President Biden has demanded that Israel unilaterally declare a cease-fire in the Gaza strip, threatening that he would cut off military aid to Israel if Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t comply.
Hamas has been winning the media war since October 7. One of its most transparent tactics has been exaggerating civilian casualties.
And he is apparently getting his way. Israeli forces withdrew from Southern Gaza on Sunday but left open the possibility of a future invasion of the city of Rafah where Hamas leaders, and about two battalions of Hamas terrorists, are located. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Buying the Bridge)
Biden made his demand in a April 4 telephone call with Netanyahu after a April 1 Israeli drone strike accidentally killed seven aid workers in the Gaza Strip who had been working for the “World Central Kitchen” (WCK) group.
Biden also ordered Netanyahu to take immediate steps, “to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers” and “made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”
This, as we shall demonstrate here, is a morally bankrupt position that has shattered our 76-year alliance with Israel.
NSC Spokesman John Kirby admitted a day after the WCK accident, that the State Department had, “not found any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law.”
It is morally wrong to contend otherwise in absence of evidence.
Moreover, within a day of the WCK accident, Israeli officials admitted responsibility for the incident and began an investigation of it.
Start at the beginning. Israel ended its occupation of the Gaza Strip in 2005. That began a cease-fire that was regularly broken by Hamas. In the nineteen years since, Hamas terrorists have been launching rockets into Israel, targeting Israeli civilians.
Hamas accepted billions in “aid” over the years with which they could have turned Gaza into something like Miami Beach. But they didn’t. The money was spent on digging tunnels into Israel, gathering arms and entrenching positions in and under civilian hospitals and schools, preparing to use those buildings and their non-combatant people as human shields.
Any use of hospitals or human shields is a war crime. Hamas commits such actions regularly.
And then came the October 7 attack.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas attacked from the Gaza Strip, murdering at least 1,200 Israelis and taking over 240 hostages back to Gaza. Intentionally targeting civilians and hostage-taking are war crimes.
Hamas used rape and torture as its primary tactics, also war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. The idiots at the “Reynolds Journalism Institute” at the Missouri School of Journalism awarded a “photo of the year” trophy to an AP photographer whose shot pictured the half-naked dead body of an Israeli girl, 22-year old Shani Louk, being driven around Gaza in a pickup truck accompanied by celebrating Hamas members.
Since October 7, Biden has been trying to restrain Israel’s response. Netanyahu delayed Israel’s attack on Gaza for weeks, trying to gain Biden’s support.
Keep in mind that NSC Spokesman John Kirby admitted a day after the WCK accident, that the State Department had, “not found any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law.” (READ MORE: The Coming Ramadan War)
It is morally wrong to contend otherwise in absence of evidence.
In their April 4 telephone conversation, Biden demanded an immediate — and apparently unilateral — cease-fire by Israel. He also demanded that Netanyahu empower his negotiators to conclude a deal that would bring the remaining Hamas hostages home.
Biden’s demand was made in ignorance of the facts. Netanyahu has said, about a dozen times, that all Hamas has to do to obtain a long-term cease-fire is to release the hostages. Hamas refuses to do so.
By making those demands, Biden is making Israel’s negotiation position vastly weaker. Hamas, according to Saturday reports, demands not only a cease fire but total Israeli withdrawal and release of convicted terrorists from Israeli jails. On Saturday, it threatened to withdraw from talks unless Israel accommodates all of its demands.
Thousands of Israeli citizens are demonstrating against Netanyahu, demanding he obtain release of the remaining hostages who number about 130, including five Americans.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken said that Israel is risking becoming indistinguishable from Hamas. He said, “Democracies place the highest value on human life, every human life …That’s our strength. It’s what distinguishes us from terrorists like Hamas. If we lose that reverence for human life, we risk becoming indistinguishable from those we confront.”
For Blinken to insinuate that Israel and Hamas are comparable in any way is intellectually corrupt and morally wrong.
Let’s not forget that Biden is making no demands on Hamas. Or Iran, for which he has twice waived sanctions so that they can be enriched by Iraq purchasing electricity from them. The latest sanctions waiver enriched Iran by about $6 billion.
Biden appeases the terrorists and their backers. He beats up on Israel because they are dependent on U.S. military assistance.
Hamas has been winning the media war since October 7. One of its most transparent tactics has been exaggerating civilian casualties.
On April 5, National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby said that Israel hasn’t fulfilled its duty to protect civilians and allow humanitarian assistance. He added, “We have tens of thousands of dead and injured Palestinians. Now, some of them are Hamas, no question about that. But the toll’s just been too high.”
Hamas claims that more than thirty thousand non-combatants have been killed, mostly women and children. That’s obviously inconsistent with the facts but perfectly consistent with Hamas disinformation in previous conflicts with Israel.
Israel claims to have killed more than ten thousand Hamas terrorists. For the Biden administration to use Hamas’s numbers without distinguishing between Hamas terrorists killed and innocent civilians is absurd and outrageous.
And morally wrong.
In our twenty-year war in Afghanistan, I’m sure that at least a dozen incidents occurred that were as bad or worse than the Israeli accidental strike on the WCK workers. Some probably involved our allies.
The Afghanistan incident that’s gained the most attention in comparison with the Israeli WCK incident is the U.S. drone strike that happened during the Biden-designed debacle in withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan.
In that incident, at least ten innocent people were killed. They had been mistakenly identified as terrorists.
None of the U.S. officers and troops responsible for that drone strike were ever held accountable. Israel has, so far, fired two officers and three others have been reprimanded for the WCK incident. And their investigation continues. (READ MORE: Biden Blackmails Israel)
How does that compare morally with our total lack of accountability?
The media insists that Israel is imposing a famine in Gaza. But that’s false as well. The price of food has reportedly dropped in Gaza, indicating no shortage of food.
Everyone should read the New York Post piece by John Spencer which is the best and most detailed explanation I’ve seen about how Israel is conducting urban warfare in the Gaza Strip.
Spencer recounts that Israeli forces have been doing things unheard of in modern warfare such as sending text messages, making phone calls and dropping loudspeakers to warn people of impending military action. The Israelis have been giving the Palestinians maps showing safe evacuation routes and more.
As Spencer writes, Israel’s week-long attack on the Al Shifa hospital netted hundreds of terrorists killed and captured while, at the same time, the hospital was operating with Israeli doctors helping treat the sick and wounded.
There has never been a better or more thorough effort to protect civilians in a war zone.
What else does Biden believe the Israelis should do?
The Israelis have, according to Sunday morning reports, bowed to Biden’s demands and withdrawn from Southern Gaza. This is an enormous mistake for many reasons not the least of which is that Biden’s pressure on them will now increase in his attempt to keep them from taking out Hamas’s last stronghold in Rafah.
Because of Biden’s moral blindness, Hamas and its leaders will survive. Iran will keep funding and rearming them. Hamas will retake power in Gaza and begin planning their next version of the October 7 attack.
If and when that attack occurs, it will be Biden’s legacy.
