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.
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