President Biden is at his wits’ end over Bibi’s refusal to see things the way he, Biden, does. The man who gave us Operation Run for Your Life from Afghanistan, leaving 13 Americans dead and abandoning a thriving, pro-Western society to be grabbed again by the talons of the Taliban – this man is unhappy because Israel won’t follow his example.
On Monday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered one of his more Churchillian speeches, asserting in no uncertain terms that the IDF will never leave the Philadelphi corridor. He cited a Shin Bet report from 2005 that showed a rise of thousands of percentage points in the imports of military equipment and supplies across the Egyptian border in the six months after Israel under the late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had abandoned Philadelphi.
This flow of death-making supplies, funded by Iran, continued at the same rate for nearly twenty years. It would resume at the same lethal pace as soon as the IDF abandons Philadelphi again. There are hordes of Salafi terrorists and mountains of weapons waiting on the Egyptian side of the border. And Israel’s future depends on holding on to that 14-kilometer-long, narrow strip of land.
Netanyahu also made clear that the predictions of Israel’s security establishment have lost all credibility with him and with the vast majority of Israelis, after they failed to stop the October 7 massacre. So when they’re saying Israel could retake Philadelphi in 48 hours, Netanyahu believes it couldn’t be done in 48 years. Not because the IDF lacks the military capacity to do it, but because such an operation would face a mountain of political difficulties from within and without Israel, as it has done since 2005.
Needless to say, Joe Biden was distraught when the speech hit Washington, DC. Biden, who was departing the White House on Monday to campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh, stopped to speak to reporters. It’s maddening to see how long it takes Retirement Home Joe to reach the mics when he spots the press. But he made it, slowly, and when a reporter asked about a ceasefire in Gaza, the president answered, “We’re negotiating.”
Asked about the release of the hostages in Hamas captivity, six of whom had just been murdered in cold blood, he said, “We’re in the middle of negotiations.”
Earlier on Monday, Biden was asked if Netanyahu was doing enough, and responded, “No.”
Out on the White House lawn, he was also asked about that criticism of Netanyahu, and said, “We’re still in negotiations. Not with him, but with my colleagues from Qatar and from Egypt.”
There was so much contempt in Biden’s “not with him,” you just knew he hated that pesky Israeli prime minister who just wouldn’t give up his position on Philadelphi which Hamas wants so badly.
The forces are laid out as follows: on one side are those who want Israel out of Philadelphi comprised Hamas, Joe Biden, Qatar, Egypt, and MK Yair Lapid serving the Ashkenazi elite in Israel. On the other side are Benjamin Netanyahu and the vast majority of Israelis who came to their senses about “Palestinians” and the chances for peace with said “Palestinians,” and vowed never again to place their necks in Hamas’s noose.
Like many others on the real right in Israel, I could list for you all of Bibi’s faults, both personal and political. I also believe that he shares the responsibility for October 7. I mean, he was pushing a doctrine of divide and conquer of Hamas and the PLO, and he believed Hamas was deterred and could be plied with lots of Qatari cash. At the end of the war, Netanyahu, too, must face a committee of inquiry and go home.
But until that day comes, I am ecstatic that Bibi is my prime minister, and so are many millions of Israelis—the ones who refuse to die.
