{"id":98574,"date":"2023-12-14T19:22:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T01:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=98574"},"modified":"2023-12-14T19:22:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T01:22:27","slug":"98574","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=98574","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Netanyahu, Israeli FM to Biden: We’re Destroying Hamas Whether You Like It or Not<\/a><\/p>\n

Before we get to this direct rejection of\u00a0the Biden\/Blinken \u2018credit\u2019 argument<\/a>, let\u2019s go over the background that led to it. Under pressure from progressive anti-Semites in his party,\u00a0Joe Biden growled yesterday<\/a>\u00a0about Israel\u2019s supposedly \u201cindiscriminate\u201d bombing campaign in Gaza. His comments at a campaign event yesterday sent shock waves through the US media:<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael\u2019s security can rest on the United States,\u201d Biden stated during a campaign event Tuesday, as he touted his government\u2019s strong support of Israel. \u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut they\u2019re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place\u201d in Gaza, Biden said, in a statement that implied Israel was needlessly targeting civilians.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The context of the event mattered in this case.\u00a0Biden was in campaign mode<\/a>, and as such, Biden apparently felt compelled to pander to his progressive wing on Israel. While agreeing that Hamas are \u201canimals\u201d and need to be held \u201caccountable,\u201d Biden then compared Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza to World War II, and claimed \u201cBibi\u201d made the comparison:<\/p>\n

It was pointed out to me \u2014 I\u2019m being very blunt with you all \u2014 it was pointed out to me that \u2014 by Bibi \u2014 that \u201cWell, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I said, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s why all these institutions were set up after World War Two to see to it that it didn\u2019t happen again \u2014 it didn\u2019t happen again. Don\u2019t make the same mistakes we made at 9\/11. There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan at 9\/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m not sure what point Biden thinks he was making. Is he criticizing the Allied war actions of World War II, which destroyed the Nazis and liberated half a continent? Would he have recommended cutting a deal with Hitler instead and leaving the Nazis in place? Is he criticizing Truman for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? (As I explained in August<\/a>, there were good reasons to make that choice,\u00a0some of which apply in this conflict<\/a>.) Does Biden think we \u201ccarpet-bombed\u201d Afghanistan? If the answer to any of these is \u201cyes,\u201d then Biden is far more ignorant than even we assumed.<\/p>\n

At any rate, it seems unlikely that Netanyahu actually made an argument based on \u201ccarpet-bombing,\u201d because that is clearly\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0what the IDF is doing in Gaza. (That part smells like Biden\u2019s typical self-serving fabulism.) The IDF has chosen to use ground troops and narrow targeting of Hamas-infiltrated infrastructure rather than use bunker-busters that would eliminate some of the risk to its own soldiers. Even the New York Times tacitly acknowledged the falsity of Biden\u2019s claim in\u00a0a rather useful deep-dive analysis of \u201cproportionality\u201d today<\/a>. Steven Erlanger debunks the idea that \u201cproportionality\u201d has anything to do with equating body counts, as well as that \u201csymmetry\u201d is a legal requirement in wars, especially when one side starts it as part of an annihilation effort.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As for \u201csymmetry,\u201d the Israelis have something to say about that too:<\/p>\n

Officials recognize the reputational damage the war is causing and the public pressure that allied governments are feeling to bring the killing to a rapid close. But they claim they are being held to a higher standard than Hamas. Hamas, they say, has breached numerous laws of war, including using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure for military purposes and using rape as a weapon.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Hamas, too, is obligated to respect the rules of war, said Cordula Droege, the chief legal officer for the International Committee of the Red Cross.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever your reason, if you choose to wage war, you still need to respect the exact same rules of international humanitarian law as a party to the conflict, and it makes no difference whether you act in self-defense or call yourself a liberation movement,\u201d she said. \u201cInternational humanitarian law protects the victims of the armed conflict, and they will be victims no matter what side they\u2019re on.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, it\u2019s deeply\u00a0stupid<\/em>\u00a0to cluck about \u201cindiscriminate\u201d use of force by the Israelis in a war Hamas started with a wholesale slaughter of unarmed men, women, and children two months ago. It\u2019s even more deeply\u00a0stupid<\/em>\u00a0to assign responsibility for civilian deaths in Gaza to the IDF, which works within international rules for war, rather than the terrorists that hide among civilians and use them as shields, in a war the terrorist \u201canimals\u201d started by massacring, raping, and kidnapping civilians,\u00a0including Americans<\/em>. (Even the Red Cross understands that much.) And it\u2019s downright\u00a0idiotic<\/em>\u00a0to demand that the Israelis end the conflict with Hamas in place, just to do this all over.\u00a0Again<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Today, Netanyahu and Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen\u00a0rejected Biden\u2019s threat<\/a>\u00a0to withdraw support. Israel will fight this war to a conclusion, both promised in\u00a0separate statements<\/a>, whether Biden approves or not:<\/p>\n

According to the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, Netanyahu gets a briefing about the unit\u2019s work and the interrogation procedures.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He then tells the unit\u2019s soldiers that \u201cwe are continuing until the end, until victory, until the elimination of Hamas\u201d \u2014 even in the face of international pressure. \u201cNothing will stop us,\u201d he says. \u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael will continue the war against Hamas with or without international support. A ceasefire at the current stage is a gift to the terrorist organization Hamas, and will allow it to return and threaten the residents of Israel,\u201d Cohen tells a visiting diplomat, according to a statement issued by his ministry.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hamas has started to figure out that they\u2019re about to lose Gaza as a result. That may be why\u00a0their leadership has begun to disappear<\/a>, as KAN reported earlier. Ismail Haniyeh made an appearance today,\u00a0but only by video<\/a>, with an offer to end the war with Hamas firmly remaining in place:<\/p>\n

\u201cAny arrangement in Gaza or in the Palestinian cause without Hamas or the resistance factions is a delusion,\u201d says Haniyeh in a televised speech.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Haniyeh says he is open to talks for ending the ongoing war and \u201cputting the Palestinian house in order both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He says Hamas is ready for talks that could lead to a \u201cpolitical path that secures the right of the Palestinian people to their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clearly, Haniyeh wants to play on the West\u2019s desire to end the conflict on any terms it can get. This probably would work on Biden too, even with the demand for Jerusalem as the capital of a \u201cPalestinian\u201d state, a very clear sign that Hamas still intends to annihilate Israel no matter what negotiations take place. Other Hamas officials, notably Ghazi Hamad, have made that overtly clear all along.<\/p>\n

Before October 7, Israel might have played along with the West and their continued footsie with Hamas and Hamas\u2019 sponsors in Tehran. This time, however, the Israelis are not playing\u00a0at all<\/em>. No amount of denial will make them forget the atrocities Hamas inflicted two months ago and their public pledges to repeat them\u00a0ad nauseam<\/em>. Israel\u2019s famously fractious polity has finally united on this point, and nothing Biden says or does will deflect them from the path of actual victory rather than frozen conflict with Hamas.<\/p>\n

Because the Israelis aren\u2019t idiots. Even if some of their friends\u00a0are<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Netanyahu, Israeli FM to Biden: We’re Destroying Hamas Whether You Like It or Not Before we get to this direct rejection of\u00a0the Biden\/Blinken \u2018credit\u2019 argument, let\u2019s go over the background that led to it. Under pressure from progressive anti-Semites in his party,\u00a0Joe Biden growled yesterday\u00a0about Israel\u2019s supposedly \u201cindiscriminate\u201d bombing campaign in Gaza. His comments at … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enemies-foreign-domestic","category-moslems-jihadis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98575,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98574\/revisions\/98575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}