“They are fighting like lions in these alleys, under constant threat. They are heroes. This is not a simple war,” recalled Lt. Col. Almog Rotem, a battalion commander in the Israel Defense Forces, about what is faced by his soldiers in the Rafah campaign, in Gaza. “This was a severe event that should never have happened but did. We’re in a grueling, challenging war…. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen; we will… complete the mission…. Not a single soldier has said, ‘I don’t want to continue.'”
The context is a desperate search and rescue operation for hostages from many nations taken into captivity by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and incarcerated in deep tunnels under the earth on that dreadful day. “[T]otal victory,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the US Congress, means that “we destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home.”
Reportedly due to political concerns over Muslim voters in the US, the Biden-Harris administration has not only been vacillating on military support for Israel, but also endeavouring to micromanage Israel’s war operation. A tragic outcome of these haphazard policies is that they are resulting in more deaths, prolonging the war and delaying Hamas’s release of the hostages.
The IDF’s necessary assault on Rafah for its self-defense and attempts to determine the location of senior Hamas leaders were postponed time and again due to US and international pressure. These postponements not only put the hostages at greater risk of torture and death -– bodies of five murdered hostages were recently discovered — but increase the risks to soldiers come to rescue them. Some hostages were eventually rescued from Rafah; perhaps others could have been, except that during the interim period they had been transferred elsewhere.
The US-dictated delay of sending Israel’s forces to Rafah allowed Hamas to set lethal traps for them when they eventually did arrive. Tragically, some were killed as a result, presumably unnecessarily:
- Three soldiers killed on May 18, 2024, by an IED (improvised explosive device).
- On May 28, three soldiers killed by a booby-trap;
- In June, eight soldiers perished when their vehicle hit an IED in the same area.
- Also in June, four Israeli troops killed in booby-trapped building in Rafah.
Hamas was able to set these traps during the three months in which there was a lull in fighting, a period forced upon Israel by the inept US administration.
Despite initially sending munitions and expressing an “ironclad” commitment to Israel’s survival in the face of a multi-pronged attack by Iran and its proxies, the US administration under Biden has grown weary of the domestic political fall-out from supporting Israel. The absence of strong statesmanlike leadership from the US — with Biden again projecting weakness on the world stage and his underlings no better — has resulted in a compromise of Israel’s geopolitical interests in the region, which, incidentally, align with those of the US and the West.
According to the journalist Caroline Glick:
“On the ground, the U.S. has micromanaged, slowed, subverted and delegitimized Israel’s war in Gaza, and blocked it from taking decisive action against Hezbollah, the Houthis or Iran.
“The administration has embargoed and slow-walked weapons transfers to Israel to prevent it from defeating Hamas or moving to offense against Hezbollah.”
Consequences included the unnecessary deaths of IDF soldiers, forced to enter enemy tunnels — death traps that could have been destroyed or degraded by the precision weapons and 2,000 pound bombs Israel had asked for as it tries to defend itself on seven fronts, but which the US administration denied.
Neutralizing the danger of Hamas therefore entails the ability of Israel, with full forces and required munitions, additionally to face Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The vacillation and political gamesmanship by the Biden-Harris team have only encouraged Iran to develop its nuclear weapons for what the mullahs apparently plan to be the destruction of Israel and ultimately the US.
Instead of deterring Iran, the Biden-Harris administration has been promoting a deal for Israel to surrender more of its already miniscule territory to Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon. Why Israel or any country would ever willingly agree to such stupidity is never asked.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, fully aware of US pressure on Israel — but never on Hamas or its sponsors and protectors, Qatar and Iran — has apparently decided that it would be advantageous to continue bombarding Israel. According to US Congressman Ritchie Torres:
“Since October 7th, Hezbollah has fired 7,000 drones, missiles, and rockets at Israel. Yet Israel is the one accused of ‘escalation.’
“Israel may be the only nation on earth that would be accused of escalation after daring to defend itself against 7,000 mass murder attempts by the world’s most heavily armed terrorist organization.
“The absurdity of the double standard has become too glaring to ignore. Yet ignored it continues to be.”
In a recent, horrific, possibly miscalculated, rocket attack on July 27, twelve youths of Israel’s Druze community were murdered by Hezbollah while innocently playing soccer.
Countless civilian deaths in both Israeli and Gaza have doubtless resulted from signals sent by the Biden-Harris administration that they are hostile to Israel, determined to have Hamas win, and still fund Iran. Vice President Kamala Harris failed to greet Netanyahu upon his arrival in Washington DC, or attend his address to Congress, and repeated her enthusiasm for creating a Palestinian State. In addition, the Biden-Harris administration has delayed weapons for Israel, and warned that “the U.S. will not take part in a counter-offensive against Iran.”
Iran’s ruling mullahs could only conclude that the Biden-Harris administration was done with Israel and sending them and their proxies — Hezbollah and the Houthis — a green light to escalate their attacks.
Although the US finally sent 12 destroyers to the region, probably as a warning to Iran, in general, the Biden-Harris administration’s approach has been to undermine Israel’s efforts to defend itself and rescue its hostages — some of whom are also US citizens — and strengthen Iran’s and Hamas’s commitment finally to “wipe Israel off the map.” After all, why should they agree to a ceasefire if the US keeps insisting on a ceasefire that assures them they will win?
If the Biden-Harris administration had simply stood by Israel, provided the required materiel, and warned Qatar, Iran and its proxies that if they did not stop their war immediately the costs to them would be unimaginable, it would have been over by now. In addition, civilian deaths would have been dramatically reduced on both sides, and the hostages released. Instead, the US has been engaging in political games — as it is doing with Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russia — all while people are being killed.
Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas clearly feel no pressure from the US to cease their relentless attacks. They are right: there has been none.
So, the war against Israel continues on multiple fronts, with civilians, hostages, and Israel’s soldiers suffering the consequences.
Spanish author Itxu Díaz wrote:
“Islamism has never ceased to threaten the West, and there have been numerous terrorist attacks—and thwarted attempts—in France, Belgium, and Spain in recent years. It is difficult for intelligence services to monitor extremism in Western countries with so-called no-go zones where the police can’t enter. Yet not even this disorderly and chaotic commitment to multiculturalism would be a problem if the inhabitants of these no-go zones did not have among their vital objectives the destruction of the West, the killing of Christians and Jews, and wiping Israel off the map, and if European elites did not persist in denial of this reality.
“One of the great differences between how Israel is defending itself against Islamic terrorism and how the West defends itself is the former’s integrity. Israel clearly represents a culture… at the very root of Western civilization, and, more importantly, a moral code that limits man’s capacity for destruction. The Israelis… to their credit… refuse to lie about the nature and motives of their attackers…
“At what point in history did we decide that it is more important to protect the aggressor than the attacked?”
Israel will again overcome all challenges to its people, its homeland and the West. It always has.
{Reposted from Gatestone Institute}
