Just whose side is President Biden on? That’s the question that has to be asked after President Biden’s conduct over the past week.
Biden and his minions have been pressuring the Israelis for weeks now, seeking their consent to a deal that would grant Hamas terrorists an extended cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and possibly — only possibly — lead to the release of the more than one hundred hostages Hamas holds, among them several Americans. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Biden’s Random Bombings)
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has rejected all of Biden’s peace plans because, among other things, they would guarantee that Hamas would still control Gaza and the proposed deals wouldn’t guarantee the hostages’ release.
After Netanyahu said he planned to penetrate Rafah city, near the Egyptian border, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. would oppose any Israeli operations in Rafah city. Then, in an angry statement at an impromptu press conference Biden said, “The conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top.”
Biden would do better by demanding the release of Hamas’s hostages and the cessation of its rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
On Thursday night, Biden issued a memorandum that requires all countries receiving U.S. military aid to prove, within 45 days, that they are following international humanitarian and human rights laws, threatening that they would lose all U.S. military assistance if they didn’t do so.
It was Biden’s most serious shot at Israel to date. Israel is both the recipient of the most U.S. military aid and the most dependent on it.
As a dysphemist of long standing, I would rather be accurate than polite.
Biden has all of the brainpower of an Idaho potato. Within the past ten days, he has claimed he met with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (who died in 2017; Biden’s supposed meeting with him was in 2021) and to have met recently with French President Francois Mitterand (who died in 1996). He also said that Egyptian President el-Sisi was president of Mexico.
Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report said that Biden couldn’t be indicted for his retention and disclosure of classified documents because — based on his poor memory — he couldn’t remember what he had said or done.
According to Hur’s report, Biden would come across as a well-meaning elderly guy with a poor memory.
To state the obvious, anyone who lacks the mental capacity to stand trial for his federal crimes is incapable of serving as president. But he won’t be removed from the presidency under the 25th Amendment because the Dems would be stuck with Kamala Harris or Gavin Newsome or — a thought devoutly to be wished — Hillary Clinton. (READ MORE: Biden Wants Hamas To Win)
Together with all that, there’s one more set of facts that comprise the context for Biden’s 45-day ultimatum to Israel.
Israeli air strikes have devastated Gaza. There are, I’m sure, many innocent civilians who have been killed. Have the Israelis abided by every part of U.S. humanitarian and human rights laws? Probably not. Could they have killed fewer civilians in Gaza? Probably.
But they are fighting a war for their national existence and wars against an enemy that routinely targets civilians, engages in indiscriminate attacks and commits war crimes as a matter of policy. No one, especially Biden, is willing to even talk about those facts.
Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Article 51 confirms the longstanding rule that civilians must be kept safe from hostilities as much as possible. And there are limits to the expectations that military action can prevent civilian deaths.
Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime and indiscriminate attacks can be. Indiscriminate attacks are defined as those not directed at a specific military objective and (or) employing a means of combat that cannot be directed at a specific military objective.
Which means that in Israel’s attacks on Hamas strongholds they are excused from killing civilians who are killed in pursuing a specific military objective by legitimate means of combat. Such as the ground troops and the precision-guided munitions Israel uses.
Israel will point this out in its response to Biden’s memorandum which, we can only hope, will have a considerable effect on Biden’s decision on whether to stop military aid. Stopping U.S. military aid to Israel is a way to help Israel’s adversaries, including Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hizballah, which is attacking Israel regularly. But what of Hamas?
Hamas intentionally killed hundreds of civilians on October 7 and took many of them hostage. Random Hamas rockets are still — at a lesser rate — raining down on Israeli civilians.
Biden’s possible punishment of Israel by cutting off U.S. military aid is his purely political response to a letter sent to him and the Government Accountability Office by Rashida Tlaib (D-Mi) — the only Palestinian member of Congress — and several other “progressives.” They demand that the State Department assess U.S. compliance with the laws governing arms transfers to Israel. Their letter said, “We write today regarding your administration’s ongoing weapons transfers to the Israeli government despite considerable evidence that these transfers are flagrantly violating American and international law and being used in the commission of war crimes.” (READ MORE: Israel’s Implacable Court)
But what comprises the “considerable evidence” Tlaib and the others cite? The media reports and Hamas propaganda they rely on isn’t evidence of anything.
By demanding Israel respond to his memorandum, Biden is only adding pressure to the Israelis to consent to his idiotic “peace” deals.
Biden would do better by demanding the release of Hamas’s hostages and the cessation of its rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. But he won’t do that because it is politically inconvenient for him to do so. It’s much easier to blackmail Israel by saying that we might cut off military aid unless they justify all of their actions.
Israel, as Biden’s staff must know, is all too dependent on the U.S. to do things such as supply rockets for its “Iron Dome” system. It cannot fight for long without our aid.
Israel will not be able to justify each and every one of its actions in Gaza in accordance with our laws and the Geneva Conventions. The Monday morning quarterbacks and the Hamas propaganda machine will ensure against that. It would be far wiser for Biden to put all the pressure he is putting on the Israelis on Hamas.
