With Barack Obama publicly warning Israel about the deaths of civilians in Gaza, the Biden White House leaking its doubts about Israel’s ability to carry out a ground invasion and the head of the United Nations suggesting Israel provoked the Hamas terror attack, the question arises: Whose side are they on?
Less than three weeks after Israel suffered the deadliest day in its history, the Jewish state is being treated like the problem rather than the victim by some of its supposed friends.
Instead of getting support for its justified aim of eradicating Hamas, demands are mounting for Israel to temper its response lest it spark a wider war and mass casualties of Palestinian civilians.
Appeasing terrorists
As for Hamas, which aims to wipe Israel off the map, little is said of its using 2 million Gazans as human shields.
Nor does its slaughter of Jewish civilians, including women and children, and taking hundreds of hostages apparently give Israel the right to respond in a manner of its choosing.
Indeed, in a move that smacks of rewarding terror, French President Emmanuel Macron used a visit to Israel Tuesday to declare that, in addition to fighting Hamas, Israel and its allies should relaunch the peace process and craft a two-state solution.
Talk about lousy timing.
With friends like these, Israel can be forgiven for feeling lonely.
It certainly can’t count on a fair shake from The New York Times, which continues to show it learned nothing from its false story last week that credited Hamas’ claims that Israel bombed a hospital, killing 500 people.
Long after the fake news made its way around the world, it became clear that a Hamas shell, not an Israeli bomb, hit the hospital parking lot.
The hospital itself suffered relatively minor damage and the death total, whatever it is, was nowhere close to 500.
Nonetheless, the Times, which has spent days and thousands of words suggesting its report was wrong without actually using the words, continues to swallow the terror group’s propaganda.
The Gray Lady’s top story on Tuesday’s digital edition said Gaza officials reported that 704 Palestinians had been killed in overnight Israeli raids.
Exactly 704?
In fact, it would be impossible for anyone to know the precise number of deaths or anything even close so quickly, given the large number of Israeli strikes in different areas that reduce most buildings to rubble.
The Times doesn’t say how the Gaza Health Ministry came up with the number, but absolves itself of responsibility for inaccuracies with the caveat that “It was not possible to independently verify the toll.”
In other words, keep lying to us, Hamas, and we’ll keep publishing your lies.
Bam’s bogus blogging
Obama’s comments were also predictable, given his unpopularity in Israel while he was president and his bitter disdain for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a post on Medium, the former president started by blaming Hamas but spent most of the piece lecturing Israel.
He warned that a callous attitude toward Gazan civilians “could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region.”
He acts as if peace is just around the corner if only Israel would play nice.
But why shouldn’t it protect its own citizens first, as other countries do?
The former president’s answer was an air ball, as in his call to “encourage a strategy that can incapacitate Hamas while minimizing further civilian casualties.”
But Israel doesn’t want to “incapacitate Hamas.”
It understandably wants to permanently destroy it.
Obama didn’t give the order to “incapacitate” Osama bin Laden.
He ordered him killed.
Obama added that “we need to continue to lead the international community in accelerating critical aid and supplies to an increasingly desperate Gaza population.”
Again, the effect is to reward Hamas for its human-shield policy by putting the burden on Israel to protect civilians.
He concluded with pie-in-the-sky talk about a future Palestinian state.
Dream on. Hamas has guaranteed that no Israeli government will dare propose a two-state solution for years to come.
Obama and President Biden share either a speechwriter or a brain.
Their emphasis on the laws of war and sparing civilians offers Israel no practical way of achieving its military objectives or protecting itself against future attacks.
And the focus on world reaction is rich, given that Hamas’ horrific attack inexplicably led to an outpouring of antisemitism around the globe.
In America, most of the Jew hatred came from young voters who overwhelming favor Democrats.
Israel’s ultimate enemy, of course, is Iran, and Biden continues Obama’s misguided policy of bribing and sweet-talking the mad mullahs.
The lifting of oil sanctions and freeing of frozen billions have resulted only in more terrorism from Iran’s goon squads in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
Attacks on US troops in the region also are spiking, yet Biden is mostly silent as he insists there is no “direct evidence” of an Iranian role in the attack on Israel.
Israelis know better, which helps explain their concern about America’s outsized role in internal decisions.
Reports that Biden and his aides are urging Israel to delay the ground invasion include suggestions Israel’s military isn’t up to the job.
Or, as the Times put it Tuesday, “American officials said they have not yet seen an achievable plan of action.”
Although the Pentagon is sending top military brass to help, Washington is quick to insist it’s not in charge, but that’s a distinction without a difference.
As Israel’s ultimate protector and the source of vital supplies, including missiles for the Iron Dome defense system, America effectively holds a veto over Israeli moves.
The result is that Biden, Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III have assumed outsized roles in Israel’s military and diplomatic decisions.
Biden and Blinken both met for hours with the war cabinet, raising the question of who is calling the shots.
And when media leaks didn’t lead to results, Blinken publicly insisted Sunday that Israel develop a plan now for what happens in Gaza after an invasion is finished.
“It’s something that needs to be worked out even as Israel is dealing with the current threat,” he told NBC.
No time to delay
The delay in a decisive response to the Oct. 7 slaughter is causing strains in Israel between the military, which is eager to go, and Netanyahu, who is more cautious.
There are also other signs the existential crisis has not healed the nation’s bitter political polarization.
The fate of the hostages also complicates the military decision, which Hamas is exploiting.
It released just four of the more than 200 captives it is holding, and that was enough for the US to call for a delay to see if negotiations are successful.
If the pattern continues, drip-drip-drip releases by Hamas could turn the tables and make Israel itself the ultimate hostage.
