Terrified of losing the votes of anti-Israel “progressives” President Joe Biden has disgracefully threatened to stab Israel in the back in its war with genocidal Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Biden is bending over backward to win anti-Israel votes in swing states with large Muslim populations, where anti-Israel sentiment is popular, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona and Wisconsin.
On top of this, growing numbers of congressional Democrats have sharply criticized Israel for causing civilian casualties and suffering in Gaza and have demanded that Biden cut aid to Israel unless it halts military operations in the enclave. Pro-Hamas demonstrators have regularly disrupted Biden events around the nation for months.
If the Democrats were serious about human rights, they would be calling for the bloodthirsty terrorist group Hamas to surrender and release the 134 hostages they continue to hold, including several Americans. But no, for some reason they can’t muster up that decency.
Instead, the Israel critics are succeeding in pulling Biden closer to their hostility against our only democratic ally in the Middle East.
Biden’s latest attack on Israel came when he threw a well-planned and heavily publicized temper tantrum in a call Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following Israel’s tragically mistaken killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers distributing food in Gaza this week.
Biden threatened on the call to limit U.S. support for Israel in its war with Hamas if Israel does not meet his demand for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and increase the flow of food and other humanitarian aid into the enclave. Disgustingly, Biden’s demands mirror Hamas’ demands, as Secretary of State Blinken’s remarks seem to draw a moral equivalency between Hamas’ bloodthirsty declaration of war against Israel and the Jewish state’s efforts to defend itself.
Israel has acknowledged responsibility for killing the World Central Kitchen workers with airstrikes that were launched in the dark of night on their vehicles in a terrible case of mistaken identity. Israeli officials have promised an investigation and are taking action to avoid such mistakes in the future by coordinating more closely with aid groups going into Gaza.
This is one of the awful situations involved with war. In contrast, when Hamas terrorists kicked off their war with Israel by invading the Jewish state on Oct. 7, they deliberately murdered over 1,200 people in cold blood, raped and tortured many victims, and took about 240 people to Gaza as hostages. Hamas continues firing rockets into Israeli communities indiscriminately, without regard for the potential impact on civilians.
The contrast between how Israel and Hamas are waging war couldn’t be greater. While Israel takes extraordinary measures to minimize civilian casualties, Hamas wants as many civilians as possible to die — including Gazan civilians, to stoke world opinion against Israel. And that’s the point.
Hours after the Biden-Netanyahu call, the White House said Israel has agreed to open another crossing into Gaza to increase the delivery of food and other humanitarian aid to the 2.2 million people living there. This is a step that Israel will likely get little credit for.
Sadly, civilians in Gaza are trapped, by their own Hamas leadership. Those terrorists hide behind and underneath the innocent in tunnels as Israel seeks to destroy the cancer that is Hamas. Egypt is barring Gaza war refugees from entering and Hamas is barring them from leaving, thereby committing a war crime by using them as human shields. But virtually every day we are told that Israel is the problem. And why should Hamas stop or surrender when the Western world, led by the feckless Biden administration, are promoting and supporting the Hamas rhetorical strategy?
The Biden administration and the world should be demanding that Gazans choosing to flee be allowed into Egypt. Instead, Biden demanded in his call with Netanyahu that Israel declare a ceasefire and allow more food and other aid into Gaza despite Hamas continuing to hold 130 hostages it seized on Oct. 7 (including as many as 50 who may be dead). Israel has agreed to support a ceasefire, allow more aid into Gaza, and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for even a partial hostage release. But Hamas refuses to accept the deal and Israel gets blamed. Which is exactly the point.
But much of the world has turned its back on Israel, blaming the victim of a massive terrorist attack for the war Hamas started, and demanding that Israel accept a so-called Palestinian state that could threaten its survival. It’s as if the world condemned America after the 9/11 attacks and demanded we turn New York state over to Osama bin Laden to establish an al Qaeda state.
Still, defying the president of the United States leaves Israel in a dangerous position because it is dependent on arms sales and aid that primarily comes from the U.S. to defend itself against enemies dedicated to its destruction. As a result, any reduction in U.S. support for Israel could pose an existential threat to the Jewish state. And yet, Biden is purposefully throwing a stalwart American ally, a democratic Jewish state, under the bus in a disgusting display of the morally rudderless president and Democratic Party in a craven effort for votes amongst marginal, but loud, extremists in their own party.
I hope the Israel-Hamas war ends soon. But while it rages, it’s an unfortunate but unavoidable fact that civilians will be killed, just as they are in all wars.
America killed civilians most dramatically by dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II in 1945, killing an estimated 214,000 people instantly and thousands more from radiation sickness later. But the atomic bombs saved the lives of many Americans in our military and Japanese citizens who would have died in a U.S. invasion of Japan, had that nation not surrendered after our nuclear attack.
Israel won’t be dropping any nuclear bombs on anyone. But it should not be expected to live next to a terrorist haven in Gaza controlled by Iran, via its death squad Hamas, which has promised to attack Israel again and again. While continuing to seek to limit civilian casualties Israel must be allowed to destroy Hamas and end the terrorist group’s oppressive rule over Gaza that has brought misery to the Arabs living in Gaza as well as Israelis.
Tammy Bruce, an Independent Conservative, has traversed a unique political journey that reflects her commitment to principles rather than party affiliations. She joined Fox News in 2005 as a Political Contributor, hosting her show “Get Tammy Bruce” on Fox Nation and providing insightful commentary on various issues for the Association for Mature Americans (AMAC).
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.