President Biden publicly acknowledged his betrayal of Israel’s anticipated offensive in Rafah in an interview with Erin Burnett on CNN. The CNN story on the interview is here. As a practical matter, Biden supports Hamas. Biden opposes Israel. Biden’s declaration of “ironclad” support for Israel is “inoperative,” to borrow a term from Watergate.
On Tuesday Biden gave a Holocaust remembrance speech decrying those calling for “the annihilation of Israel, the world’s only Jewish State.” Biden asserted that his support for the “security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree.” In Biden’s world, the usual principles of rational thought do not obtain. Who says A need not say B. Who says A also says not A.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said in reference to the 2,000-pound bombs that Biden is withholding from the IDF. Biden also told Burnett that he’s withholding artillery ammunition.
Biden labored to articulate his thinking, or his “thinking.” This is how he put it on CNN: “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,”
Biden has proved himself a fool many times over. It has long since become redundant. This episode merely puts an exclamation point on it. Every friend of the United States must weigh the price of friendship, Biden style. Every enemy of the United States is experiencing the kind of pleasure that is usually limited to private experience.
The IDF has sustained casualties as a result of its extraordinary efforts to avoid and minimize civilian casualties. It has also lost soldiers in its efforts to appease Biden’s demands. This week it lost four soldiers at the Kerem Shalom border crossing for humanitarian aid.
John Spencer is chairman of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point. He has demonstrated many times over that Israel has created a new standard for urban warfare. Spencer wrote the linked March Newsweek column anticipating Biden’s current “thinking”:
In their criticism, Israel’s opponents are erasing a remarkable, historic new standard Israel has set. In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the U.S. military, I’ve never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy’s civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings. In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The international community, and increasingly the United States, barely acknowledges these measures while repeatedly excoriating the IDF for not doing enough to protect civilians—even as it confronts a ruthless terror organization holding its citizens hostage. Instead, the U.S. and its allies should be studying how they can apply the IDF’s tactics for protecting civilians, despite the fact that these militaries would almost certainly be extremely reluctant to employ these techniques because of how it would disadvantage them in any fight with an urban terrorist army like Hamas.
Spencer expanded on his observations, most recently, in a podcast with Sam Harris this week that is posted here on YouTube.
It is a fool’s errand to apply standards of reality and rationality to Biden. Clownworld is his domain. We’re just living in it (as Senator Graham demonstrated yesterday).
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.