US President Joe Biden has gone out of his way -- and it is enormously appreciated! -- to stand by America's ally Israel, defending itself from being further attacked by Hamas and other Iranian proxy groups in the region. The Biden administration has sent warships to the region, materiel to counter the more than 9,500 rockets and missiles fired at Israel since October 7, aimed at the cities of a country roughly the size of New Jersey. It is bewildering that he has come under so much unjust criticism for supporting a country that is basically also fighting for the US and the Free World against a terrorist group, Hamas, that apparently sees nothing wrong with burning babies alive, beheading them, raping and torturing men, women and children and then murdering them.
Sadly however, by reportedly demanding that Israel reduce its efforts to confront the Iran-backed terrorist group by January 1, Biden, presumably to help his reelection campaign, is seriously undermining Israel's efforts. Such a curtailment would make it as difficult as possible -- and risky -- for Israel to fight what is already an extremely complicated war in complex urban areas, where Hamas has deeply embedded its weapons within the civilian population.
"You can't operate in southern Gaza in the way you did in the north," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Israeli government at the end of November.
"There are two million Palestinians there. You need to evacuate fewer people from their homes, be more accurate in the attacks, not hit UN facilities, and ensure that there are enough protected areas [for civilians]. And if not? Then not to attack where there is a civilian population."
"I underscored the imperative for the United States," Blinken commented, "that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale that we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the South."
Translation: Israel should risk more of its own soldiers to protect Gazan civilians. Hamas, on the other hand, can continue its war crime of seizing as many human shields to hide behind as they like -- the more the better. If the human shields get killed, Israel, not Hamas, get the blame for "the massive loss of civilian life."
All Gazan casualty statistics out of Gaza are issued by Hamas; regrettably, they are not accurate.
Israeli troops are on the streets of Gaza, fighting door to door, and suffering a "massive loss of life" themselves. Because the Israelis have gone out of their way to protect the lives of Gaza's civilians, more than 116 Israeli soldiers have been killed just in Gaza, and more than 1,593 have been wounded, 255 seriously.
Israel, in fact, to evacuate civilians from the north of Gaza to its south, waited weeks before launching a ground offensive. Israel also, to evacuate northern Gaza before entering it, dropped four million leaflets in Arabic over Gaza, made 42,000 phone calls, sent 15 million text messages and 12 million recorded messages. What other military would do that?
Have any demands been made on Hamas's patrons, Iran and Qatar, to tell their Hamas beneficiaries to stop? Have any demands been made on them to do anything? Why is only the victim of the October 7 invasion being asked to make concessions, and not the aggressor?
Israel's efforts have been made endlessly more complicated by Egypt's refusal to accept Gazan civilians wishing to enter, even on a temporary basis.
While Hamas tried to keep its own citizens from fleeing to safety by shooting at them, it was Israel that protected Gaza's civilians in a humanitarian corridor so that they could safely travel from north to south.
Keeping Gazans in Gaza was also, apparently, a matter of US policy.
At the COP28 meeting in Dubai, US Vice President Kamala Harris made it a point to demand that Gazans stay put it, although she seems deliberately to have formulated it in a misleading way: "Under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza," she said.
Civilians were not being "forced" to go anywhere; they were being offered a way to avoid the line of fire. When millions of Syrians fled Syria, no one talked about a "forced relocation" of Syrian refugees. When millions of Ukrainians fled Russian bombing, no one claimed that they were "forced to go to Poland." Poland and other neighboring countries were kind enough to open their doors for them. When it came to Gazans, however, no country agrees to take them. If they were able to leave, then how could the international community criticize Israel for "massive casualties"?
When Biden told supporters on December 12 that "the indiscriminate bombing that takes place" by Israel was beginning to cost Israel support around the world, he surely must have known that Israel, in the midst of risking the lives of its own soldiers on the ground, does not engage in "indiscriminate bombing." If it did, many Israeli soldiers' lives could have been saved and the war would have been over in a week.
This week, on December 18, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel to discuss the Biden administration's wish that Israel shift from "high-intensity war" to a "more limited, focused conflict."
Three days later, on December 21, Hamas rejected a ceasefire it had been asking for; they probably saw that the demand from the US for "limited conflict" was effectively giving them one.
Biden has also been talking about a "revitalized Palestinian Authority," which the US would like to take over Gaza after Hamas, and that Israel must accept a two-state solution with a Palestinian state. "We have to make sure that Bibi understands that he's got to make some moves to strengthen the [PA]. You cannot say there's no Palestinian state at all in the future," Biden said.
"There will not be any element that educates for terrorism, finances terrorism and dispatches terrorism," Netanyahu replied.
"I will not replace Hamastan with Fatahstan.... I will not allow the State of Israel to repeat the fateful mistake of Oslo, which brought to the heart of our country and to Gaza, the most extreme elements in the Arab world, which are committed to the destruction of the State of Israel and who educate their children to this end... The debate between Hamas and Fatah is not 'whether' to eliminate the State of Israel but 'how' to do it. According to a poll that was carried out a few days ago, 82% of the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria justifies the horrific massacre of Oct. 7."
Unfortunately, the October 7 massacre proved beyond a doubt that both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority actually mean it when they say that they want to annihilate Israel. According to a November 14 poll by the Arab World for Research and Development, 75% of the Palestinians polled support the October 7 massacre and 74.7% support the creation of a single Palestinian state "from the river to the sea." No less than 98% said that they feel prouder of their identity as Palestinians now -- after the slaughter on October 7. This is what the Biden administration wants to reward with a Palestinian state?
Harris even added that Israel will not be allowed to make any territorial changes to Gaza, such as creating a buffer zone between southern Israel and Gaza. "Under no circumstances will the United States permit... the redrawing of the borders of Gaza," she said.
As a final straw, according to the journalist Caroline Glick:
"Lebanon's Al Akhbar newspaper reported that Amos Hochstein, President Joe Biden's senior adviser and point man for dealing with Hezbollah, presented the Lebanese government with a proposal to avoid such a war [with Israel]. Hochstein's proposal entails Israel surrendering sovereign territory from Nahariya in the west to the Syrian border in the east in exchange for symbolic concessions from Hezbollah..."
"No war means no return of civilians to their homes. It means Israeli farmers permanently unable to return to their orchards and fields, and IDF forces being sitting ducks at the border for as long as they remain deployed. No war, in short, means Israel loses.
"This would be true under all conditions, but Hochstein's offer makes clear that the United States is willing to empower Hezbollah still more and give it an Israeli defeat. In other words, the U.S. policy of avoiding war is actually a policy of standing with Hezbollah against Israel."
Trade tangible land in Israel for intangible promises from Lebanon -- protected by a military that might wilt at the first shot?
Perhaps Biden could please reconsider?
Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.
Rob Porter