| The Biden administration, in its attempts to please both Israel supporters and anti-Zionists in the coming elections, has twisted its messages into a bizarre contradiction. Team Biden-Harris, in essence, asserts, “We support Israel 100%, but on the other hand . . . we must protect Hamas.”
Vice President Kamala Harris exemplified this hypocrisy last week after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when she claimed, “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Literally in the next breath, she demanded an immediate ceasefire to the war in Gaza.
President Biden repeated the hypocrisy to Netanyahu following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, demanding that Israel “stop escalating tensions in the region” and “move immediately toward a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.” In other words, stop attacking terrorist leaders—who refuse to release any hostages—and stop defending yourself.
But Israel must destroy Hamas to eliminate the existential threat the group presents to its citizens. Israel must likewise show Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran that attempts to destroy the Jewish state will unequivocally meet with disaster. Frivolous calls for a ceasefire mock that goal.
Unfortunately, the Biden-Harris hypocrisy goes beyond words. For months, the administration has been obstructing Israel from destroying Hamas by trying to prevent the IDF from entering Rafah and withholding vital weapons shipments. Following the massacre of 12 Israeli-Arab children by a Hezbollah rocket barrage, Mr. Biden strangely warned Israel not to strike Beirut.
To justify tying Israel’s hands in Gaza, Team Biden-Harris promotes lies used by Hamas against the Jewish state, repeating false reports of famine in Gaza and “excessive” civilian casualties. But using Hamas propaganda to support its calls for an immediate ceasefire only emboldens the terror group—making them believe they can wait Israel out until the “international community” forces the Jews to end the war.
Conversely, many analysts believe it is precisely Israel’s continued military pressure that extracted concessions from Hamas, especially the deal that led to liberation of more than 100 hostages. Any ceasefire absent an agreement to free the remaining hostages would be scandalous appeasement.
Team Biden-Harris’s real motives for pressuring Israel into a ceasefire—essentially handing victory to Hamas—have nothing to do with Palestinian suffering and everything to do with mollifying Iran and winning over American ultra-left voters.
Tragically, this confused strategy runs counter to core American interests in the region. Israel’s effectiveness in defeating Hamas—as well as fighting back against Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran itself—ultimately serves the United States. Israel’s military success means greater stability in the Middle East, fewer American boots on the ground and a reduced Iranian nuclear threat.
Israel’s right to defend itself means destroying Hamas. Hamas has proven itself capable of recovering and becoming even deadlier. Over the course of two decades, the group has gone from launching primitive, homemade rockets into Israeli communities on the Gaza border to launching more powerful projectiles all the way to Tel Aviv. Simultaneously, they’ve gone from a ragtag band of terrorists to a full-fledged army.
Hamas has broken several ceasefires and will surely do so again if it is not destroyed. In the words of a Hamas official, October 7th was “just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth.” To prevent this and ensure Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel’s citizens, Hamas must be annihilated.
Team Biden-Harris has tried to prevent Israel from destroying Hamas. The White House openly tried to stop Israel from invading Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold. Biden even told CNN, “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons.” Thus, the administration halted a shipment of bombs to Israel. But they haven’t stopped there. According to Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the U.S. is withholding at least seven weapons systems from Israel.
Biden and company repeat Hamas lies to justify their calls for a ceasefire. Indeed, Vice President Harris spoke of “acute food insecurity” in Gaza. Nonsense. Gaza markets are overflowing with goods, and the has UN debunked rumors of famine. The White House also berates Israel for causing “excessive” civilian casualties, even though Israel has maintained a record-low civilian-to-combatant ratio of 1.5 to 1.
Meanwhile, the administration and the pro-Hamas left ignore a genuine humanitarian disaster in Sudan, where more than three million children are acutely malnourished, and a quarter million more are likely to die in the coming months.
Only continued military pressure will force Hamas into concessions that will end the conflict sooner. In fact, the reason Hamas recently dropped its demand that any ceasefire include an Israeli commitment to end the war is because of Israel’s assault on Rafah, which decimated the terrorist group. Recent internal communications seen by the Associated Press—messages signed by senior Hamas figures in Gaza—futilely urged the group’s exiled political leadership to accept the Biden ceasefire proposal, citing heavy losses on the battlefield.
The White House’s real motives for restraining Israel are appeasing Iran and appealing to ultra-left voters. The New York Times reported last March that direct negotiations were taking place between Washington and Tehran over a deal in which the U.S. would pressure Israel for a ceasefire that would save Iran’s Gaza proxy Hamas in return for stopping Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. Biden also tried to prevent Israel from retaliating against Iran following Iran’s direct attack on Israel in mid-April, warning Netanyahu, “If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own.”
The administration additionally wants to please pro-Palestinian voters, whom they believe are key to winning swing states like Michigan for presidential-hopeful Harris in November.
Biden and company believe appeasement will convince Iran and its proxies not to pursue their ultimate goal of hegemony in the Middle East, just as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain falsely and catastrophically believed appeasement would convince Hitler’s Nazi Germany not to pursue the conquest of Europe.
Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that as U.S. elections loom, it becomes ever clearer: Pro-Israel voters need to elect candidates who genuinely support—in word and deed—Israel’s right to defeat the jihadists who threaten both the Jewish state and the United States.
If you agree we need to spread this truth, please use your email browser to forward this Hotline issue to fellow lovers of Israel—and encourage them to join us by subscribing to the Hotline at no charge.
Best regards,
Jason Shvili, Contributing Editor
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)
P.S. The riots, vandalism and illegal trespassing on American college campuses have
sharpened the knives of the Israel haters. It’s become clear that the “pro-Palestinian” protesters are purely anti-Israel and support the genocide of Jews “between the river and the sea.” Scandalously, we’ve also seen hard evidence that university administrators are willing to ignore or openly support the antisemitic hate speech and harassment of Jewish students—though they would never permit such behavior against other minorities. I hope you’ll agree that we supporters of Jewish students and hate-free campuses need to speak out. FLAME’s new hasbarah—explanatory message—“Stop Terrorism on Campus”—calls for four actions to eliminate campus outlaws and to restore rights to all students. Please review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME recently published in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Tampa Bay Times, Denver Post and Mercury News. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, Vice President Harris and President Biden. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel’s behalf is critical, I urge you to support us with a donation.
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