios, Israeli officials were reportedly surprised to see “many new elements” in the deal, that were not contained in the previous proposal to which Israel had agreed and which had been presented to Hamas by the American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators 10 days earlier.
The U.S. and the other mediators had drafted “a new deal” and were not transparent about it, two Israeli officials told Axios. The officials went on to state that they suspect the Biden administration gave Hamas guarantees via the Egyptians and Qataris about ending the war, which the terror group demands but which Jerusalem says is a nonstarter until Hamas is defeated, the hostages are released and Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.
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JNS Jewish News Syndicate
JNS.orhttps://www.jns.org ›
Biden is betraying American interests as well as Israel
The arms cutoff shows that Washington wants to let Hamas win the war it started on Oct. 7. This will do incalculable harm to U.S. interests abroad and at home.
JONATHAN S. TOBIN Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him @jonathans_tobin.
(May 9, 2024 / JNS) This isn’t the first dispute between the governments of the United States and Israel. Nor is it the first time that Washington has used the supply of arms to try to pressure the Jewish state to bend to its will. But there is no precedent for what President Joe Biden has just done.
By declaring that he will stop supplying weapons to Israel, including high-tech heavy bombs and artillery shells, if it seeks to enter Rafah and eliminate Hamas’s last remaining stronghold in Gaza, the president was making a clear declaration that the United States was mandating an end to the war that the terrorist group began with the massacre of men, women and children on Oct. 7.
Should Israel bow to Biden’s diktat, then it would mean that a genocidal terrorist group wouldn’t merely survive to live and fight again, and thereby make good on its promise to commit more Oct. 7 horrors in the future.
Such a development would also mean that Hamas would be seen as the victor in the conflict.
That is something that would have far-reaching consequences not just for Israel and its security, but for regional Arab allies of the United States. It would also be a signal triumph for Hamas’s main backer Iran and its terrorist auxiliaries.
A duplicitous Holocaust speech
This shocking betrayal of Israel was made all the more bitter by the president’s duplicitous decision to hold off the announcement until after he gave a speech to commemorate the Holocaust at the U.S. Capitol on May 7—exactly seven months to the day of the atrocities—during which he expressed not just steadfast support for Israel, but a stinging rebuke of Hamas and a promise not to forget what it did on Oct. 7. At the time, given the fact that threats of an arms cutoff were already in the air, there was good reason to believe that the otherwise exemplary speech was part of a double game that the administration was playing, in which it sought to continue to speak out of both sides of its mouth on the war against Hamas.
The heirs to Soviet antisemitismMay 13, 2024
But as could have been easily seen at the time, despite the president’s exhortation that he would “not forget” what Hamas had done or the plight of the hostages it took on Oct. 7, he had already done so.
The administration’s maneuverings had already removed any incentive that the Islamist group had to return the estimated 130 hostages it still holds (though no one knows how many are still alive) or give up its quest to get back control of Gaza it lost as a result of the Israeli counter-offensive. Biden’s team has been relentlessly pressuring Israel to make obscene concessions to the terrorists in the hostage negotiations. Unsurprisingly, no matter what Israel concedes, it’s never enough for Hamas. Since its leaders believe Biden won’t let them be defeated, they can continue to say “no” without any consequences.
The announcement of the arms cutoff will only make that more certain. Despite continuing to pay lip service to the quest for a hostage deal, Biden’s threats to Israel have basically sealed the fate of the hostages, including the five Americans still being held by Hamas, presumably somewhere in the tunnels underneath Rafah.
An unprecedented betrayal
Biden’s Jewish apologists can point to disputes between past Israeli governments and the Nixon, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Obama administrations, when Washington sought to use its leverage over Israel to force it to do its bidding. But never before has an American president done so in the midst of a war with a terrorist group with whom no peace deal is even theoretically possible.
It was one thing for Henry Kissinger to stop Israel from achieving a decisive victory over Egypt in the 1973 Yom Kippur War in the hope that this would lead—as it did a few years later—to an end to the conflict between those two nations. It’s quite another for Biden to save a genocidal group like Hamas from being destroyed and therefore make it the dominant voice of Palestinian nationalism for the foreseeable future.
Hopes for a two-state solution to the conflict were always a product of magical Western thinking that ignored the fact that neither Hamas nor the supposedly more moderate Fatah Party and the Palestinian Authority that it leads were equally unwilling to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state, no matter where its borders could be drawn. But allowing Hamas to hold onto control of any part of Gaza and to treat its preservation as an American foreign-policy priority that supersedes the alliance with Israel will ensure that the Islamists’ influence over Palestinian politics and culture will only increase.
Had the United States not prevented Israel from quickly and decisively defeating and eliminating every vestige of Hamas from Gaza, there could have been a chance for the Palestinians to understand that they needed to change their political culture, and genuinely embrace peace and coexistence with Israel. Much like the Germans who drew the only possible conclusion from the defeat of their country and the reduction of its cities to rubble in 1945, the Palestinians could have been forced to change. This was their opportunity to accept a shift in their sense of national identity, which, up until now, has been inextricably linked to their war to destroy Israel. But thanks to the international movement that arose to defend Hamas in the wake of Oct. 7 and the surge in antisemitism associated with it, the Palestinians remain still convinced that their fantasy of a world in which Israel is erased is possible. And by bowing to pressure from those who think this way, Biden has ensured that the slaughter will continue. That will help Hamas strengthen its presence in Judea and Samaria, and raise the possibility of a return to more Second Intifada-style terrorism.
It also means that even if Israel does do what it must and cleans out Rafah, the terrorist group will be encouraged to regroup and resume the fight as soon as it can. An Israel abandoned by the United States in this manner—and an arms cutoff will be just the start—will be subjected to American retaliation against the Jewish state for disobeying its superpower ally. The next step would be for Washington to go along with all sorts of U.N. sanctions or recognition of Palestinian statehood that will make Israel a pariah state.
No matter who is leading the Jewish state, Israel will not meekly surrender to this kind of pressure. Netanyahu pointed out that the 1948 War of Independence was won without U.S. arms. Indeed, as few people now seem to remember, America didn’t begin to treat Israel as an ally, rather than an annoyance and obstacle to good relations with hostile Arab states, until after it won the 1967 Six-Day War—again, largely without any real help from the Americans.
But the rupture of the alliance diminishes Israel’s strategic position in ways that are incalculable. If Hamas is still standing at the end of this war or if Israel is censured for eliminating the terror group, the threats against its security will swiftly escalate along with its international isolation. That will make the situation in the north—where Iran’s Hezbollah terrorist auxiliaries have made the border communities uninhabitable—only worse. It will also embolden Iran to use its control of Syria and its Houthis allies in Yemen to further tighten the noose around a beleaguered Jewish state.
But this isn’t only bad news for Israel.
A gift to Iran and other foes Much as the Biden administration may still hold onto their hopes of a rapprochement with Iran, that is something that Tehran has never been interested in. They believe themselves to be at war with the West and America, even if many in the foreign-policy establishment here and in Europe wish to ignore this fact.
A defeat for Israel would make it impossible to expand on the Abraham Accords that former President Donald Trump achieved in 2020. Biden and his mouthpieces, like New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, may think that they can trade Saudi Arabian recognition of Israel for a Palestinian state that would be a reward for Hamas terrorism. The Saudis, of course, have no interest in the creation of another failed state in the region that would inevitably be linked to its Iranian enemies. An isolated Israel would not be the “strong horse” that Sunni Arabs see as a bulwark against Iran. They would have no choice but to make their peace with Tehran, meaning a diminishment of American influence in the region, whose energy resources remain important to the West. But the consequences for the United States won’t be restricted to the Middle East.
Following the disgraceful American retreat from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, the abandonment of an ally under attack in this manner will also send a message to other American allies about Washington’s fecklessness. That will strengthen the resolve of Russia to continue the war against Ukraine, as well as undermine Taiwan. Betraying Israel will weaken America’s credibility everywhere.
Why is Biden doing this?
To listen to the White House, they are solely motivated by humanitarian concerns about a battle in Rafah harming too many Palestinian civilians. In doing so, they are merely amplifying a lie about Israel’s military committing “genocide” in Gaza that Biden should be refuting. Israel hasn’t been engaging in wanton or indiscriminate attacks on Palestinians and has instead done its best to avoid civilian casualties—and doing so more successfully than any other modern army engaged in urban warfare.
The decision to heed the calls to limit or end aid to Israel is motivated largely by politics and assumptions on the part of the White House and left-wing Democrats about his faltering re-election campaign. After months of protests from the intersectional base of his party, Biden has done a 180-degree turn from his initial commendable support for Israel and the goal of eliminating Hamas.
As with his blunders on the international stage, this is a staggeringly obtuse mistake. Merely cutting off some arms won’t stop the antisemitic mobs on college campuses or in the streets of American cities from calling Biden “genocide Joe.” It will, in fact, only further embolden them to step up their pressure for a complete rupture with the Jewish state that Biden wouldn’t be able to satisfy even if Netanyahu orders the capture of Rafah. It will also ensure that the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer will be besieged by pro-Hamas demonstrators, further inflaming divisions between the leftist Democratic base and the remnants of the party’s centrists. It also ignores the fact that there are still far more votes to be lost in the pro-Israel political center of this country than on the Israel-hating left.
Fueling the surge in anti-Semitism
Yet the fecklessness of this move is a reminder that this is not merely a political miscalculation but an illustration of the core ideology of most of Biden’s advisers. This band of Obama administration alumni is still burning with the desire to bring Israel to heel and make it accept a re-ordering of American foreign policy in which allies like the Jewish state and the Saudis are downgraded to prioritize better relations with Iran.
Though they were frustrated in their hopes of reviving former President Barack Obama’s disastrously weak 2015 Iran nuclear deal in Biden’s first years in office, Oct. 7 presented them with a new opportunity to push for creating more “daylight” between Israel and the United States. The largest mass murder of Jews since World War II and the Holocaust reinvigorated the Iran appeasers, just as it did antisemitic foes of Israel in the streets and on college campuses.
Put in the proper perspective, the abandonment of Israel should not be seen as just another spat between the two countries about the right path towards peace or how to handle terrorist threats. Instead, it is a consequence of the rise of woke ideology throughout American society and the successful long march of the “progressives” through U.S. institutions. The goal of this movement isn’t just to impose racialist policies that will further divide Americans but also to harm the one Jewish state on the planet.
That is awful for Israel. But it is also a terrible blow to the United States. Biden’s decision is not just a gift for Hamas but also a win for the same advocates of antisemitism that the president condemned in his Holocaust commemoration speech. It will inflame the already troubling surge in antisemitism that is so frightening to American Jews.
A plucky and resourceful Jewish state will suffer from Biden’s disgraceful decision, but it will survive it. The consequences for American influence and power abroad, as well as for decency at home, may be just as if not more far-reaching.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him @jonathans_tobin. End of Article |
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Excerpt from Fox News article on May 13, 2024
Reports of Biden White House keeping 'sensitive' Hamas intel from Israel draws outrage
The White House said it continues to help Israel target Hamas leadership, but many critics are skeptical May 13, 2024
The White House on Monday pushed back on reports from the Times of Israel and Washington Post that it is offering "sensitive intelligence" to Israel on the whereabouts of Hamas leaders, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declines to engage in a full-scale invasion of Rafah.
President Biden has in recent days warned Israel against incurring into the southern Gaza city, threatening to halt munitions shipments if an invasion commences.
Four people familiar with the situation told the Washington Post the administration is offering intel on Hamas tunnels and the hideouts of its leaders if Israel pulls back.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a National Security Council spokesperson said the U.S. continues to help the IDF target Hamas leadership.
"[T]hat work continues on an ongoing basis. We're not holding anything back," the official said. "We believe [Hamas chief Yahya] Sinwar should and indeed must be held accountable for the horrors of the October 7 attack."
Former Trump National Security Council official Victoria Coates told Fox News Digital late Monday that intelligence sharing is the "bedrock of our security partnership with Israel."
"It's unique and extremely sophisticated, and if one partner is not fulfilling their obligations, it calls the whole thing into question," Coates said.
"So, if the administration has information on Hamas leadership, which… still holds eight Americans — five alive and three dead in Gaza — and isn't sharing that with the Israelis and hasn't shared it with the Israelis, this is deeply troubling."
Coates, who is now the Heritage Foundation's national security and foreign policy institute vice president, said that, if true, the report depicts the Biden administration as playing a "political game" versus a battle for the survival of the Jewish State. (emphasis mine)
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Woe to those who go down to Egypt and America!
Isaiah 31:1-9 1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! 2 And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. 3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together. 4 For thus the LORD said to me, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. 5 Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; He will protect and deliver it; He will spare and rescue it.” 6 Turn to Him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. 8 “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor. 9 His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. ESV |
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JNS Jewish News Syndicate
Biden’s double game on Hamas should fool no one
A presidential speech condemned past and present antisemitism. However, it contradicted policies aimed at letting the terrorists win and appeasing pro-Hamas voters.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him @jonathans_tobin. (May 7, 2024 / JNS)
When President Joe Biden wants to say the right things about Israel and antisemitism, he knows how to do it. Much like his comments immediately after the Oct. 7 massacres, his speech at a Holocaust commemoration held in the U.S. Capitol on May 7 struck all the right notes. He not only spoke appropriately about the Six Million slain by the Nazis, he correctly noted that, “This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust. It didn’t end with the Holocaust either. Or after—even after our victory in World War II. This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world and requires our continued vigilance and outspokenness. That hatred was brought to life on October 7th of 2023.”
Going on, he acknowledged that the current war has unleashed a surge of antisemitism in the United States that has been particularly felt on college campuses. He even detailed the unspeakable atrocities of Oct. 7 (which, according to a live New York Times update about the speech, offends “pro-Palestinian” protesters who deny Hamas’s crimes). And unlike his first comments about the antisemitic campus protests, he didn’t try to balance that with either bogus concerns about a largely mythical problem of Islamophobia or discussions about the alleged sufferings of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. He also placed the blame for the current war squarely on the Hamas terror organization.
Yet, the president said, “people are already forgetting. They are already forgetting. That Hamas unleashed this terror. It was Hamas that brutalized Israelis. It was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten nor have you. And we will not forget.”
A broken promise
While his words earned the applause they garnered, that last statement isn’t true. That’s because his policies—as distinct from some of his speeches that were, like those at the Holocaust ceremony, largely aimed at Jewish voters—contradict that promise.
The heirs to Soviet antisemitismMay 13, 2024
Although he initially endorsed the Israeli goal of eliminating Hamas and seemed to implicitly commit to that again in his speech, the entire thrust of Biden’s current Middle East policy is quite the opposite. He is doing everything he can, including threats of cutting off certain military weapons, diplomatic maneuvers at the United Nations and duplicitous efforts to push through an agreement with the terrorist group, to save Hamas from defeat just when Israel put it on the ropes.
Biden has essentially been playing a double game on the war with Hamas since Oct. 7.
At times, his words have been just what Israel and its friends needed to hear as they reeled from the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. But just as the antisemitic left didn’t wait for the Israel Defense Forces to begin its counter-offensive into Gaza to begin to flip the narrative about the conflict to one about Palestinian victimhood instead of one about the atrocities of Oct. 7, similarly, Biden began to edge away from his initial strong stand behind Jerusalem at the same time.
Though the elimination of Hamas and the end of its rule over Gaza are actually compatible with Biden’s quixotic quest to revive a two-state solution to the conflict that the Palestinians have never wanted, the administration has done all it could to delay and minimize the IDF’s efforts since October. And since Israel is dependent on U.S. arms and ammunition—both in terms of offensive operations and the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries that were working overtime in the war’s first months as Hamas fired thousands of rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu felt he had no choice to slow down and limit the army’s efforts. Throughout this period, Biden and the rest of his foreign-policy team continued to smear the IDF’s actions as “over the top.” They blamed it for creating a humanitarian disaster in Gaza. The truth was that Israel’s armed forces were using more care to avoid civilian casualties than any other modern army involved in urban combat, including that of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Appeasing the antisemitic left
The reason for Biden’s carping at Israel had nothing to do with human rights or America’s strategic interests. It was motivated by politics.
From the moment that the Oct. 7 attacks happened, the left wing of the president’s Democratic Party has been vocal in its distaste for Israel and opposition to a successful effort to take out Hamas. So-called “progressives,” as well as the extremists of the left-wing congressional “Squad,” were falsely accusing Israel of war crimes and “genocide” even before the bodies of the Oct. 7 victims were cold. They are motivated by intersectional and critical race theory ideologies, which falsely label Israel as a “white” oppressor and regard the Palestinian war to destroy the one Jewish state on the planet as a righteous cause. They want self-determination for everyone but Jews, perceiving Hamas’s genocidal goals as a form of justified “resistance.”
Living as he does in a left-wing bubble inside the White House and, as he has always been throughout his long political career, a weathervane determined to stay in sync with liberal fashion, Biden thinks the anger at his initial pro-Israel policies is the reason why he continues to trail former President Donald Trump in the polls. He believes that mollifying disaffected young leftists, as well as Arab and Muslim-American voters, is the key to retaining the support of the Democratic base. As some leftist pundits have put it, he must defeat Netanyahu before he can beat Trump. But the truth is that his problems have nothing to do with Israel, and there are far more votes to be lost in the pro-Israel center of American politics than from left-wing Israel-haters.
Still, and to his credit, Biden didn’t make good on his threats to cut off arms until recently. And though he allowed one ceasefire resolution to pass the U.N. Security Council that would have granted Hamas a reprieve without even returning any of the hostages they kidnapped, the administration held off going further than that—vetoing other dangerous resolutions, including one that would have rewarded the Palestinians for their terrorism with the world body’s recognition of their statehood.
Preserving Hamas in Rafah
But once the IDF had backed Hamas into the last enclave it held in Gaza, Biden stopped talking out of both sides of his mouth and made it clear that he opposed Israel going into Rafah and destroying the last operational Hamas military forces that had retreated there.
He’s gone to great lengths and expense to support humanitarian aid for civilians in Hamas-held portions of the Strip and blamed Israel for interrupting the flow of supplies there, including the building of a U.S. floating harbor to assist in the distribution of food and fuel. That has happened even though it’s long been obvious that if there is any real privation there, it is solely because Hamas is stealing the aid that arrives and reserving it for its own use. Just as troubling, he’s put the full force of American influence behind an effort to broker a ceasefire deal with Hamas that will essentially hand the terror group a victory in the war it started.
The terms of the proposed deals that Washington has backed are appalling. They call for the release of some hostages, but only a percentage of those Hamas is still holding under who knows what horrible conditions. And the pressure that Washington has exerted on Netanyahu to take a deal on virtually any terms and conditions—along with the way it has coordinated this with Hamas’s ally, Qatar—has given the terrorists all the leverage. That’s why Hamas continues to turn down even the most lopsided of agreements; its leaders are convinced that Biden will not let them be defeated. That means they think they can hold out for a deal that will end the war and return the situation to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo in Gaza and still not give up all the hostages, let alone be held accountable for mass murder.
Even when it comes to the surge in antisemitism in the United States, the gap between Biden’s Holocaust speech rhetoric and the reality of his policies grows wider every day. He may have chided the pro-Hamas protests for their violence, rule-breaking and antisemitism. But the only people trying to hold the universities accountable are his Republican opponents. There is no sign that the administration is willing to take any action to withhold funds from these schools.
Moreover, even though the protesters won’t forgive him for his pro-Israel statements and have labeled him “genocide Joe,” Biden has refused to break with openly antisemitic members of his party like Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Just as telling was his administration’s invitation to the anti-Zionist IfNotNow group that has spread antisemitic blood libels to a meeting about antisemitism and its inclusion of the pro-Hamas Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) among those who were allowed to give input on an antisemitism initiative that was nothing but virtue-signaling anyway.
Actions speak louder
So, while Biden’s Holocaust speech soothed the feelings of American Jews who are reeling from an unprecedented spike in antisemitism, especially at educational institutions where Jews have thought they were welcome, his actions speak much louder than those words.
An administration that is using every tactic it can think of to prevent Israel from eliminating Hamas can’t claim that it has not forgotten Oct. 7. Stopping Israel from going into Rafah isn’t about saving Palestinian lives; Hamas is all too happy to sacrifice as many of its people as necessary if that advances their goal of isolating and smearing Israel. It’s about an effort to convince American leftists and Hamas supporters that Biden isn’t as pro-Israel as he sometimes wants to pretend to be.
Having allegedly run for president in 2020 because of his supposed concerns about the hate on display from neo-Nazis at the August 2017 “Unite the Right” neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Va., he is now trying to hold onto office by intermittently appeasing left-wing antisemites and undermining Netanyahu’s efforts to prevent Hamas from committing more atrocities on Israeli soil. The only calculus to judge Biden’s touting of the Holocaust or Oct. 7—or to determine if he truly cares about preserving Israel’s security—is whether he will let Hamas be destroyed. If not, all of his rhetoric about those subjects is nothing more than hypocrisy and hot air.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him @jonathans_tobin.
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Netanyahu: Israel Is 'Determined to Win This Fight' Tuesday, May 14, 2024 06:24 AM By: All Israel News Staff
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized on Monday that the Jewish state is fighting for its "existence, liberty, security, and prosperity" in the ongoing war with the Iranian-backed terror proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"It's us or them – Israel or the monsters of Hamas," Netanyahu said during his speech at the annual Memorial Day military ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
The prime minister wanted that if Israel fails to eliminate the existential threat on its borders, it could face more Oct. 7-style terror attacks, including "torture, massacre, rape, and slavery."
However, Netanyahu affirmed Israel is "determined to win this fight, and said, "We are exacting and will continue to exact a heavy price from the enemy for their criminal actions."
"God willing, will ensure our existence and our future. But the price we are paying and that generations before us paid is heavy."
Placing the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in a historical context, Netanyahu argued that all Israelis who "fell in battle – and every battle in Israel is a battle for our survival – represent eternal values: love of humankind and our nation, love of country, a willingness to make sacrifices, faith in the justice of our cause."
Under the leadership of Hamas' elite Nukhba Force, about 3,000 Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel on Oct.7, killing at least 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping over 250 hostages into Gaza. About 130 hostages remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip but at least 30 of them are believed to be no longer alive, according to Israel Defense Forces.
"We have not forgotten the hostages, even for a moment," Netanyahu said during his speech. "We are constantly working to bring everyone back."
"We have already returned about half of them, and we will return them all," he pledged.
However, Netanyahu's critics, including families of the hostages have accused the prime minister and the Israeli government of not doing enough to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
"We will not stop until we topple the terror regime of Hamas," Netanyahu vowed.
Prior to Oct. 7, Netanyahu cultivated an image among Israelis as "Mr. Security." However, polls suggest that most Israelis no longer trust his ability to protect them against various threats. A whopping 70% of Israelis reportedly want Netanyahu to resign, according to polls published in April.
The Israeli military is believed to have degraded the majority of Hamas' battalions since Oct. 7. The bulk of its remaining forces are reportedly concentrated in the area of Rafah, in southern Gaza close to the Egyptian border. Israel has therefore vowed to capture Rafah and eliminate the remaining Hamas forces.
However, the United States and other governments oppose a large-scale Israeli military Rafah operation as they believe it will threaten over one million Gazan civilians concentrated in the area.
The Biden administration has attempted to downplay the significance of neutralizing the remaining Hamas brigades in Rafah.
"Without a plan for the day after the war, Israel will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency because a lot of armed Hamas [terrorists] will be left, no matter what they do in Rafah," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently argued during an interview on NBC News.
"We share Israel's objective of making sure that Hamas cannot govern Gaza anymore, that it be demilitarized, that Israel get its leaders," Blinken stated.
Republished with permission from All Israel News. End of Article |