In 2021, President Joe Biden appointed Maher Bitar, a former anti-Israeli activist of Palestinian descent who has hosted conferences praising Islamic terrorism, as senior director of intelligence on the National Security Council (NSC).
In January 2024, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan relocated Bitar to a new position on the council, where he now serves as deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for intelligence and defense policy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Wednesday, 15 May 2024) [translated from Hebrew]:
“Yesterday, on Independence Day, I visited our wounded heroic soldiers who are undergoing rehabilitation in hospital. I left with tears in my eyes but my soul was greatly uplifted. Our heroes told me two things: First, ‘continue to the end – until victory.’ The second: “We want to complete rehabilitation and return to our friends who are fighting.’ Unfortunately, not all of them will be able to do so. Together with you, I pray for their recovery. Thanks to these heroes, thanks to this tremendous spirit, we are here in our country. I promised them that we would do everything in order to fight until total victory.
Our forces are fighting throughout the Gaza Strip – in Jabaliya, Zeitoun and Rafah. We are doing this even as the civilian population is being evacuated and while fulfilling our obligation to its humanitarian needs. Our latest efforts are bearing fruit. As of now, in Rafah, almost half a million people have been evacuated from the areas of fighting. The humanitarian catastrophe that has been spoken of has not been realized, nor will it.
Eliminating Hamas is an essential step in order to ensure that on ‘the day after’ there will be no element in Gaza that can threaten us. One hundred days ago I directed the security echelon to allow local Gazans, who are not identified with Hamas, to be integrated into the civilian management of food allocation in Gaza. This attempt has not been successful because Hamas has threatened them and even hurt some of them in order to deter others.
Until it is clear that Hamas does not control Gaza militarily, nobody will be prepared to take upon himself the civil management of Gaza out of fear for their lives. Therefore, all the talk about ‘the day after’, while Hamas stays remains intact, will remain mere words devoid of content. Contrary to what is being claimed, for months we have been engaged in various efforts to resolve this complex problem. Some of the efforts are covert and it is good that this is so. This is one of the objectives of the war that we have defined and we are determined to achieve it as well.
In any case, there is no alternative to for military victory. The attempt to bypass it with this or that claim is simply detached from reality. There is one alternative to victory – defeat, military, diplomatic and national defeat. My government will not agree to this.
Today, the Government stated its opposition to last week’s UN decision to advance recognition of a Palestinian state. We will not reward the terrible massacre of October 7, which 80% of the Palestinians support, both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria. We will not allow them to establish a terrorist state from which they will be able to vigorously attack us.
Nobody will prevent us, prevent Israel, from realizing our basic right to self-defense – not the UN General assembly or any other body. We will stand together with our head held high to defend our country.
Together we will fight and with G-d’s help – together we will win.”
During IDF operational activity in eastern Rafah on Saturday, terrorists were identified in UNRWA’s central logistics compound alongside UN vehicles.
In the footage, a number of terrorists and gunfire can be seen near UN vehicles and in the area of UNRWA’s logistics warehouse compound in eastern Rafah, which is a central point for the distribution of aid on UNRWA’s behalf in the Gaza Strip.
Following the event, representatives of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) conveyed the findings to senior officials in the international community and called on the UN to conduct an urgent investigation into the matter.
In addition, COGAT representatives warned the UN against the presence of terrorists in the area, and the seriousness of the danger that exists in the presence of the terrorists in the logistics center compound with regard to the continued protection of the organization’s facilities.
The IDF stated that it “will continue to act in accordance with international law to distribute aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip.”
Israel Foreign Minister Israel Katz said following the publication of the video showing the terrorists in the UN compound: “Hamas terrorists firing at civilians from within a UNRWA facility next to UN vehicles in Rafah.”
“No lie from Guterres and Lazzarini will hide the truth: UNRWA is an arm of the terrorist organization Hamas. Lazzarini must resign!” Katz said.
Based on IDF and ISA intelligence, the IAF carried out a precise strike on a central Hamas war room embedded inside a UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat. The war room was used by terrorist operatives in Hamas’ military wing. The strike was carried out using precise munitions in order to minimize harm to uninvolved civilians.
The Hamas war room had been used by the terrorist organization to plan multiple attacks against IDF troops in central Gaza in recent weeks. The Nukhba terrorists situated inside the war room took part in the October 7th Massacre and carried out ambushes and attacks on IDF troops in the Gaza Strip. In the IAF strike, approximately 15 operatives from terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip were eliminated, more than 10 of which were part of Hamas.
“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically exploits the civilian population and institutions as human shields for their terrorist activities against the State of Israel.,” the IDF stated.
Earlier Tuesday, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired at least three rockets at Sderot during a rally and march by tens of thousands of Israelis calling for victory in Gaza and the restoration of Jewish settlement in the Strip.
The marchers arrived in Sderot by buses and private vehicles from across the country. The organizers emphasized that the march wass coordinated with the security forces and has received all necessary security approvals.
Among the participants in the march were bereaved families who have lost their loved ones in the defense of the settlements around Gaza and in fighting during the Swords of Iron war, ministers, rabbis, Knesset members, public figures, residents of the Gaza region, and soldiers who participated in battles. The bereaved families also called for the public to join the march.
Under de senaste 15 åren har jag, som undersökande reporter, haft den unika möjligheten att dokumentera vid UNRWA:s sommarläger. Med hjälp av tre arabiska journalister och tre judiska journalister som alla har en djup förståelse för den arabiska kulturen har min uppgift varit att dela de oroande realiteter som jag sett sedan jag först började bevaka UNRWA 1987.
Varje sommar ägnar barnen i UNRWA:s läger sig åt simuleringar som skildrar det våld som de tror är nödvändigt för att ”återvända till Palestina”. De så kallade ”roliga spelen” kretsar kring att förbereda sig för det kommande kriget för att ”befria Palestina”.
Chockerande nog utövar barnen på UNRWA:s sommarläger aktiviteter som att kidnappa soldater, bränna IDF-fordon och hantera autentiska vapen.
Det är oroande att bevittna simuleringslekarna som barnen lärt sig i dessa läger. Detta är nu alltför verkliga, särskilt med tanke på händelserna den 7 oktober, då tusentals hetsande arabiska ungdomar invaderade Israel och Negev.
Bevisen pekar på att UNRWA styr kriget, med Hamas som agent.
Den 1 augusti 2000 antog UNRWA formellt den palestinska myndighetens läroplan för ”rätt att återvända” . Nu har den omvandlat den till ”rätten att återvända med vapenmakt,” vilket bevittnades den 7 oktober 2023.
Förvånande nog kräver inte en enda nation att en sådan dödlig läroplan tas bort och den 1 juli 2024 kommer UNRWA att genomföra samma våldsamma sommarläger med de arabiska flyktingar som bor i UNRWA:s läger i Judéen, Samarien, Gaza och Jerusalem.
Under dessa sju månader av väpnad konfrontation efter Hamas anfallskrig har IDF upptäckt mängder av vapenarsenaler i UNRWA:s skolor och sjukvårdsinrättningar.
Vi har nu förberett en 15 minuter sammanställning av UNRWA:s sommarläger filmer och kommer att presentera budskapet för Knesset och ambassaderna i länder som donerar till UNRWA:s budget med 1,6 miljarder dollar. Filmerna som dokumenterats under åren vid UNRWA:s sommarläger kommer att vara en värdefull resurs för de utredare som undersöker händelserna vid anfallet mot Israel den 7 oktober.
Den förbryllande frågan är:
Hur är det möjligt att ingen verkade veta att UNRWA använde sina sommarläger för att träna arméer av ungdomar för gerillakrigföring med totalt uppror?
Det är dags att sammanställa och avslöja hur UNRWA:s anläggningar förvandlats till arsenaler.
Det är dags att se över UNRWA:s läroplan ännu en gång och begära att graffiti målningarna med uppmaningar till mord och attentat runt UNRWA:s skolor omedelbart tas bort.
Det är dags att dela alla bevisen på vapen i UNRWA:s skolor .
Innan detta års UNRWA:s sommarläger börjar!
Washington, D.C. – House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (R-CA), joined by Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK), State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), and Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee Chairman David Joyce (R-OH), today released the Israel Security Assistance Support Act to support our great ally and U.S. national security. The legislation curbs President Biden’s misguided efforts to withhold critical security resources appropriated in U.S. law by compelling the delivery of defense weapons to Israel as they fight to protect themselves against radical terrorists.
The Members said, “Unlike the Administration, House Appropriators will not waver in our ironclad support for Israel. The House and Senate acted on the will of the people, overwhelmingly providing Israel with the firepower to send a message: the U.S. and our allies will not cower to terrorist organizations like Hamas. The Administration is expected to utilize the very aid it requested to equip Israel with what it needs to defend itself, destroy Hamas, and maintain peace in the region. Any actions to withhold resources impede our national and global security and send a dangerous signal that the U.S. cannot be counted on as a partner. We demand the Administration fulfill our commitment to our great ally in the Middle East, especially so in this serious time of need.”
The Israel Security Assistance Support Act:
At a time when Israel is facing increased attacks, including the imprisonment of their citizens and Americans by Hamas terrorists—alongside the rise of other global threats, antisemitism, and campus demonstrations around the U.S. that have empowered anti-Jewish aggression—this bill is a vital step in standing with our allies and supporting the U.S.-Israel alliance.
Contact: Alexia Sikora, Alex Attebery, (202) 225-2771
Political leaders make policy based on their perceptions, not those of others. Americans/Westerners tend to believe that people who speak good English think like Americans. They don’t. Even worse, some of the West’s worst enemies speak superb English; they use this skill against us. We ignore this fact at our peril.
Javad Zarif, Iran’s then-foreign minister, bamboozled then-President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry into submitting to Iran’s demands in what began the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) —which was, in essence, American submission to Iran’s will. Zarif bragged about this in his tell-all book in Persian.
We cannot understand the attack on Iran’s senior IRGC leaders in Damascus on April 1, 2024, which many attribute to Israel, and the subsequent Iranian attack on Israel without taking the above into account.
Iranians constantly worry about a “Grand Conspiracy” (in Persian Tote-e-ye Bozorg) against them and their country. The events of the past few weeks fit perfectly into this mindset.
The Iranians ask: How did Israel know precisely when and where to eliminate Iran’s senior IRGC leadership in Syria and Lebanon?
Iranians reason: it was their erstwhile Alawite allies in Syria who run the country, i.e., President Assad.
How does Iran know this? Because the Alawites, though an offshoot of Shiism, aren’t truly allies because, while they both share the belief in the centrality of Muhammad’s cousin Ali as the central figure of their respective religions, Alawites see Ali as a god, which is anathema to Shiism. So, in the end, no matter how close they are as allies against the Sunnis, the Shiites have long suspected them as unreliable.
The Iranians reason: Assad’s people knew which Iranians were there. And Assad has been somewhat “unreliable” lately. How did Israel “get to them? Did Assad change sides?”
In the 1930s and early ‘40s, Alawite leaders often saw the Jews in Palestine as an ally against the Sunnis, who then ruled Syria and were the largest group in British Palestine. Assad’s great-grandfather was one of seven Alawite leaders who signed a letter to the French rulers of Syria asking them to set up an independent Alawite State in Syria. In the letter,1 they cite the way the Sunnis were treating the Jews in Palestine as the way the Sunnis treated the Alawites in Syria. One of those Alawite leaders who signed this was the great-grandfather of Bashar Assad, the present leader of Syria.
(See below: The actual documents where the Alawites compare their situation to the Jews under Sunni/Muslim rule.)
So now, “behind the curtain (posht-e pardeh),” as they say in Persian, this supposedly “proves” the Alawite-Jewish/Israel connection.
Let’s continue the reasoning: How did? That is a miracle, even by scientific standards! Does this mean that Allah is against them? If so, what is Iran doing wrong? We have heard multiple answers to this question.
One more interesting suggestion from Iranians is that the leadership feels pushed into the corner. This fact plays into the hands of one of the ruling factions in Iran, which believes that if they provoke a conflagration with the Jews, then their Mahdi (Messiah) would come down and save them. The late Professor Bernard Lewis used to say, for them, a conflagration was an incentive, not a deterrent.
Others within the Iran regime fear an Israeli attack and do NOT want to go for broke.
But what concerned the Iranian regime even more was that Israel’s fantastic success deeply humiliated the Iranian government.
After Israel’s strike, graffiti began appearing on the streets in Iran. Though we don’t know how widespread it was, we know that the Iranian people were emboldened because they scribbled on walls asking Israel to continue striking. “You (i.e., Israel) go after the regime, and we will go out into the streets (and do the rest.)”
To complicate matters further, we have been hearing from many people in the Arab world and Iranians that there are now two opposing alliances in the Middle East:
Why do more and more Middle Easterners believe this? Because the American administration is putting massive pressure on the Israelis NOT to attack Iran’s allies – i.e., not to go into Rafah in the Gaza Strip and destroy Iran’s Hamas ally, not to go after Hizbullah, the Iranian’s fifth column in Lebanon, and, of course, not to attack Iran.
From the Iranian perspective, this “proves” that their view of the American-Iran alliance vs. Israel makes perfect sense.
From both an Iranian and Sunni Arab perspective, the American administration has shown that it is doing everything it can to strengthen the Iranian regime at the expense of America’s supposed ally Israel, America’s supposed Arab Sunni Allies, and finally, against the Iranian people.
Absurd? Certainly, from a Western point of view!
But it makes perfect sense to Middle Easterners.
Dear friends and colleagues,
2. I am offering to speak to your congregation or organization in person or via Zoom. There is so much to hear and learn about Israel and the Middle East especially at this time and I am available to speak in person or via Zoom to your audience. List of suggested topics – below.
Dr. Mordechai Kedar
Researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University
NEWSRAEL’s vice president
Kedar@newsrael.com
Phone and WhatsApp in Israel: +972-54-477-8908
List of suggested topics
Understanding Arab and Muslim Culture
1.The roots of Anti-Semitism in Islam. Why are Muslims taught to hate Jews?
2.What is the struggle over Jerusalem all about?
3.Islam – A religion at war, Sunnis vs Shi’is.
4.Islamic Radicalism – Causes, ideology, and ways to face it.
5.The Right of Return: Jews vs Muslims
6.The Other Voices in the Muslim World – My personal experience.
Israel Today
1.What are the origins of the Hamas-Israel conflict?
2.Who is Hamas? What do they really want?
3.What is the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah?
4.Can the “two state solution” resolve the conflict between the Arabs and Israel?
General Issues:
Israeli Issues:
Israel and its neighbors
2. Israel in 2024: Achievements and Challenges
3. Challenges and Opportunities in a Changing Middle East
4. Different views of peace in the Middle East
5. The challenges the world is facing from Iran – what motivates the Ayatollahs?
Jewish Topics
Sefer Bereshis – A view through the looking glass of the Middle Eastern culture
For the past 15 years, as a community organizer turned investigative reporter, I have held the unique position of running the sole agency which documents UNRWA summer camps . Assisted by three Arab journalists and three Jewish journalists with a deep understanding of Arab culture, my task has been to share the unsettling realities witnessed since I first covered UNRWA in 1987.
Each summer, the UNRWA camps engage in simulations depicting the violence they believe is necessary for claiming and “returning to Palestine.” The so-called “fun games” revolve around preparing for the perceived war to “liberate Palestine”.
Shockingly, children at UNRWA summer camps practice activities such as kidnapping soldiers, burning IDF vehicles, and handling short-lived weapons.
Having now prepared a compilation of UNRWA summer camp footage, we will present it to the Knesset and the embassies of countries that donate to the $1.6 billion UNRWA budget.
It is disturbing to witness the simulation games the children learned at these camps which now seem all too real, especially given the events of October 7, when thousands of incited Arab youngsters invaded the Negev.
While most journalists find joy in their achievements, my scoop brings little pleasure. The evidence points to UNRWA directing the war, with Hamas acting as the agent. The films and footage captured at UNRWA summer camps will serve as a valuable resource for generations of investigators examining the events of October 7 that caught the world by surprise.
The perplexing question arises is: How is it possible that no one seemed to know that UNRWA used its summer camps to train an army of young people for guerrilla warfare aimed at total insurrection?
On August 1, 2000, UNRWA formally adopted the “right of return” curriculum of the Palestinian Authority. Now, it has transformed it into the “right of return” by force of arms, as witnessed on October 7, 2023. Astonishingly, not a single nation calls for the removal of such a lethal curriculum.
And on July 1, 2024, UNRWA will conduct these same violent prone summer camps for descendants of Arab refugees who live in UNRWA camps in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem.
Throughout these seven months of armed confrontation, the IDF has discovered arsenals of weapons in the UNRWA schools and medical facilities.
This is the time to compile how UNRWA facilities were transformed into arsenals, before the UNRWA summer camps commence. This is the time to review the UNRWA curriculum once again and to ask for the removal of the murder murals around the UNRWA schools and to share the evidence of weapons in the UNRWA schools, before the UNRWA summer camps commence.
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.
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 antisemitism
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.
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