President Biden came to Israel and distributed hugs and promises of undying support in public. In private, he forced Israel to agree to the entry of “humanitarian aid” via Egypt. He promised to provide Gaza with $100 million in food, medicines, fuel, and who knows what else. Although it is impossible to know for sure, it seems as though he also has delayed the entry of our ground forces into Gaza.
This is despite the fact that Hamas is holding about 200 Israelis hostage, after they were kidnapped from their homes in the midst of an orgy of murder, torture, and rape of Jews unprecedented since the Holocaust.
What could be simpler than to say to the rulers of Gaza, return the hostages and then you’ll get your aid. What could be more just than humanitarian aid in return for acting like humans? But no – the President chose to speak to Israel instead. “Let them have the aid, or you will not get the weapons and ammunition you need .”
Does anyone think that this aid can be delivered to Gaza and not fall into the hands of Hamas? Even if all of those trucks only contain “humanitarian” goods, how precisely do the Americans plan to distribute the diesel fuel and gasoline so it will only benefit civilians? Biden said that “international officials” in Gaza will distribute it. The only such officials are those of UNWRA, many of whom are members of Hamas, and all of whom are deathly afraid of it. Hamas controls absolutely everything that happens in Gaza. Of course it will take what it needs to power its electric generators, to feed its soldiers, and to treat its wounded! There is no other possibility.
It should be known that despite the horrors visited on us, the air campaign against Hamas is limited. Gaza is full of “hospitals.” A few of them actually treat patients, but many are simply places to store and launch rockets against Israel. We are forbidden to attack these locations. There are also UNRWA schools, which double as military installations. They too are off limits, unlike the Jewish children of southern Israel, who apparently were fair game for Hamas to torture and murder.
There is also the question of the ground invasion. When asked about it, Biden said there had been “a long talk about alternatives” with the Israelis about it. In the meantime, the troops and tanks are not moving. This is disastrous to us. After the shock and loss of honor and deterrence that resulted from the terrorist attack on Simchat Torah, it is essential that we destroy Hamas and return security to the southern part of our country. Otherwise, no Jew will be able to live in Ashkelon or south of it. This cannot be done without the ground invasion that is presently stalled. The whole world, particularly our enemies, is watching.
How is it possible that a sovereign state can allow a foreign power to sit in its war cabinet – as US Secretary of State Blinken did for seven hours the other day – and dictate strategy and tactics? It is not possible, and therefore Israel is not a sovereign state. Our political and military leadership sold our sovereignty in return for military aid. We took what the US wanted to give us, what was most suitable for American defense contractors (and not always for our needs); and they were in turn paid top dollar from the pockets of American taxpayers. The US tried to determine the outcome of our elections and intervene in our politics in ways that are just beginning to become clear.
The Biden administration ignored the Taylor Force Act and restarted aid to the Palestinian Authority even when it refused to stop paying the terrorists who murder us on a regular basis. The US supplies weapons and training to the Lebanese army and intelligence apparatus, despite the fact that Lebanon is 100% controlled by the Iranian proxy Hezbollah, which has 130,000 rockets aimed at Israel – including precision-guided ones that are far more dangerous than those of Hamas. And speaking of Iran, the US has recently freed up $6 billion which Iran can use to fund Hamas and Hezbollah as well as its nuclear project.
These are not the actions of an ally; they are those of an imperial power that uses its satellites in the service of its own interests. And American interests, as seen by the Biden administration, are not coincident with Israeli interests: today they are directly opposed. With the exception of the Trump period, American policy since the Iraq war, as expressed in the 2006 Baker-Hamilton report, has been to obtain a détente with Iran, and to allow it to obtain the hegemony it seeks in the Middle East. Although the US at least pays lip service to the existence of a Jewish state, it expects Israel to return to an attenuated, pre-1967 shape.
The policy is contradictory for several reasons. Iran sees the US and Israel as enemies, and is committed for both geostrategic and religious reasons to destroy Israel. It also implies that Israel will give up control of Judea/Samaria, the Jordan Valley and the Golan heights, which would make her impossible to defend.
But today Israel faces an immediate problem: how to escape the American “bear hug” for long enough to recover her deterrence in the region. I don’t know the answer to this, but it seems to me that we must try. It will require our leadership to summon up the courage to say ‘no’ to the Americans. Can we do this, or has the “bear hug” already squeezed the freedom and sovereignty out of us?
The next few weeks, perhaps days, will tell.
Victor,
This is what happens when one is a vassal. Israeli “sovereignity” is a joke.
Kissinger, in one of his rare candid moments was quoted as saying;
“To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal”
or Bernard Lewis, the eminent Middle East authority was quoted:
“America is harmless as an enemy but treacherous as a friend.”
The feckless leadership of Israel, political and military, is incapable of withstanding the pressure from their Tsar.
JR
Obama’s “red line” in Syria redux. We hear promises to take moral action, then the US slinks away at the critical moment, leaving Israel to cope, on the front lines, with the jihad the rest of the West thinks it can escape, and refuses to fight.
If Israel doesn’t launch the ground war soon, destroy Hamas and drive out the Arab population, Israel will be dealt a catastrophic defeat, albeit one self-inflicted.
Israel’ enemies will come to understand its leaders’ hands for various reasons are tied, and cannot do what is necessary to protect itself.
No Jew in Israel will ever trust the current government, one that cannot bring itself to prosecute the war to overcome Hamas.
And if it can’t do that, its not in a position to take on Iran. This is a very simple test case.
Everyone is watching and if Israel punts under American and global pressure, its living on borrowed time.
To put it crudely, Israel can either be an American vassal or a sovereign country. It can’t be both.
I agree 100%
I recommend that your readers listen to Caroline Glick’s Mideast News Hour on JNS for a more detailed and emotional assessment of Biden’s Bear Hug. Your analysis is, as always, spot on. However, I hope that the delay in the ground war is to allow Israel time to bomb from the air every single one of the Hamas targets it has on its list. From what I hear, the bombing continues and so we must assume that there are additional targets to hit. Once the IDF has no further strategic targets to bomb, it will undoubtedly go into Gaza. I also suspect that Israel is preparing for a massive rocket barrage from Hezbollah in Lebanon when they go into Gaza. This takes time to prepare for and I hope, and pray, that Israel is using this time very wisely.