Opinion

Why didn’t we do this?

Israel has eliminated as many wanted terrorists in six weeks as the U.S. has in the last 20 years.

A portrait of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah  amid destruction in a area targeted overnight by Israeli airstrikes in Saksakiyeh on Sept. 26, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP via Getty Images.
A portrait of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah amid destruction in a area targeted overnight by Israeli airstrikes in Saksakiyeh on Sept. 26, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP via Getty Images.
Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield is an Israeli-born journalist who writes for conservative publications.

In previous articles, I highlighted some of the family members of American victims of Hezbollah terror back in the 1980s, asking why the United States could not have done what Israel just did.

Obviously, we could have. And administration after administration chose not to.

The Reagan administration wanted to focus on the Cold War. 

The Bush I administration just did whatever the Saudis and Kuwaitis told them to, and at the time the Saudis had other fish to fry. 

The Clinton administration was the next phase of the Carter administration and the prep phase for what would become the Obama administration. 

The Bush II administration did some good things but unfortunately, its attention ended up being held hostage by the extended nation-building attempt in Iraq. 

The Obama administration was actively allied with Iran. 

The Trump administration took out Iran’s terror boss Qassem Soleimani. 

And the Biden administration is to the Obama administration what it was to the Clinton administration.

And so, Jared Kushner makes this startling point: “And now, over the past six weeks or so, Israel has eliminated as many terrorists on the U.S. list of wanted terrorists as the U.S. has done in the last 20 years.”

Israel’s accomplishments are unquestionably impressive, but that statistic is really due to two decades of U.S. inaction.

Consider stories like these that I’ve highlighted in the past:

“A retired Navy SEAL, whose brother was killed by Hezbollah terrorists, expressed relief when he heard that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed.

“‘When the sun went down yesterday, the world was a better place with Nasrallah not in it,’ Kenneth Stethem told The New York Post on Saturday, less than 24 hours after Nasrallah, 64, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb. Stethem planned to break the news about Nasrallah’s death to his father, now 88, on Saturday.

“When they last spoke two days ago, as Israel was bombarding Hezbollah, Stethem said he told his father, ‘Lady karma doesn’t forget, and tonight in Israel, the same people responsible for killing Rob are hearing bombs go off all around them.’

“’He’s going to be grateful that [Hezbollah] was damaged as badly as they were damaged,’ he told The Post of how he expected his dad to respond to the update.

“Stethem’s mother died two years ago, but ‘she would be very grateful for what the Israelis had the courage to do,’ the brother said.”

Rob Stethem, a Navy diver, was brutally murdered when Hezbollah terrorists took over TWA flight 847. The Iranian-backed terrorists, one of whom was Imad Mughniyah, beat and kicked him to death.

“They were jumping in the air and landing full force on his body. He must have had all his ribs broken,” recalled Uli Derickson, the stewardess. “I was sitting only 15 feet away. I couldn’t listen to it. I put my fingers in my ears. I will never forget. I could still hear. They put the mike up to his face so his screams could be heard by the outside world.”

Why did we forget this? Why didn’t we pay these bastards back? That’s a question to be asked in D.C.

The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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