Candidly Speaking: Will Obama keep shielding Hamas barbarians at our gates?
If the US rewards Hamas by seeking to “lift the blockade” or provide them with funds without demilitarization, it will be betraying us.
By ISI LEIBLERA Hamas regional operations map recovered by the IDF in Gaza(photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)
The US is Israel’s most important ally. It has provided us with arms, and only last week Congress granted us additional funds to further develop the Iron Dome missile defense system. It has also used its political clout to deflect hostile resolutions and sanctions at the international level.But we should be under no illusions. The US-Israel relationship is under great strain. Notwithstanding cryptic statements by both the Israeli and US governments denying the veracity of extracts of a toxic telephone conversation between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Barak Obama, TV Channel One’s highly respected foreign news editor, Oren Nahari, adamantly stands by his story, stressing that his source was a reliable senior US official and not the prime minister’s office.The president is alleged to have harshly demanded that Netanyahu accept an immediate unilateral ceasefire, and to have informed him that the US was committed to ending the blockade of Gaza. Netanyahu pointed out that the US administration was undermining the cease-fire by substituting Egyptian mediation with Qatar and Turkey, reminding Obama that the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Qatar finances and provides arms to Hamas and other terrorist groups, including ISIS. He could have also pointed out that Turkey’s demagogic prime minister has been stoking hysterical anti-Israeli sentiment and vile anti-Semitism, even demanding that his own Jewish community condemn Israel.President Obama allegedly responded by telling Netanyahu that he was not in a position to advise America who should act as mediators. Lending credence to this exchange was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who, a few days later, told CNN that the US must cooperate with the Qataris “who have told me over and over again that Hamas is a humanitarian organization.” It is mind-boggling that a Democratic congressional leader can describe as “humanitarian” a genocidal organization with similar objectives to those of al-Qaida, whose charter explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.There were also tense exchanges between the prime minister’s office and US Secretary of State John Kerry, now notorious for his inappropriate comments and contradictory statements.There have been efforts by both parties to calm the waters. US officials have reiterated their commitment to Israel and re-endorsed Israel’s right to defend itself. President Obama has now, belatedly, followed the lead of the Europeans and includes the demilitarization of Gaza as an issue to be negotiated in conjunction with the lifting of the blockade after cessation of hostilities.But there is no disputing that President Obama has consciously or otherwise shielded Hamas. This is not a conflict in which the US should act as a mediator or even hint at moral equivalence. This conflict was thrust upon us by a terrorist group promoting a culture of death and martyrdom, reflected in the oft-quoted Hamas slogan: “Jews wish for life and we wish for a martyr’s death.” We are not confronting an entity seeking independence. It is a conflict between good and evil.We would have expected our ally to allocate the blame for the casualties to the death merchants of Hamas who target Israeli civilians and propagate casualties among their own people who they employ as human shields and then gleefully present to the world as victims of Israeli tyranny.Instead, President Obama has led the pack in hypocritically supporting our right to defend ourselves while blaming us for disproportionate response when we retaliate against the source of the rocket fire whose command posts and launching sites are deliberately embedded in UN buildings, schools, hospitals and mosques. The gory scenes of Palestinian casualties highlighted by the global media should have been presented in the context of Hamas responsibility for deliberately orchestrating this nightmare. Instead President Obama’s behavior has merely encouraged Hamas to continue this barbaric strategy in the belief that the US will rescue it from the jaws of defeat and reward it for their commitment to terrorism.In this context, the clearly synchronized outbursts from the White House, State Department and even the Pentagon, just prior to the announcement of the stillborn 72-hour cease-fire, condemning Israel for civilian casualties, including the shelling of a UNRWA School in Gaza as “indefensible” and “totally unacceptable,” was clearly designed to garner the support of Qatar and Turkey.The US is aware of the extraordinary lengths, unmatched in any military conflict, to which Israel goes to minimize civilian casualties. But innocent civilians die in a war – and obviously more so in a situation in which women and children are employed as human shields and who are deliberately housed together with missiles launchers and command posts. When under fire from terrorists – even if they operate out of schools – Israeli soldiers must return fire or be killed. Beyond that, accidents are inevitable. Just recall the thousands of innocent French civilians who were killed by the allies during the invasion in 1944.To appreciate the double standards and hypocrisy employed against us, the US should take note of the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians killed by allied forces in the course of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the carnage in Serbia incurred by NATO’s indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Belgrade to force Milosevic to step down.The tragic casualties among Palestinian innocents sadden us all. But it is revolting when the US president expresses more outrage over the deaths of 1,500 Palestinians, a large proportion of whom are bloody terrorists, than the butchered 180,000 Syrians in the ongoing civil war in that country.It is utterly unacceptable to condemn a long-standing ally. How can the US justify its focus on the loss of innocent lives without regard to the context, and avoid directing the blame to Hamas which exults in both killing Israelis and the killing of its own people, whose suffering it openly exploits to discredit Israel and divert attention from its terrorist activities? It brings to mind Golda Meir’s oft quoted quip that peace will only be achieved when our adversaries love their children more than they hate us.Israel must stand firm. The public shock over the discovery of the terror tunnels and the extent of the missile capability – which now covers the entire country – has united the people in a manner reminiscent of the Six Day War. Close to 90 percent are adamant that Israel must not stop until Gaza is demilitarized or Hamas completely smashed, despite the terrible toll in casualties.Even the dovish Labor party opposition is demanding this of Netanyahu.Although it is not reflected in the extraordinary tsunami of global anti-Semitism and the double standards formally adopted by Western countries, there is a clear consensus that this war was imposed on us and there is a greater appreciation of the terrorist nature of Hamas and its contempt for human life.There is also the radical reversal in the approach of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and most of the Arab League who endorsed the Egyptian cease-fire proposal and whose fear and loathing of the Islamic fundamentalist extremists far exceeds their traditional hatred of Israel. The Egyptians and other moderate Arab states maintain that since his initial Cairo speech in 2009, President Obama has emerged as a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood – the creator of Hamas – and which they regard, justifiably, as an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization.They consider the undermining of the Egyptian ceasefire proposals and the turning toward Qatar and Turkey – supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas – as another example of the US betraying its allies and engaging its enemies. This was reflected in Kerry’s initial Qatar/Turkey-sponsored cease-fire proposal, unanimously rejected by the Israeli cabinet, which could have been written by Hamas.As of now, Israel has largely achieved its principal objectives of destroying the tunnels and substantially neutralizing the missile capability. But Hamas remains intact and unless demilitarization is imposed we face inveterate jihadists who will not relent from their openly expressed objective of destroying us or at least eroding our morale by ongoing terror attacks.The prime responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens. This is a time for Israel to stand firm and take whatever steps are necessary to defang Hamas and demilitarize Gaza. The responsibility for the fallout on innocent Palestinians rests exclusively on Hamas.The brazen Hamas breach of the 72-hour cease-fire has led to a temporary global backlash against Hamas.Having neutralized those tunnels which the IDF was able to detect, the ground forces are being redeployed.However, Netanyahu has made it clear that the operation is not over.The cabinet must speedily decide on one of two options. It can expand the ground campaign and conquer Gaza, which the majority of the nation would probably initially endorse but which would likely entail massive casualties and provoke concerted international pressure that would probably force us to withdraw unilaterally or face sanctions. It would appear that without ruling out this option, Prime Minister Netanyahu – at least in the short term – intends to continue degrading the rocket launchers and attacking Hamas from the air, thereby limiting Israeli casualties and providing greater leverage to achieve demilitarization.The outcome rests largely with the US. If it rewards Hamas for its aggression by seeking to “lift the blockade” or provide them with funds without demilitarization, it will be betraying us. The US will thus have destroyed whatever little global credibility it retains and will be seen as abandoning its long standing-ally and groveling to those who support fanatical Islamic terrorism.Will the US support Israel’s just cause against genocidal terrorism or act as a shield to protect the Hamas barbarians at our gates, effectively paving the way for a far more brutal war in the near future?The writer’s website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com. He may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com.
