President Joe Biden is determined to save Hamas from destruction.
That’s the obvious conclusion from his threat to deny Israel bombs and artillery rounds if it dares to enter the densely-populated areas of Rafah, in Gaza, where the last Hamas battalions are hiding.
Biden’s announcement came after days of obfuscation by the White House, which refused repeatedly to confirm or deny that the U.S. was already withholding a shipment of large bombs from Israel.
Biden had previously said that his commitment to Israel’s security was “ironclad.” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeated that word, as did Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who was the first administration official to confirm that weapons were, in fact, being withheld.
Neither Jean-Pierre nor Austin could explain how an “ironclad” commitment could be reconciled with a decision to deny Israel weapons during a war against terrorists.
That explanation came later, as Biden told CNN that what he meant was Israel would still have technologies like the Iron Dome — a purely defensive weapons system — but would not have the ability to attack Hamas as it hid among Palestinian civilians.
So Israel must simply wait to be attacked by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and their Iranian backers, and live in constant fear of another October 7, rather than going after the terrorists and winning the war.
Not to worry: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) assured Fox News on Tuesday that even though tens of thousands of Hamas terrorists may survive the war, there is no reason to believe they can repeat the October 7 attack.
What is needed, he said, is a “diplomatic” solution — one that leaves Hamas intact as both a military and political organization, sure, but with “new governance.”
He did not explain how any “new” government in Gaza would keep Hamas from taking over.
Biden once promised to help Israel destroy Hamas, and the White House — when pressed — will say that it still shares that goal. However, Biden and his staff say, there is a way to remove Hamas without going into Rafah.
They have not explained what that means.
Will Hamas just surrender without a fight? Will its leaders agree to be exiled? Will Arab countries, who have refused to accept innocent Palestinian civilians as refugees, welcome thousands of terrorists?
On Thursday, the administration rolled out a new argument: attacking Hamas in Rafah would make it stronger.
Yes — going after the terrorists and killing them would play into their hands. It would also, according to the White House and the State Department, increase Hamas’s leverage at the negotiating table, because — well, just because.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said: “If I’m [Gaza-based Hamas leader] Mr. [Yahya] Sinwar, and I’m sitting down in my tunnel… and I’m seeing innocent people falling victim to major significant combat operations in Rafah, then I have less of an incentive to want to come to the negotiating table.”
Kirby could have considered that “major significant combat operations” by Israel would likely involve killing Hamas terrorists, creating a very strong incentive for Sinwar to negotiate for the release of the hostages as Israeli troops closed in on him.
But, no.
Israelis who once trusted Biden’s warning — “Don’t” — now understand that it did not apply to Iran, or Hezbollah; rather, it applied to them.
Don’t go into Rafah. Don’t destroy Hamas. Don’t attack Hezbollah, which is occupying southern Lebanon in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1707, and has forced the evacuation of Israel’s entire northern border region. Don’t retaliate against Iran for launching 300 missiles and drones. Don’t win.
Donald Trump took the opposite approach. He didn’t need to defend Israel directly; all he needed to do was make it clear he would let Israel do whatever it needed to do to win if it was attacked by Iran or its terrorist proxies. He also stopped giving money to Palestinian-run organizations that supported or subsidized terrorism.
The result was four years of calm for Israel, and the Abraham Accords — the first peace agreements in the Middle East in a generation.
Biden started funding the corrupt organizations again. He started pressuring Israel again. And he tried to isolate Israel’s democratically-elected leader.
Now, terrified of losing Michigan, Biden is effectively siding with Hamas. He delivered a speech about the Holocaust on Tuesday, then tried to save the new Nazis on Wednesday.
The good news is that even voters who don’t care about Israel see Biden breaking an “ironclad” promise. Many will never trust him again.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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