"As Biden turns against Israel, Netanyahu must stand strong" by Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor of Jewish News Syndicate.
|
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu US Pres. Joe Biden (Getty Images, Reuters via Fox News)
|
(Oct 16/ JNS Israel) On Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan all announced that the United States expects Israel to permit “humanitarian aid” into Gaza.
The implications of this position are devastating for Israel. According to reports, there are “hundreds of trucks” lined up on the border in Egypt to enter the Gaza Strip carrying so-called “humanitarian aid.” These trucks, if permitted to enter, will not be inspected in any significant way. There is no reason to believe they are carrying baby formula and foodstuffs that will be delivered to the needy. There is every reason to believe they are carrying war materiel and jihadist fighters who have arrived to augment Hamas.
To the extent that there is food in the
trucks, who will it feed? The hostages? The infirm? Who will the
medicine be delivered to? The hostages? Will the fuel in the trucks be
used in refrigerators to feed the captive Israelis?
Of course not.
Hamas is Gaza. All the “ministries” in
Gaza are Hamas. All hospitals are Hamas. Hamas’s military headquarters
is located under Shifa Hospital.
So whatever and whoever is in the trucks
carrying “humanitarian aid,” all of it will be delivered to Hamas and
will be distributed to benefit Hamas.
The idea that it could be otherwise is
absurd. And the fact that the Biden administration is arguing this
absurdity is an outrage.
Even if the “hundreds of trucks” are
completely empty—and they manifestly are not—the trucks themselves are
instruments of war. Their presence in Gaza will also advance Hamas’s
military effort against Israel. They will augment Hamas’s capacity to
kill and wound untold numbers of IDF soldiers now poised at the border
waiting for the Netanyahu government to finally order them to enter
Gaza.
Biden, Blinken and Sullivan—like their
counterparts in Europe and the United Nations—insist that they want to
give Hamas the trucks to avert a humanitarian disaster in Gaza. But
their position is actually devastating for Gaza’s civilians.
By barring civilians from escaping Gaza to
its territory, even for the purpose of transiting to third countries,
Egypt is collaborating with Hamas’s war effort. By enabling Egypt to
maintain its position, and demanding that Israel allow Hamas to resupply
while calling that resupply “humanitarian aid,” the Biden
administration is trapping the civilians of Gaza it claims to care about
protecting. They will remain under Hamas’s jackboot. They will remain
its human shields and cannon fodder.
Similarly, the United States is providing
material support for Hamas’s propaganda campaign blaming Israel for the
carnage of which Hamas is the sole author—in Israel and Gaza alike.
The United States is also acting in breach
of binding international law. As professor Avi Bell of the Bar Ilan
University and University of San Diego law schools explained in an
interview on “The Caroline Glick Show” on Sunday, while Biden and his
aides have insisted repeatedly that they expect Israel to respect the
international laws of war in its prosecution of its war effort against
Hamas, the administration’s positions in relation to that war are
illegal.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 jihadist
attacks on the United States, the U.N. Security Council passed
resolution 1373 under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. Chapter 7
resolutions, unlike others, are binding on all U.N. member nations.
Resolution 1373 stipulates that all U.N.
member nations must “Refrain from providing any form of support, active
or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts.”
Any provision of any aid to Gaza, which is
completely controlled by Hamas, is of course either “active or passive”
assistance to Hamas, and hence illegal.
Resolution 1373 also requires all U.N.
member states to “Deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support or
commit terrorist acts, or provide safe havens.”
Following Blinken’s visit to Israel last
Thursday, he traveled to Qatar. Qatar houses Hamas’s top terror masters.
They planned their atrocities from Qatar. Iran’s cash and arms are
funneled to Hamas through Qatar. Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite channel is an integral component of Hamas’s terror machine. On Monday morning, the IDF announced that Al Jazeera
reporters are transferring information about IDF troop placements and
numbers to Hamas both directly and through their broadcasts.
Qatar is Hamas.
Rather than designate Qatar officially as a
state sponsor of terrorism, last Friday Blinken embraced Qatari Foreign
Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassin Al Thani as an ally. And
that makes sense because from the administration’s perspective, Hamas’s
host is a U.S. ally. Shortly after entering office, the Biden
administration designated Qatar a major non-NATO ally—the same
designation Israel enjoys.
By embracing Qatar as an ally rather than
punishing it for its central role at all levels of Hamas’s terror
infrastructure, the administration is breaching international law, yet
again. It is also betraying Israel.
In his interview with 60 Minutes,
Biden said that the United States opposes Israel’s war goal of
obliterating Hamas and destroying its capacity to govern in any way in
Gaza. Instead, Biden drew an obscene, imaginary distinction between
Hamas and “extreme elements in Hamas.”
Biden also endorsed the idea that Israel
should knock down Hamas a few notches, but not conquer Gaza. Instead, he
intimated that the PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority, which supports
Hamas and is serving as its foreign ministry at the United Nations and
in world capitals, should rule Gaza.
As a superpower, the United States is in a
position to side with Israel and Hamas simultaneously. And that is
clearly the Biden administration’s current policy. The administration’s
goal, apparently, is to block Israel from winning and force it to fight
to a draw—in the best-case scenario. This is perfect for Hamas, which
would survive, and with its friends in the United States, the United
Nations, Iran, Qatar and throughout the Arab and Western world, rebuild
itself stronger than ever.
For Israel, it would be a calamity of
biblical proportions. Alone in the world, and treated infamously by its
ostensible U.S. ally, Israel would emerge from the war with its regional
position in tatters. The peace with Egypt and Jordan would likely not
long survive. The Abraham Accords would be undone. And the very notion
of normalization of ties with Saudi Arabia would be pushed down the
memory hole. Iran would stand as the regional superpower, and within
months could be expected to test a nuclear weapon. Israel’s future, in
short, would be bleak.