Hamas’s genocidal antisemitic attack on Oct. 7 aroused horror throughout the Western world. It took only a few hours, however, for the horror to fade—long before Israel had even begun to respond. Demonstrations against Israel, and in support of the terrorist group—sometimes “cleaned up” as “pro-Palestinian”—exploded just hours later on Oct. 8, before hundreds of charred bodies had been removed from their homes. These well-planned and well-funded professional demonstrations, complete with instant Palestinian flags and, later, instant identical tents—rapidly metastasized throughout North America and Europe.
The slogans “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” and “Death to America” were chanted by tens of thousands of self-described “progressives,” Muslims and their followers. The campuses of many universities in Europe and the United States became ground zero for pure anti-Israeli and antisemitic violence, under the guise of “free speech.”
In blunt Australia, euphemisms were dispensed with altogether in favor of chants of “Gas the Jews” and “F**k the Jews.”
The whitewash of Hamas had begun. European politicians in France and Belgium were supporting the terror group, calling it a “resistance movement.”
As Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip progressed—meticulously crafted to avoid harming Palestinian civilians—many European leaders turned on Israel. They falsely accused it of acting “disproportionately” while Hamas’s widespread use of its own civilians as human shields was almost totally ignored.
Also ignored is that Hamas officials seize virtually all of the humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza, then give it to their own forces or sell it to civilians on the black market for extortionate prices.
Although there is no food shortage in Gaza, several of Israel’s most steadfastly hostile critics, such as E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, nevertheless falsely accuse Israel of causing a “famine.”
As early as March 19, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, like so many European political leaders, falsely accused Israel, not Hamas, of “causing a famine” in Gaza. He even added that “100% of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity.” Israel is now forced to allow hundreds of trucks into Gaza, that Israeli soldiers escort. Gaza, in fact, reportedly receives far more food than its population needs.
The mainstream European media quickly stopped talking about the horrors of Hamas and instead turned their attention to the suffering Palestinians of Gaza—without noting that the people responsible for that suffering are Hamas. Hamas even freely admits that its strategy is to use human shields. As far as Hamas is concerned, the higher the Palestinian death count, the better.
The United States has been Israel’s main ally for decades. Historically, American leaders’ support for Israel has been unwavering—until now. In February, America’s Democrat politicians voted to block aid to Israel. As Israeli author and historian Gadi Taub noted last week:
“The U.S. is holding Israel on a leash by rationing the American-made ammunition on which the war effort depends; it has forced us to supply our enemies with ‘humanitarian aid’ which Hamas controls and which sustains its ability to fight; the U.S. is building a port to subvert our control of the flow of goods into Gaza; it refrained from vetoing an anti-Israel decision at the U.N. Security Council at the end of March; it leaked its intention to recognize a Palestinian state unilaterally; it allowed Iran to attack us directly with a barrage of over 300 rockets and drones without paying any price whatsoever; and then told us that Israel’s successful defense against that strike (which was mostly stopped by a combination of superior Israeli tech and faulty Iranian missiles that crashed all over the Middle East, and to some extent by U.S. interceptors) should be considered “victory”; it consistently protects Hezbollah from a full-fledged Israeli attack; it did all it can to prevent the ground invasion of Rafah, which is necessary for winning the war; it is trying to stop the war with a hostage deal that would ensure Hamas’ survival.
“The U.S. is not protecting Israel from the kangaroo courts in The Hague which now threaten to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and others. Instead, it is goosing those warrants, in part by itself threatening to impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, thus subverting the chain of command and pressuring IDF units to comply with American demands rather than with orders from their superiors. “
Seven months into the war, most mainstream American media are now as negative towards Israel as most mainstream European media.
In the days that followed Oct. 7, the Biden administration generously provided arms and ammunition to Israel, as well as positioned several warships in the area, presumably to keep the conflict from spreading. Yet even then, pressure was put on Israel’s government. U.S. President Joe Biden bizarrely asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “not to be consumed by rage.” Soon, as the Israeli military countered the terrorist threat in Gaza, U.S. pressure on Israel was accompanied by harsh—and curiously public—criticism.
On Jan. 9, despite unprecedented Israeli precautions to avoid harming civilians, Blinken announced, “The daily toll of war on civilians in Gaza is far too high,” and accused the Israeli Defense Forces of “indiscriminate bombing“—an accusation, as Blinken must have known, that could not have been less accurate.
Not only were Blinken’s comments untrue, they seemed intended to give arguments to Israel’s enemies.
On Feb. 7, Blinken went further and said that the Oct. 7 massacre did not give Israel—trying to defend itself in a war it did not start—a “license to dehumanize others.” Unfortunately for Blinken, that isn’t what Israel has been doing, that’s what Hamas, Hezbollah, Qatar and Iran are doing.
On Feb. 8, Biden himself said abruptly, “A lot of innocent people are starving. A lot of innocent people are in trouble and dying. And it’s got to stop.”
All right. If it’s “got to stop,” why not demand that Hamas, Iran and Qatar stop it?
On March 25, the Biden administration refused to use the American veto and allowed the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution, proposed by Algeria, demanding an immediate unilateral ceasefire from Israel—with no condemnation of Hamas.
On April 4, Blinken tried to create a false moral equivalence between a terrorist group and a liberal democracy by charging that Israel had no reverence for human life and that if Israel did not do more to protect civilians in Gaza, Hamas and Israel could become “indistinguishable.” He then cited the old Jewish saying that “whoever saves a life, saves the entire world”—grotesquely implying that Israel’s attempt to defend its own country and people was in contravention of the values of Judaism itself.
“On April 4, according to journalist Barak Ravid, Biden gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an ultimatum telling him: “If Israel doesn’t change course in Gaza, ‘we won’t be able to support you.'”
The Biden administration does not appear ever to have issued the slightest threat, warning or ultimatum to the authors of the war: Hamas, Iran or Qatar. Hamas in Gaza, like the Taliban in Afghanistan, is now most likely seen universally as the tail wagging the American dog.
Although the U.N. Security Council resolution of March 25 was not binding, any further ceasefire would mean victory for Hamas, simply by surviving to repeat the Oct. 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated, as Hamas official Ghazi Hamad has vowed to do.
Hamas, on Oct. 6, 2023, had a ceasefire with Israel. On Oct. 7, Hamas violated it. Hamas did accept a temporary ceasefire a few weeks into the war, in exchange giving up nearly half the hostages it held. A ceasefire now, especially a “temporary” one that would surely be pressured into becoming permanent, would just enable Hamas to regroup, rearm and replenish its supply of terrorists from Israeli prisons.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, after declaring himself a friend and defender of Israel, suggested overthrowing Israel’s democratically elected prime minister, and—as if Israel, and not America, were within his jurisdiction—called for new elections:
“If Prime Minister Netanyahu’s current coalition remains in power after the war begins to wind down and continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing U.S. standards for assistance, then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course,” he said.
Schumer’s speech, yet again putting America’s outsized foot in the middle of Israel’s domestic policy, and ordering its ally to take direction from the Biden administration—including accepting a terrorist Palestinian state on its borders and effectively disregarding what the Israeli people have democratically chosen—was seen by most in Israel as a vicious blow.
Biden immediately backed Schumer up.
“He made a good speech,” the president said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland’s prime minister. “I think he expressed serious concerns shared not only by him but by many Americans.”
Biden, it seems, is frustrated that Netanyahu, for some inexplicable reason, objects to the creation of a terrorist Palestinian state next door.
The U.S. State Department has, for more than a year, been providing financial support for protests hostile to the Netanyahu government. They took place every week in Israel for three quarters of 2023.
Following a brief halt after the outbreak of the war, the anti-government demonstrations started up again in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. One of the leaders of these protests, Ami Dror, revealed on social media that the demonstrations and riots are part of a plan by the Biden administration to bring down the Netanyahu government.
The United States, according to Taub, is intent on removing the democratically elected Netanyahu and replacing him with someone more, shall we say, compliant:
“In the eyes of the Biden administration, Hamas is the smaller problem. The bigger problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. is willing to live with Iran’s proxies everywhere, as part of its “regional integration” policy—i.e., appeasing Iran. But they are unwilling to live with Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. …
“If the Netanyahu problem is too big to contain, then it follows that it must be solved. And it seems that the Biden administration has zeroed in on … finding a local proxy who will impose the U.S. agenda on a reluctant Israeli electorate.”
Then there is Iran. The Biden administration, through ignoring sanctions on Iranian oil, has allowed Tehran to earn up to an estimated $100 billion. Some of these funds were most likely used by the mullahs to finance their own militia—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—in addition to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and, of course, to accelerate Iran’s nuclear-weapons program.
Without those funds, the massacre of Oct. 7 would not have been possible, Hezbollah would not have been able to fire so many missiles into Israel from Lebanon, and Iran itself would not have been able to launch more than 300 drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in April, and to attack American troops more than 150 times just since Oct. 7—evidently in an attempt to drive the United States out of the Middle East.
The Biden administration, it seems, does not want a definitive end to the conflict—as with Ukraine as well—especially if that end would entail the defeat of Hamas or, in Ukraine’s case, Russia. Hamas is a protégé of Qatar and Iran, the world’s two leading state sponsors of terrorism. The Biden administration has been rewarding them—Iran with money and Qatar with renewing its protection via the Al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of America’s CENTCOM, as well as controlling the new terror pier the United States has built in Gaza. At the same time, the Biden administration is falsely accusing Israel of violating human rights.
As the great historian Bernard Lewis wrote, “America is harmless as an enemy but treacherous as a friend.”
The Biden administration may even be complicit in the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that might be issued by the International Criminal Court—possibly as a way to dispense with him. So far at least, the U.S. administration has not lifted a finger to stop it.
Without the billions of dollars the Biden administration bestowed on Iran through sanctions waivers, the situation for Israel—and the stability and security of the entire region, including that of the United States—would have been quite different.
The Biden administration has placed the existence of Israel in danger to protect Biden from the dangerous voters of Michigan.
When Israel shows unshakable determination, noted JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, Israel is respected. He recommended that Israel fight without wavering. It is because Israel appears invincible, he stated, that its enemies do not attack it; Israel must reestablish its invincibility.
Another American journalist, Matthew Continetti, wrote:
“The political heroes of this moment are the men and women who have retained the ability to make clear distinctions … between freedom, equality, and the rule of law and violence, terror and fear.”
Continetti emphasized the need for “moral clarity.” What is threatened in the Middle East today, he wrote, are the values of our civilization.[T]he fate of our society, our nation, and our civilization depends on Israeli victory.”
It is to be hoped that the Biden administration will regain its moral clarity.
This is an edited version of an article originally published by The Gatestone Institute.
