David Jablinowitz’s assertion (“A crisis both in the Middle East and at home,” April 26) that the Biden administration “is truly on Israel’s side in fighting Iran and its proxies” is unconvincing. While the military aid bill signed by the president on April 24 is certainly welcome, a strong case can be made that October 7 was a direct result of Biden’s earlier policies.
Since taking office, Biden has suspended oil sanctions and released billions of dollars of frozen assets, thereby rejuvenating the Iranian theocracy bent on destroying Israel. Once on the verge of bankruptcy and collapse, Iran is now able to finance and expand its terror network. The payment of $6 billion for the release of five Americans held by Iran led predictably to Hamas taking hundreds of hostages a month later.
Biden’s top-level advisers subscribe to the Obama strategy that Iran should serve as a counterbalance to Israel’s perceived regional hegemony. This policy justified the disastrous nuclear deal. The administration has yet to reveal any plan to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Still worse, seeking to prevent a regional conflict, Biden has adopted a policy of appeasement while steadfastly avoiding direct confrontation with Iran. (In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s savage attack, the State Department urged Israel not to retaliate.) This could lead to future regional conflagration since the mullahs have no incentive to halt their war against Israel and the West.
Biden declared in early February that Israel’s actions in Gaza were “over the top.” More recently, the State Department issued a report charging Israel with multiple human rights abuses, and Biden threatened to sanction specific Israeli army units. No wonder the ICC is considering arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, with inevitable dire ramifications.
While Jablinowitz would have us believe that Biden is tempering his response to campus unrest only because he is worried about losing votes in the upcoming election, the administration’s persistent criticism of Israel has been internalized by students who know nothing about the region. They rail against the hypocrisy of an administration that recognizes the Jewish state’s alleged “crimes” but refuses to do anything to prevent them.
Replenishing our weapon supplies is all well and good, but Biden’s inconsistency gives the lie to any claim of unwavering support for Israel.
EFRAIM COHEN
Zichron Ya’acov
Inappropriately self-destructive
The column from Steve Rosedale about the Netzach Yehuda/Nahal Haredi battalion (“A grave injustice,” April 26) was very welcome. One of my nephews came from England to serve in this battalion, and what he took back with him from his experience enabled him to become a leader in the Shomrim organization in London, which helps defend and protect the religious community.
One has to understand that the attempts to undermine this battalion – especially by the Americans – are purely political in nature and, as Mr. Rosedale correctly pointed out, have very little connection with the realities of defending Jews in Judea and Samaria from the constant murderous attacks by Palestinian terrorists.
Israelis have been crying out for a long time for greater involvement by the haredi community in the actual physical defense of the country. Letting deeply misguided American and local far-Left elements interfere with the functioning and growth of this battalion would be inappropriately self-destructive.
JOSEPH BERGER
Netanya
Ridiculous and shameful demands
Regarding “White House: New progress in hostage talks, onus now on Hamas” (April 30): Can we please stop groveling to Hamas? What happened to “we don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
We are not only negotiating, but almost on our knees begging Yahya Sinwar, the arch-terrorist who Israel released from prison among over 1,000 other terrorists in an exchange for one hostage, Gilad Schalit, to agree to a deal now. Our soldiers are being killed daily because of the ridiculous and shameful demands on us to keep Gazan civilian enemies safe.
We should not forget that Gazan civilians helped Hamas in the October 7 massacre and supported it. Surely we must take a firm stance and say: “No more sacrifices on our part.” We didn’t start this war and we damn well need to end it and fast, because it is the only way we can ever have any chance of releasing any of the hostages and live with ourselves as a sovereign Jewish nation in our own land with pride and faith in the justness of our cause.
President Biden has shown where his priorities lie, and that is with Muslims, who he is too inept to understand, are who are gradually taking over his country as well as the world. The US president doesn’t care about the thousands of Israelis who have been made refugees in their own land because they had to leave their homes due to the constant rockets, nor does he care about the suffering of our children.
We surely did not make it through the pogroms and the Holocaust only to be destroyed by Sinwar and his Hamas terrorists because we were afraid to stand up to our supposed friend, the hypocritical Biden. Let us show the world the giants who we are, and not the grasshoppers we have been for too long.
EDITH OGNALL
Netanya
Abolish the ICC
I find it nauseating and tragic when the ICC is interested in condemning Israel while making no mention of Hamas’s dastardly and blatant attack against Israel on October 7 (“Katz warns of backlash over possible ICC warrants concerning Gaza actions,” April 30). Is the ICC actually trying to state that Israel has no right to defend itself?
If that is the case, no democracy has the right to self-defense against terrorism. The time has come to abolish the ICC and send all of the bigots home where they belong.
JOE SIMON
Kfar Aviv
Empty echoes
While I can understand the political turbulence resulting from the plight of the hostages and the debate over the potential consequences of reaching a deal of one sort of another, I cannot excuse irresponsible and even harmful statements, such as those that are all over your report on the fragility of the current government (“Ministers threaten coalition over hostage deal,” April 30).
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, for example, has repeatedly threatened to bring the government down if his way of thinking is not adopted. I certainly respect his right to have and voice an opinion – if for no other reason than to justify the trust of his voters – but a more mature approach would, in the end, yield far greater results. His threats are beginning to sound like empty echoes.
Am I the only one wondering what Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz meant by accusing the government of abandoning the hostages? That the government is unwilling to agree to any and all demands is hardly a case of abandonment. The families of the hostages, overwhelmed by grief and frustration, might make such a claim, but coming from someone who sits in the war cabinet, it is both reckless and foolish.
BARRY NEWMAN
Ginot Shomron
Irrational loathing
Regarding “ICC mulls issuing war crimes arrest warrants for Netanyahu, others – report” (April 19): Because of the irrational loathing of Prime Minister Netanyahu, partially enabled by the Palestinians who hate his hardball tactics, the ICC, supported by the EU and many in the Biden administration, wants to affect a regime change in Israel.
None realize that any new administration will conduct the war with Iran (that would also include Gaza) identically in the manner adopted by Netanyahu’s war cabinet. In fact, a new prime minister would probably retain the current war cabinet.
In an irony engendered by the double standard imposed upon Israel, if there is a regime crying out for change, it is the terrorist regime of Iran whose mad ayatollah’s desire to erase Israel is the cause of all the conflict going on in the Mideast. But will the EU support the ICC issuing war crimes arrest warrants for Iran’s leaders? You know the answer to that question.
LARRY SHAPIRO
Calgary