The genocidal anti-Semitic attack on October 7, 2023 by the Islamic terrorists of Hamas at first aroused horror throughout the Western world. It took only a few hours, however for the horror to fade -- long before Israel had even begun to respond. Demonstrations against Israel, and in support of the terrorist group, Hamas -- sometimes "cleaned up" to be labeled "pro-Palestinian" -- exploded just hours later on October 8, before hundreds of charred bodies had been removed from their homes. These well-planned and well-funded professional demonstrations, complete with instant Palestinian flags and, later, instant identical tents -- rapidly metastasized throughout North America and Europe.
The slogan, "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free" -- calls for the total destruction of Israel, which, by coincidence, happens to be located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea – and "Death to America" were chanted by tens of thousands of self-described "progressives," Muslims and their followers. The campuses of several American and European universities -- including, among other places, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and New York University -- became sites of acts of pure anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic violence, under the guise of "free speech." If the demonstrations had been against gays or Blacks, does anyone think that "free speech," or violence masquerading as "free speech, would have lasted five minutes? Whatever happened to all those demonstrations against China's genocide of the Uyghurs, or crushing Hong Kong; or Russia's scorched-earth war in Ukraine; or Iran's rape, torture and execution of women, children and, now, rappers, or North Korea's "murder, enslavement, torture, [and] enforced disappearances"?
"Stop Calling Them 'Pro-Palestine' Rallies,'" wrote the Rochester Institute of Technology's A.J. Caschetta. In blunt Australia, euphemisms were dispensed with altogether in favor of "Gas the Jews" and "F---k the Jews."
The whitewash of the terrorist group Hamas had begun. European politicians in France and Belgium, supporting Hamas, call it a "resistance movement."
As Israel's military response in the Gaza Strip progressed -- meticulously crafted to avoid harming Palestinian civilians -- many European leaders turned on Israel. They falsely accused it of acting "disproportionately" while Hamas's widespread use of its own civilians as human shields was almost totally ignored. As Hamas also meticulously plans, the gullible international community accuses Israel of killing innocent civilians, not the Palestinian officials in Gaza who intentionally place them in harm's way, even shooting at them to keep them from fleeing to safety in the south as the Israelis were urging them to do.
Also ignored is that Hamas officials seize virtually all of the free humanitarian aid, then give it to their terrorists or sell it to civilians on the black market for extortionate prices.
Although there is "'no food shortage' in Gaza," several of Israel's most steadfastly hostile critics, such as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, nevertheless falsely accuse Israel of causing a "famine" in Gaza.
As early as March 19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, like so many European political leaders, falsely accused Israel, not Hamas, of "causing a famine" in Gaza. He even added that "100 percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity". Israel is now forced to allow hundreds of trucks into Gaza that Israeli soldiers escort. Gaza, in fact, reportedly receives far more food than the population of Gaza needs. Gee, what could be happening to it?
Soon, all the mainstream European media stopped talking about the horrors of Hamas and instead turned their attention to the suffering Palestinians of Gaza – without noting that the people responsible for their fate and the death count are Hamas. Hamas even freely admits that its strategy is to use human shields. As far as Hamas is concerned, the higher the Palestinian death-count, the better.
The United States has been Israel's main ally for decades, discounting occasional fluctuations here and there. Historically, American leaders' support for Israel has been unwavering – until now. In February, America's Democrat politicians voted to block aid to Israel. As the Israeli author and historian Gadi Taub noted last week:
"The U.S. is holding Israel on a leash by rationing the American-made ammunition on which the war effort depends; it has forced us to supply our enemies with 'humanitarian aid' which Hamas controls and which sustains its ability to fight; the U.S. is building a port to subvert our control of the flow of goods into Gaza; it refrained from vetoing an anti-Israel decision at the U.N. Security Council at the end of March; it leaked its intention to recognize a Palestinian state unilaterally; it allowed Iran to attack us directly with a barrage of over 300 rockets and drones without paying any price whatsoever; and then told us that Israel's successful defense against that strike (which was mostly stopped by a combination of superior Israeli tech and faulty Iranian missiles that crashed all over the Middle East, and to some extent by U.S. interceptors) should be considered "victory"; it consistently protects Hezbollah from a full-fledged Israeli attack; it did all it can to prevent the ground invasion of Rafah, which is necessary for winning the war; it is trying to stop the war with a hostage deal that would ensure Hamas' survival.
"The U.S. is not protecting Israel from the kangaroo courts in The Hague which now threaten to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and others. Instead, it is goosing those warrants, in part by itself threatening to impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, thus subverting the chain of command and pressuring IDF units to comply with American demands rather than with orders from their superiors. "
By now, most mainstream American media are as negative towards Israel as most mainstream European media.
In the days that followed October 7, the Biden administration generously provided arms and ammunition to Israel, as well as positioning several warships in the area, presumably to keep the conflict from spreading. Yet even then, pressure was put on Israel's government. US President Joe Biden bizarrely asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "not to be consumed by rage". Soon, as the Israeli military countered the terrorist threat in Gaza, US pressure on Israel was accompanied by harsh –and curiously public -- criticism.
On January 9, despite unprecedented Israeli precautions to avoid harming civilians, Blinken announced, "the daily toll of war on civilians in Gaza is far too high", and accused the Israeli Defense Forces of "indiscriminate bombing" -- an accusation, as Blinken must have known, that could not have been less accurate.
John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, wrote:
"The Israel Defense Forces conducted an operation at al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip to root out Hamas terrorists recently, once again taking unique precautions as it entered the facility to protect the innocent; Israeli media reported that doctors accompanied the forces to help Palestinian patients if needed. They were also reported to be carrying food, water and medical supplies for the civilians inside
"None of this meant anything to Israel's critics, of course, who immediately pounced. The critics, as usual, didn't call out Hamas for using protected facilities like hospitals for its military activity. Nor did they mention the efforts of the IDF to minimize civilian casualties."
Not only were Blinken's comments untrue, they seemed intended to give arguments to Israel's enemies.
On February 7, Blinken went further and said that the October 7 massacre did not give Israel -- trying to defend itself in a war it did not start -- a "license to dehumanize others." Unfortunately for Blinken, that is the last thing Israel is doing, but the main thing Hamas, Hezbollah, Qatar and Iran are doing.
On February 8, Biden himself said abruptly, "A lot of innocent people are starving. A lot of innocent people are in trouble and dying. And it's got to stop."
All right. If it has "got to stop", why not demand that Hamas, Iran and Qatar stop it?
On March 25, the Biden administration refused to use the American veto and allowed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution, proposed by Algeria, demanding an immediate unilateral ceasefire from Israel -- with no condemnation of Hamas.
On April 4, Blinken tried to create a false moral equivalence between a terrorist group and a liberal democracy by charging that Israel had no reverence for human life and that if Israel did not do more to protect civilians in Gaza, Hamas and Israel could become "indistinguishable". He then cited an old Jewish saying -- that "whoever saves a life, saves the entire world" – contortedly, grotesquely implying that the Israel's attempt to defend its own country and people is in contravention of the values of Judaism itself.
On April 4, according to journalist Barak Ravid:
"President Biden laid out an ultimatum to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their call on Thursday: If Israel doesn't change course in Gaza, 'we won't be able to support you,' he said, according to three sources with knowledge of the call."
According to the Times of Israel:
"During a security cabinet meeting after the call, Netanyahu noted that the White House readout similarly didn't explicitly condition a ceasefire on a hostage deal. It said that Biden told the Israeli premier 'that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians...'"
The Biden administration does not appear ever to have issued the slightest threat, warning or ultimatum to the authors of the war: Hamas, Iran or Qatar. Hamas in Gaza, like the Taliban in Afghanistan, is now most likely seen universally as the tail wagging the American dog.
Although the UN Security Council resolution of March 25 was not binding, any further ceasefire would mean Hamas won the war, simply by surviving to repeat the October 7 attack, time and again, until Israel is annihilated, as Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said.
Hamas, on October 6, 2023, had a ceasefire with Israel. On October 7, Hamas violated it. Hamas did accept a second ceasefire a few weeks into the war and exchanged nearly half the hostages it held. A ceasefire now, especially a "temporary" one that would surely be pressured into becoming permanent, would just enable Hamas to regroup, rearm, and replenish its supply of terrorists from Israeli prisons.
US Senator Chuck Schumer, after declaring himself a friend and defender of Israel, suggested overthrowing Israel's democratically elected prime minister, and -- as if Israel, and not America, were within his jurisdiction -- called for new elections:
"If Prime Minister Netanyahu's current coalition remains in power after the war begins to wind down and continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing US standards for assistance, then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course."
Schumer's speech, yet again putting America's outsized foot in the middle of Israel's domestic policy, and ordering its ally to take direction from the Biden administration -- including accepting a terrorist Palestinian state on its borders -- and effectively disregard what the Israeli people have democratically chosen -- was seen by most in Israel as a vicious blow.
Biden immediately backed Schumer up. "He made a good speech," the president said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland's prime minister. "I think he expressed serious concerns shared not only by him but by many Americans".
Biden, it seems, is frustrated that Netanyahu is objecting to humanitarian aid -- which basically resupplies Hamas. Hamas, Israel's argument goes, released hostages only after unremitting pressure. Relieving that pressure by backing Hamas makes the probability of seeing any more hostages released less likely. Biden is also reportedly frustrated that Netanyahu, for some inexplicable reason, objects to the creation of a terrorist Palestinian state next door.
Hamas would doubtless love as many humanitarian aid workers in Gaza as possible; they would provide Hamas with a fresh batch of human shields to prevent Israel from entering Rafah and removing Hamas's remaining four battalions and terrorist leaders. Hamas is apparently already killing aid workers to steal food. How much better if they could be used to obstruct Israeli soldiers from entering the tunnels where the remaining hostages are believed hidden.
Netanyahu, accused by his adversaries of needing a war to avoid new elections, is being praised by others as "Israel's Churchill." Israelis remember that he was the leader who had the courage to address the US Congress in 2015 to counter President Barack Obama lethal, illegitimate "Iran nuclear deal," officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Netanyahu, who has not been short on courage, either in combat or in refusing to submit to US pressure to go along with the JCPOA -- despite the Obama administration's interference in an Israeli election -- may feel an overriding obligation, as he has said from the beginning, to make sure that Hamas will never again be able to launch another October 7; to take out the terrorist leaders presumed to be concealed in tunnels, as well as the four remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah, and above all, to rescue the hostages -- many of whom may have since been murdered.
Meanwhile in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where anti-government demonstrations began again, one of their leaders, Ami Dror, revealed on social media that the demonstrations and riots are part of a plan by the Biden administration to bring down the Netanyahu government.
The US, according to Gadi Taub, is intent on removing the democratically elected Netanyahu and replacing him with someone more, shall we say, compliant:
"In the eyes of the Biden administration Hamas is the smaller problem. The bigger problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. is willing to live with Iran's proxies everywhere, as part of its "regional integration" policy—i.e., appeasing Iran. But they are unwilling to live with Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition.... Netanyahu clearly does not want to learn from his would-be tutors like U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken how to "share the neighborhood" with genocidaires in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, and Tehran, whom his electorate understands to be bent on murdering them.
"If the Netanyahu problem is too big to contain, then it follows that it must be solved. And it seems that the Biden administration has zeroed in on...finding a local proxy who will impose the U.S. agenda on a reluctant Israeli electorate.....According to the leaders of the Never-Bibi demonstrators, the White House is in constant touch with them for coordination."
The US State Department has, for more than a year, been providing financial support for protests hostile to the Netanyahu government. They took place every week in Israel for three quarters of 2023, and were accompanied by Israeli military reservists proclaiming that they would refuse to serve -- a vow that no doubt helped to invite Hamas's October 7 invasion.
One cannot leave aside that the Biden administration, through ignoring sanctions on Iranian oil, has allowed the Iran's regime to earn up to an estimated $100 billion. Some of these funds were most likely used by the mullahs to finance their own militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in addition to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi militias, and of course to accelerate Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Without those funds, the massacre of October 7 would not have been possible, Hezbollah would not have been able to fire so many missiles into Israel from Lebanon, and Iran itself would not have been able to launch more than 300 drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in April, and to attack US troops more than 150 times on, just since October 7, 2023 -- evidently in an attempt to drive the US out of the Middle East.
The Biden administration, it seems, does not want a definitive end of the conflict -- as with Ukraine as well -- especially if the end would entail the defeat of Hamas or Russia. Hamas is a protégé of Qatar and Iran, the world's two leading state sponsors of terrorism. The Biden administration has been rewarding them -- Iran with money and Qatar with renewing its protection by Al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of America's CENTCOM, as well as controlling the new terror pier the US has built in Gaza At the same time, the Biden administration is falsely accusing Israel of violating human rights.
As the great historian Bernard Lewis wrote, "America is harmless as an enemy but treacherous as a friend."
The Biden administration may even be complicit in the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that might be issued by the International Criminal Court – possibly as a way to dispense with him. So far at least, the US administration has not lifted a finger to stop it.
Without the billions of dollars the Biden administration bestowed on Iran through sanctions waivers, the situation for Israel -- and the stability and security of the entire region, including that of the United States -- would have been quite different.
On April 1, a strike attributed to Israel destroyed a building defined as an annex of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus and eliminated seven members of the Quds Force, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who had reportedly been directing hostile operations in Israel. Once an embassy – or a school or a mosque or a church – is used to engage in military operations, it loses its status as a site that is officially "protected". Iran blamed Israel and vowed retaliation. US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said that the Biden administration had "no involvement or advanced knowledge" in the attack, but he did not condemn Iran's threats to Israel.
A report in the Jerusalem Post noted that Iran informed Turkey of its desire to strike Israel and that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in turn, informed the Biden administration. The Biden administration the report adds, asked that the Iranians remain "within certain limits" –implying that the Biden administration accepted Iran's attack on Israel, the same way he implied that he would accept a "minor incursion" into Ukraine by Russia.
On April 13, Iran in fact launched a massive strike against Israel: 300 attack drones and ballistic missiles launched at a country smaller than New Jersey. Sadly, a 7-year-old Bedouin girl was wounded. Fortunately, apart from that, not much damage was done. American, British, Jordanian and Saudi militaries helped as well.
Biden then told Israel to "take the win" -- not to retaliate and risk escalating the conflict. He warned that that the US would not help in any military offensive against Iran. Thwarting an attack, however is not the same as a "win", and certainty does not prevent an aggressor from trying again.
Israel's subsequent strikes nevertheless revealed that if Israel decided to strike Iran's nuclear facilities near Isfahan, they could be hit. Iran seems eager not to have strikes on its territory; presumably that is why it has proxies in the first place -- to launch attacks so that any retaliation will have to be absorbed by them, not Iran. The mullahs are, in effect, using their proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and so on -- as their "human shields".
"What happened last night [in Isfahan]", Iranian FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian nevertheless insisted "was not a strike".
The Biden administration has placed the existence of Israel in danger to protect Biden from the dangerous voters of Michigan.
When Israel shows unshakable determination, noted the American journalist Jonathan Tobin, Israel is respected. He recommended, Israel should fight without wavering. It is because Israel appears invincible, he stated, that its enemies do not attack it; Israel must reestablish its invincibility.
Another American journalist, Matthew Continetti, wrote:
"The political heroes of this moment are the men and women who have retained the ability to make clear distinctions ... between freedom, equality, and the rule of law and violence, terror, and fear".
Continetti emphasized the need for "moral clarity". What is threatened in the Middle East today, he wrote, are the values of our civilization."[T]he fate of our society, our nation, and our civilization depends on Israeli victory."
It is to be hoped that the Biden administration, which, right after October 7 had been supportive of Israel, will regain its moral clarity.
"There is no way to describe Biden's actions except as a complete betrayal of Israel", wrote political commentator Eric Levine. In a devastating about-face, presumably aimed at the voters of Michigan, the Biden administration is "delaying" precision-guided weapons to Israel. The irony, of course, is that after the Biden administration complained to Israel that its attacks were "indiscriminate", it is actually forcing Israel to be indiscriminate, and then will presumably blame Israel.
Worse, with the Biden administration now having come down squarely against Israel and on the side of Iran, Qatar and Hamas, they have to feel no inclination to agree to anything. Why should they? Iran's mullahs have a new proxy, the United States, backing their terrorism for them.
Even worse, at almost the same time as the US told Israel it was withholding arms shipments that Congress had already approved (a move for which Democrats tried to impeach then President Donald Trump), the Biden administration waived sanctions for arms purchases by Lebanon, Qatar and Iraq -- countries that host groups working to destroy Israel.
Worst of all, if you are Ukraine, Taiwan, China, Russia, Japan – just about any US ally or foe -- you probably cannot avoid thinking something like: We have watched the supposedly mighty US surrender Afghanistan, its ally of 20 years, to a bunch of terrorists, the Taliban. Now we are watching the US surrender its closest ally in the Middle East, Israel, the only democracy there, to terrorists: to Hezbollah in Lebanon with 150,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel, and to Hamas in Gaza by sending "humanitarian aid," that will used by terrorists.
Israel, meanwhile, surrounded by a terrorist "ring of fire", is fighting for its existence.
Even some Democrats, such as US Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), are telling the Biden administration:
"Innocent Israelis were the victims of a terrorist attack... We must support Israel in their efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children. Hamas does not want peace, they want to destroy Israel. We can talk about a ceasefire after Hamas is neutralized."
The Biden administration has failed to counter attacks on Israel by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court -- all prosecuting Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel Defense Forces officials for alleged but unsubstantiated "war crimes". Israel and the US are not even affiliated with the ICC . Where are any prosecutions or sanctions by the UN and international courts for war crimes and human rights violations on countries such as Qatar (here and here), China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen and Sudan?
The Biden administration was even considering placing unprecedented sanctions on units in the Israel Defense Forces, based on unfounded allegations coming from an anti-Israel non-governmental organization, DAWN, "Democracy for the Arab World Now." According to the meticulous NGO Monitor:
"[A] number of DAWN officials, including board members, have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and have voiced support for the Hamas terrorist group. According to the NGO, 'Many of DAWN's donors remain anonymous'; however, NGO Monitor was able to identify the sources for approximately 44% of DAWN's 2022 income, including from Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Arca Foundation."
The Biden administration also does not even try to cut the funding used for the murder-for-hire program, run the Palestinian Authority and its President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinians are incentivized to murder or attempt to murder Jews by being rewarded with a salary for life, as well as an apparently supra-official promise of Paradise.
Currently, the Biden administration appears to want three things: Netanyahu OUT – reportedly to be replaced by a puppet who will do whatever the US tells him; a terrorist Palestinian state IN, and to preserve Iran and Qatar's client, the terrorist group, Hamas. So far, all the pressure from Washington has been on Israel, none at all on Hamas or on its patrons, Qatar and Iran. The fighting could indeed stop tomorrow if either of them or the US seriously ordered Hamas to stop fighting and immediately return the 132 remaining hostages.
Did the Biden Administration even ask?
Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
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