The war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is the most morally clear conflict in modern history. It pits an actual terrorist group that just engaged in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust against a democratic country that protects citizens Jewish, Muslim and Christian. It pits a monstrously evil tentacle of Iran — handed control of the Gaza Strip by Israel in 2005, when Israel pulled out of that area and forced 8,000 Jews out of their homes — against a democratic ally of the United States. It pits an army of atrocity-seeking villains — who are attempting to maximize Palestinian casualties by locating themselves among civilians, stealing humanitarian aid and literally murdering anyone who gets in their way — against an actual professional army risking the lives of its own soldiers in order to protect Palestinian civilians.
And yet Joe Biden can’t quite make up his mind.
On the one hand, Biden mouths platitudinous support for Israel in its battle against Hamas. On the other, he continues to grant the central premise Hamas promotes, which is that Israel is a human rights violator and indiscriminate killer of Palestinians — even as Hamas holds Americans hostage in Gaza. Biden has spent the last several weeks pressuring Israel not to go into Rafah, the sole major repository of the Hamas terror apparatus, where some four brigades of terrorists are digging in. Instead, he has deployed his head of the CIA, his secretary of state and a wide variety of other officials to promote “negotiations” between Israel and Hamas.
In fact, he’s done more than that for Hamas. While fully articulating his understanding that Hamas seeks a permanent end to the conflict in Gaza, which would leave them in control and hand them a victory they could never earn on the battlefield, Biden has pushed just that: a permanent end to the conflict leaving Hamas in place. Biden has not explained just how this would benefit the United States, Israel, the Palestinians themselves or the region more broadly. He has simply calculated that an end to conflict is an end in and of itself.
To that end, Biden has been slow-walking aid to the Israelis — including ammunition that allows for better targeting, which would minimize civilian casualties. He has deployed his negotiators to play both sides of the table, even going so far as to allow his CIA head, William Burns, to negotiate with Egypt and Qatar a series of terms without submitting them to the Israelis — and then allowing Hamas itself to declare its acceptance of such nonsensical and irrelevant terms, presumably in an effort to humiliate the Israelis into accepting their own quasi-surrender. Biden has trotted out spokespeople to claim that America continues to back Israel, while simultaneously claiming — falsely — that Israel is engaging in human rights abuses.
The result is the worst of all possible worlds for Biden: a dissatisfied radical base convinced that Biden is behind the war in Gaza; an angry pro-Israel citizenry bewildered by Biden’s inability to call evil by its name; and a stalemate in Gaza, which means that radical protesters will undoubtedly descend on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in order to harass Biden as he receives his renomination.
It’s all stupid.
But it does raise an obvious question: why?
Why is this so seemingly tough for Joe Biden? Is it all just a misread of the political moment — adherence to a stunningly imbecilic belief that if Biden appeases extremists within his party, he’ll be able to win the 2024 election? Or is it something deeper — a moral malaise that has taken root in the upper echelons of our politics, in which Western powers, including Israel, are seen as inherently problematic while the West’s enemies, including Hamas, are seen as inherently victimized? If the tens of thousands of protesters on America’s streets are any indicator, the latter seems more likely than the former. Which spells doom for a West that cannot see the difference between decency and barbarity.
Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.” To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website.
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Joe Biden has been in politics for over 50 years now. In all that time, he has never shown any ability to either assess facts accurately nor shown any interest in learning from his many, many errors along the way. His sole skillset for all that time has been to lie with conviction and never, ever admit he was wrong. When pushed on something, his default mode of operation has been to try appeasement. No matter the cost. Biden just pivots from one discovered lie to the next and from one massive policy blunder to the next, as if nothing has ever happened. In his world, as limited as it now is due to his advancing dementia, he is the second coming of FDR in that his job is to promote every socialist policy possible and expend the reach and power of the federal government to cover all aspects of everything.
To expect such an individual to suddenly become “presidential” and magically become competent, honest, intelligent and everything else essential in a good leader is of course folly. If the American people are shocked at how bad and utterly corrupt Joe Biden is after 3 1/2 years as POTUS, then the fault doesn’t lie with Joe Biden but rather the American people dumb enough to think he was something different. Biden told us numerous times before the 2020 election what he stood for and that he fully supported the Democrat agenda in every way. Which is EXACTLY what he has done since Day One of taking up residence in the White House. So just remember, as bad as things are right now, Old Joe still has at least another 6 months to make things much, much worse. Plus, there is no guarantee that Biden and his team of socialists will be leaving the White House, as precious little has been done to reign in what is now a very porous election process.
As for Biden throwing Israel under the bus, that is just another example to what few allies we still have left in the world that the United States may not be there when you need it most. That is why so many western leaders have reached out to China about improving trade relations and other items, as the United States can no longer be relied on for anything. Next up will be the many European and Middle Eastern leaders supporting a move to hop on China’s proposed basket of securities, currencies and gold as a replacement for the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Then Americans will get to experience what real third-world double and triple digit inflation looks like up close and personal.
“They’ blew up the Maine. What did we do? “They” attacked Pearl Harbor. What did we do? “They” attacked us at the twin towers. What did we do? Now we want to virtue signal by telling Israel what not to do. I play the bullshit card.
As usual, the Biden administration is looking for some sort of victory to boost the ratings for the upcoming election They still not have figured out that they are fighting a lost cause. You cannot have both desired solutions. Hamas and its supporting element need to be destroyed if there is going to be some sort of peace. However, Israel can expect more trouble coming from a different direction at any time since Islam back support will continue to advance their agenda — the annihilation of Israel and the Jews. God’s word has already given the final solution and that cannot be changed or altered.
If I were a betting man, I would wager this article will make John Shipway’s head explode.
We do not negotiate anything with terrorist! PERIOD! BUILD THE WALL DEPORT THEM ALL!
Praise to Ben Shapiro for writing this article. The threats, domestic and foreign to both Israel and the United States are in some ways obvious, and some of those threats are not obvious. Some things that have been able to get into the culture here and have a corrupt influence can contribute to a lack of strength when it comes to building the National character and also the more immediate defense of the country..In the spirit of Faith, Family and Freedom .Those of us who identify as Reagan Conservatives will appreciate this article for advocating what is morally right. Well done Ben ! Courage, respect for Truth.
The civilians in Gaza are not innocent. Each family supplies a male age 16 and over to the Hamas jihadists. Gaza civilians abused the Jewish hostages brought into Gaza. Gaza civilians supported Hamas.
Leave it to Dictator Beijing biden to continue to support Terrorist just like obama. Both Bow Down to Terrorist and Communist. Both GAVE OUR MONEY and MILITARY EQUIPMENT WITH WEAPONS to Terrorist while getting AMERICANS killed. Both SURRENDERED to Terrorist. Which to this day Dictator Beijing biden still hasn’t said the 13 U.S. MARINES he got killed because he SURRENDERED TO TERRORIST.
Lack of True Historical Knowledge creates lack of understanding current events!
Problems build character lol