Some Nations Help - Others Hinder

Some Nations Help
- Others Hinder

© David Burton 2024

Auschwitz
 


     The Nations of the world should act - not just talk and continually criticize the State of Israel for defending itself against the terrorists that have been attempting to destroy it for the past century. Those countries that are eternally castigating Israel should never forget that “Deeds speak Louder than words.”

     The Nations of world should provide food and medical supplies to Gaza civilians who are not supporting terrorist actions against Israel. They should let Israel deal with Hamas as it sees fit. The recent delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza by the United States and others was a much-needed step in the right direction.

     Unless the world is willing to accept the responsibility for destroying Hamas once and for all, It should shut up and let Israel defend itself as it desides is necessary. They should not be telling Israel how to defend itself unless they are willing to do the fighting themselves. That is the State of Israel’s prerogative and obligation to its citizens.

     Nations of the world, particularly the United States, should not meddle in internal Israel politics. They have no right to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu how to run the Israeli government. They should not tell Israel how to conduct its war with Hamas unless they are willing to join in the war themselves.

     Enough with the constant criticism of Israel and Prime minister Netanyahu! The blathering bystanders of the world have no right to constantly criticize, offer unwanted advice, and heap blame. Instead, they could be taking positive steps to aid the civilians in Gaza by supplying them with food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid. Israel has a big enough problem fighting the Islamic terrorists seeking to destroy Israel and murder all Jews.

     If President Biden really wants to end the fighting in Gaza, then he should be directing all of his anger and threats against Hamas and its backers, not the Israelis. The unfortunate deaths of seven foreign aid workers in a mistaken attack by the IDF provided just one more excuse for Biden and the other vociferous critics of Israel to blame Israel for the fighting and offer unwanted advice to Netanyahu.
     The growing chorus of voices on the political left that have been loudly demanding that Israel’s war on Hamas be stopped were just waiting for an occurrence like the IDF’s mistaken attack of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers.
     After months of seeking to leverage false stories such as one about a missile attack on a hospital, downplaying or denying that Hamas embedded its terrorist forces in hospitals, schools and civilian homes, and flogging statistics about Palestinian civilian casualties that were clearly bogus, the anti-Israel lobby thought that it had a way to force the Jewish state to stand down in Gaza.
     The mistaken strike that caused the deaths of seven WCK aid workers who were bringing food and other supplies into the Strip is being treated as not merely a tragic accident all too common in wars, but as an act of transcendent symbolism that proves that Israel’s tactics are too brutal to be allowed to continue.
     This was the substance of the threats directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by President Joe Biden in a tense 30-minute call. Reportedly, Biden said that future military aid to Israel - vital for the resupply of Israeli forces in order for the war on Hamas to continue - would be linked to whether it satisfied his demands about ensuring that both civilians and aid workers were not harmed.
     Biden had been slowly but surely backing away from his initial support for the war and the goal of eradicating Hamas since the Palestinian terrorist group started it with unspeakable atrocities on 7 October 2023.
     While the deaths of the aid workers were the result of a terrible blunder by the Israel Defense Forces, the firestorm of criticism aimed at Israel in the days since the incident occurred isn’t really about their tragic fate, sad though it is.
     Nor is it really rooted in a substantive argument claiming that the IDF is failing to take precautions to avoid civilian deaths or to anything to hinder the flow of aid into Gaza, including the area that is still controlled by Hamas.
     The world’s leading experts on warfare have already declared that not only is Israel upholding the laws of war in its Gaza campaign but has done so in a manner that has caused fewer civilian casualties in such a battle than any in modern history.
     The charge that Israel has engaged in an “indiscriminate” bombing campaign or is “over the top,” as Biden has claimed, simply isn’t true. It is also breathtakingly hypocritical.
     The deaths of the seven aid workers - like those of everyone else who has been killed since Hamas attacked southern Israel in an orgy of murder, rape, torture, kidnapping and wanton destruction on Oct. 7 – ultimately are the responsibility of the terrorists and their many supporters.
     Though Israeli military and political leaders have had numerous discussions with their American counterparts in which the counter-offensive into Gaza has been criticized, the latter has had no realistic suggestions about how Hamas terrorist forces might be eliminated other than by the methods the Jewish state has been employing.
     The notion that Hamas can be eliminated without Israeli troops taking physical possession of their last enclave in Rafah in the south and striking at the four remaining intact Hamas battalions there is risible.
     Therefore, Biden’s demand for “tangible steps” by Israel can only mean one thing: stop the war or conduct it in a manner that ensures that the goal of the complete defeat of Hamas and the end of its control of any part of Gaza cannot be achieved. That means that if Israel is to continue receiving military aid, it must agree to a situation in which the war against Hamas simply cannot be won. Should Netanyahu decide that those conditions must be accepted, it virtually guarantees that the Islamist group will emerge from the conflict as it began - not only alive and well but as the victor, with undoubted primacy in Palestinian politics for the foreseeable future.
     These conditions are the inevitable result not of the specific incident involving the aid workers but of an incessant campaign of incitement and smears directed at Israel even before ground troops entered Gaza after Oct. 7
     Biden’s threats are the culmination of the opprobrium that has been directed at Israel from left-wing editorial pages and the genocidal chants from mobs supporting Hamas that have been heard on the streets of American cities and on college campuses.
     The entire left wing of the Democratic Party, including many so-called “progressives” in Congress, has been clamoring that Biden use the threat of aid cutoffs to end the war prior to the release of the more than 100 hostages still being held by Hamas, including five Americans.
     Such is the hatred for Israel that has taken root in left-wingers who have come to believe that Israel must not be allowed to defeat Hamas and that any civilian casualties that occur as a result of the terrorists’ actions are too many.
     If Biden really wants to end the fighting in Gaza, then he should be directing all of his anger and threats against Hamas and its backers, not the Israelis. If Biden really wants to help, let him up the humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza and lessen that burden on Israel.
     Remember, If Hamas surrendered and released the hostages - ranging from a baby to an 86-year-old man - the war would be over immediately.
     Instead, by threatening to trash the alliance with Israel and mandating that it must live with Hamas terrorism in the future, Biden has only strengthened the resolve of the Islamist murderers to stand their ground, secure in the belief that the United States will save them from the justice they so richly deserve for their crimes.[1]

     President Biden continued to threaten Netanyahu and Israel that US policy in the Israel-Hamas conflict would depend on Israel’s immediate actions to mitigate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In the first week in April 2024, he called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during a phone call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[2]

     Biden’s and his administration’s behavior toward Israel and its Prime Minister were so abhorrent that members of Congress denounced the ultimatum given to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the early April 2024 phone call. Biden’s unprecedented ultimatum called for Israel to Make changes to its conduct of the war with Hamas or face the prospect of changes in long-standing U.S. policy with regards to the State of Israel.
     In response to a quote from a New York Times article about how Biden appeared to condition America’s support on how Israel changes course, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) wrote: “In this war against Hamas - no conditions for Israel.”
     Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) noted an “offensive speech” last month by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in which he called Netanyahu an obstacle to peace and calling for early Israeli elections. Many would call this foreign interference in domestic Israeli politics.
     “Many Democrats have a serious anti-Israel problem,” Cole stated. The congressman called Biden’s ultimatum to Netanyahu “unacceptable.” “The recent actions and statements of both Senator Schumer and President Biden with respect to Israel are both outrageous and inappropriate,” he said. For the two and others “to publicly criticize a democratic ally that is defending itself from a brutal terrorist attack, including the majority leader’s call for new elections in Israel, is both outrageous and unprecedented,” Cole said.
     “President Biden and Senate Schumer appear to have lost all sense of moral and political clarity,” he added, “calling on both of them to retract their statements and stand with our great ally, Israel, at this critical moment. To do anything else is a public betrayal to our friends in Israel and effectively supports an enemy to civilized people all around the world.”
     House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) noted that Hamas started the war by brutally attacking Israeli civilians, that it continues to hold more than 100 hostages and has rejected ceasefires. “The Biden administration’s treatment of Israel is outrageous,” he stated. “The United States must stand unequivocally with our greatest ally in the Middle East.”
     “Let’s put this idea of a ceasefire into perspective. You want Israel to stop fighting against an enemy that has no intention of ever stopping. You know when there was a ceasefire? Oct. 6. You know what happened on Oct. 7? The biggest massacre of Israelis in recent history,” Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw said. “The rape of countless women. The burning of infants. The ruthless killing of civilians.”
     “War is always ugly, but the blood of every civilian death is on Hamas. Not Israel,” he added. “The demand should be simple: Hamas must surrender totally and completely and allow a transition of power. Hamas can never have power again. If you care about Palestinian lives, that is what must happen.”
     Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) stated that “Joe Biden is about to abandon Israel the same way he abandoned Afghanistan.”
     “He is caving to the Hamas sympathizers who have taken over the Democratic party and given up our strongest ally in the Middle East,” Wagner said. “His announcement could destabilize the region and embolden Iran, and it is just more proof of his weakness on the world stage.”
     “Those attacking Israel regarding the tragic deaths of the WCK [World Central Kitchen] workers claim that it must have been intentional because the vehicles were clearly marked. But WCK says the incident occurred late at night,” Sherman said. “Relief workers in a war zone are heroes. Operating in a war zone at night poses unacceptable risks. Agencies shouldn’t do it and Israel shouldn’t authorize it."[3]

     There are some countries that have acted in a positive fashion. Included among the countries that have actually taken positive steps to aid the civilians in Gaza are the United States and Jordan which have air-dropped food supplies into Gaza and shipped in supplies by sea.

     Very early in the war, Aljazeera reported that least eight planes carrying aid from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Tunisia landed at El Arish International Airport in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula with relief supplies. India sent medical and disaster relief to El Arish. Rwanda sent 16 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The European Union launched an “air bridge” and tripled its assistance to the territory. Some EU countries – including Germany, Denmark and Sweden temporarily suspended their pre-war aid to Gaza as a condemnation of the Hamas attack.[4]

     As of February 2024, the UAE and Egypt were among the Arab countries that had sent aid into Gaza. Four aircraft from the Emirates and Egypt carried about 82 tons of food and medical aid into northern Gaza which were dropped by air. In early 2024, the UAE loaded a number of trucks with supplies at International Humanitarian City in Dubai before they travelled to Jordan by road. From Jordan the supplies were shipped to Gaza.[5]

     Prime Minister Netanyahu made Israel’s position crystal clear once again on 7 April 2024 in Jerusalem, when he repeated that there would be no ceasefire agreement until the 133 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were returned home. The Israeli position has never wavered in spite of the increasingly unreasonable demands issued to Israel by the United States and other nations to unilaterally declare a ceasefire.
     “I made it clear to the international community that there will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. It just won’t happen,” Netanyahu said, speaking in a cabinet meeting. Netanyahu said Israel was not preventing the ceasefire agreement and blamed Hamas for “extreme demands” aimed at prolonging the war “to ensure its survival . . . (and) its ability to endanger” Israeli citizens and soldiers again.
     “Surrendering to Hamas’ demands [and those of anti-Israel supporters around the world] will allow it [Hamas] to try to repeat the crimes of Oct. 7 again and again, as it promised to do,” he said, calling for international pressure against Hamas and not against Israel.
     Netanyahu once more blamed Iran for the attack carried out by Hamas on Oct.7, which resulted in 1,200 deaths on Israeli soil and sparked the war. “This war revealed to the world what Israel always knew. Iran is the one behind the attack against us through its proxies,” he said. “We have been attacked on many fronts by Iran’s affiliates – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, militias in Iraq and Syria, and other attacks as well.”[6]
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References:

  1. Outrage over aid-worker deaths is about saving Hamas, not civilians, Jonathan S. Tobin, World Israel News, 5 April 2024.
  2. Biden calls for immediate ceasefire in call with Netanyahu, Matthew Xiao, World Israel News, 5 April 2024.
  3. US Congress Members Criticize Biden’s Ultimatums to Israel, United With Israel, 7 April 2024.
  4. Israel-Hamas war: Which countries have sent aid to Gaza so far?, Aljazeera, 23 October 2023.
  5. UAE and Egypt send 82 tonnes of aid to northern Gaza, The National, 7 April 2024.
  6. No ceasefire until hostages return home, says Netanyahu, efe.com, 7 April 2024.

 


  23 May 2024 {ARTICLE 624; ISRAEL_90}    
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