Biden Betrays Israel; Can't Be Trusted on Global Stage

Biden Betrays Israel; Can’t be Trusted on Global Stage
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
May 9, 2024

“My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree,” said Joe Biden on Tuesday, May 7, at the Capitol building on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). Biden spoke platitudes about the rock solid bond between the two nations, knowing full well he already decided to withhold weapons from Israel had it opted to enter Rafah.

Adding insult to injury, Biden had posted to his X (Twitter) page on May 9, “On my watch, when we make promises, we keep them. And we leave no one behind.” (President Biden @POTUS and the little check mark signaling the real account) No one? How about the failed, deadly exit from Afghanistan that left 13 American servicemembers murdered - the blood still on Biden’s hands as he looked at his watch as their flag-draped coffins returned to American soil in August 2021.

And yet, by attempting to back Israel into a corner, Biden’s opposition to Israel’s necessary Rafah operation, his unilateral decision to handcuff Israel in its fiat to simply survive is beyond shameful. With the billions of dollars given to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which in turn funds Hamas, Biden has surrendered in the war on terror.

One needn’t look far nor dig deep for Biden’s hypocrisy to be put on full display. In a November 1, 2019 interview with a PBS reporter Biden said “The idea that we would cut off military aid to an ally, our only true, true ally in the entire region is absolutely preposterous - beyond my comprehension that anyone would do that.” It’s beyond the comprehension of most clear thinking Americans, Mr. Biden, yet here we are.

May 7 also marked exactly seven months since the invasion of Israel and the massacre of more than 1,200 innocent Israeli children, women, and men by the terrorist group Hamas. Hamas, along with the terror organization Hezbollah, has written in their charters, the eternal goal of eradicating the sovereign nation of Israel as well as the slaughter of the Jewish people. As so many have said, when someone tells you they want to kill you, take them at their word. Also among the slaughtered to be remembered, Americans, and nationals from Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Ireland, Italy, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. And never forget the more than 250 hostages taken by Hamas, at least five of whom are Americans still unaccounted for, be they living or dead.

The Jewish people do not have a friend in the White House. Quite frankly, the civilized world does not have a trustworthy ally in the White House. Biden simply cannot be trusted. How can any allies of the United States feel secure in their relationship with this country? The reputation of the United States continues to be sullied under Biden with his overt lack of support for Israel. It is akin to giving Hamas a green light to continue perpetrating terrorist activities against Israel, Israelis, the Jewish people, and even their own so-called Palestinian people in Gaza.

Hamas, not Israel, is responsible for more deaths of so-called Palestinians. Hamas has no regard for life - theirs or anyone else’s - this is obvious by the storage of their weaponry in elementary schools, residential neighborhoods, hospitals, even mosques. Hamas, not Israel, is responsible for the vast number of starving and suffering Gazans. Hamas has hijacked upwards of 90 percent of the humanitarian aid trucked in by Israel and the United States.

With constant shouts and cheers of death to Israel and death to America by Hamas and its supporters, both in the Middle East and on myriad college campuses in the United States, by Biden withholding military aid to Israel, he is, in effect, giving aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States, an impeachable offense.

Aid to Israel; aid to any country, does not start and end at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it goes through Congress. This is precisely why there is a system of Checks and Balances within the Constitutional framework of the government of the United States. Perhaps Biden slept through the semester on Con Law while attending Syracuse University College of Law in the late 1960s.

Biden has oft repeated, although as has become evidenced, nothing but lip service, the right of Israel to defend itself as it will. Not just a right, but a mandate to protect and defend its borders and the citizenry that reside within. This is a Biden failure at home since taking office on January 20, 2021 - witness the nearly, if not more than, 10 million illegal aliens who have invaded the United States on his watch.

Israel does not want war, just the opposite, and thus the importance of the Rafah operation. Were Israel to acquiesce to the numerous calls for a ceasefire, it further puts itself in harm’s way. A ceasefire allows Hamas and its partner, the Islamic Republic of Iran, to rearm, retool and regenerate itself, possibly making themselves stronger, certainly more determined. Hamas has promised, multiple times, that they will bring about not just another October 7, but 10,000 October sevenths. For these reasons and the sheer preservation of the nation of Israel, a ceasefire is as untenable as the two-state solution bandied about for decades. When your enemy wants to kill you, don’t give them the keys to the house next door.

Rafah, still a Hamas stronghold, is merely a symptom to a greater problem, and that is the frightening existence of any member of Hamas. All of Hamas must be purged - they are a terrorist organization and not the Boy Scouts. (Heck, even the Boy Scouts aren’t the Boy Scouts any longer.) Eviscerating, permanently, all evidence of Hamas will save countless lives of innocent Israelis and innocent Gazans, who simply want to live their lives in peace, and there are those who have proven it can be done. 

What place is it of Biden, or any leader, to dictate how Israel, or any other sovereign nation prosecutes a war? Did the United States stop short of Berlin and call it quits in the European Theatre during World War II? No. Leave no Nazi behind to rebuild a new Reich. Israel is fighting for its very survival. On Sunday, May 5, in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said emphatically, “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel WILL stand alone. And I say to you, we will defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is NOW.”

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Israel Smartly Says No Deal

Israel Smartly Says No Deal
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
May 6, 2024

On this Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), whatever the latest machinations of an alleged ceasefire deal manifested by Qatar and Egypt have smartly been rejected by Israel. Hamas, a known terrorist organization, actually agreed to this deal, which, after rejecting all others, should tell Israel all it needs to know.

The fact of the matter is that a ceasefire existed on October 6, 2023 before Hamas permeated the peacefulness of a Shabbat morning by invading Israel, slaughtering more than 1,200 innocent children, women, and men. More than 250 hostages were taken by Hamas, a puppet, whose strings are pulled by the Islamic Republic of Iran. And while approximately 40 hostages have been released during an earlier ceasefire, the current ceasefire deal made no mention of further release of additional hostages. Quite frankly, there has been more than a little speculation as to how many of the hostages, if any, are actually still breathing. Such a proposal is only designed to make Israel look like the aggressor - belligerent for not accepting a ceasefire, flawed or otherwise.

Saying no to a ceasefire is the smart decision by Israel, not because they are warmongers, just the opposite. Israel knows a ceasefire is a false narrative because in the charters of Hamas and Hezbollah, both proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the language calls for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of the Jewish people. When someone says they want to kill you, take them at their word. Since the October 7 massacre there have been countless promises of a repeat of the very same October 7 massacre, not one more time, not 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, but 10,000 times over. If calling for the destruction of Hamas, if calling for the unequivocal eradication of every last member of Hamas is perceived as overkill on the part of Israel, what then is the promise of 10,000 more October sevenths by Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and the Islamic Republic of Iran?

“You cannot negotiate peace with somebody who has come to kill you.” Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister 1969-74

Prime Minister Meir’s prophetic words are also why a two-state solution is no lasting solution whatsoever. Who would support the establishment of a hostile, terrorist, state at their own border? Only a nation or state with a suicide wish. To reiterate, the charters of Hamas and Hezbollah call for the destruction of Israel and the death of the Jewish people. Is there really any other reason necessary to not support a ceasefire or two-state solution?

“The key thing is, the Israelis have to finish this thing. The Palestinians have to accept they’ve lost this war, and will come to some kind of terms. But, what we can’t have is them regrouping because they think the United States has their back, and they’re going to come back and do October 7 again,” said Victoria Coates, former Deputy National Security Advisor during the Trump administration.

Coates’ assertions speak the truth as Joe Biden has been less than full throat supportive of Israel since October 7. Biden has been playing both sides of the same Middle East coin, attempting to support Israel with lip service while simultaneously placating the far-left Hamas wing of his Democrat Party calling for Israel to temper its responses. In doing so, Biden continues to lose support from both constituencies. No problem. No self-respecting Jewish voter in the United States should embarrass him or herself before G-d voting for Biden and/or a party that openly supports raging anti-Semitism from coast to coast. The only real two-state solution Biden desperately wants is Michigan and Minnesota. Neither Israel nor the Jewish people have a friend in the White House right now.

But this is not about Biden. Nor is this about Trump. This isn’t even about the virulent anti-Semitism running rampant on more than 100 college and university campuses across the fruited plain, and the ruination of numerous graduation ceremonies by the pro-Hamas protesters. This is about the survival of Israel and the Jewish people pure and simple; and as a sovereign nation, Israel not only has the right, but the mandate to do whatever it takes to survive as the lone Jewish nation on G-d’s green earth. The majority of Israelis under age 30 do not support a two-state solution, more so than ever since October 7.

Israel exists under the hypocritical, watchful eye of the so-called United Nations, seemingly united only in its constant refutation and condemnation of Israel. Israel fights wars unlike any other nation - declaring its intentions in advance in an effort to protect civilians, providing its enemies with humanitarian aid, and is typically excoriated to temper its response after being attacked; no condemnation for the attacks on Israel. It took months before UN Women condemned the rape of Israeli girls and women. University presidents only condemned campus anti-Semitism in “context.”

In 2022 the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn Israel more than all other countries combined, by a tally of 18 to 14. Of the 14 non-Israel condemnations, seven cited Russia, two against Iran, and one each against the United States, Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, and Syria. Israel didn’t fare any better last year either, outpacing the world 15 condemnations to seven. Two of the seven non-Israel condemnations cited Russia, and one each against the United States, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, and Syria. At best such a scorecard is a farce. Where’s China? Cuba? Haiti? Libya? Sudan? Venezuela? All paragons of virtue? Obviously not. Yet Israel, defending itself with one hand tied behind its back as described above, is taken to the woodshed more than any other nation.

In the battle of good versus evil, and while no nation is free of foibles and flaws, when Israel vacated Gaza in 2005, which should never have happened, what did the Palestinian people do? Leveled the standing infrastructure left intact by Israelis. Israelis saw no legitimate point in destroying what could still be used. Were the Palestinians to use their engineering skills, which are vast, see 300-plus miles of underground tunnels, livable infrastructure, and weaponry storage, and built houses, schools, libraries, businesses, including resorts on their portion of the Mediterranean Sea - that’s valuable undeveloped real estate, they would have a thriving economy. Instead they are being starved, literally, by the same terrorists they voted to lead them - Hamas. Hamas is responsible for hijacking more than 90 percent of the humanitarian aid delivered to Gaza from Israel and the United States. Hamas is responsible for the slaughter of more of its own people than is Israel, contrary to anti-Israel mainstream “news” reporting.

The Palestinian people have a long history of not taking yes for an answer, dating back more than a century to the 1917 Balfour Declaration when they were given 80 percent of partitioned land that should have all been designated for the return of the Jewish people from the Diaspora to their Biblical, ancestral, and historical homeland Eretz Yisrael. Jordan, then Transjordan, had been designated for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people have a one-state solution - an Israel free of Jewish people - in its entirety - no compromise.  (https://besacenter.org/palestinian-rejectionism/) 

From their Declaration of Independence, May 15, 1948, Israel suffered massive attacks from all sides - Egypt from the south and southwest, Saudi Arabia from the southwest, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria from the east, and Lebanon from the north. (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/map-of-the-arab-invasion-in-the-1948-war) Internally, Israel experienced attacks from Palestinians.

And thus the importance necessitating Israel’s Rafah operations. The people there have already been given their generous warnings to evacuate. After all, how many civilians are Hamas participants? Sadly, and obviously, unknown. This exercise is vital for the IDF to continue rooting out the more than 300 miles of underground tunnels and its accouterments. Hamas must never be permitted to regenerate. Doing so only keeps Israel at risk, and war a never ending constant in the region. No deal is better than a bad deal.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.