I want to return, first, to the statement of Charles Q. Brown Jr., US Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. As I wrote on Friday, he indicated that the US would not be able to help defend Israel during an attack by Hezbollah in the same way it did when Iran sent missiles towards Israel.
He cited several reasons, but the one I want to focus on here is his concern that US forces might get involved:
“Brown said the Biden administration continues to urge Israel against widening the conflict in the north. Washington’s key message is ‘to think about the second order of effect of any type of operation into Lebanon, and how that might play out and how it impacts not just the region, but how it impacts our forces in regions as well.’”
https://www.jns.org/us-will-have-difficulty-defending-israel-against-hezbollah/
Let’s examine that statement. His first concern is American forces in the region. I get that. But what is implied in this statement—but never spoken explicitly—is this:
“Look, Israel, you are having a very difficult time. Hezbollah is shelling your north. Tens of thousands of your citizens are living in temporary quarters because they are not safe in their homes. Some of those homes have been leveled. Many dunams of forest and beautiful parkland have been destroyed by fire because of the shelling.
“We recognize that no nation can tolerate this sort of on-going attack indefinitely. And it is possible that the only way you will be able to stop this is by widening the conflict beyond your current shelling.
“But be that as it may, we don’t want you to do it because then our troops in the area might be impacted.
“Just live with it.”
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This from a representative of the nation that is supposed to be our greatest ally, whose president (and I will come back to him) declared passionately back in early October that the US was with us (emphasis added):
“…the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back…
“Israel has the right to defend itself and its people. Full stop…
“And my administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.”
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Then he came to Israel later in October and declared:
“I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone. You are not alone.
“As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone.”
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I want to make it very clear. There are many Americans who ARE with us. Ordinary Americans, including many Christian Zionists. Members of Congress: Great friends such as Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Members of the previous administration such as Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence. Many others. But the current administration? Another story altogether.
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Members of the Biden administration, notably special envoy Amos Hochstein, pictured, have been pushing for a “diplomatic solution” – some agreement on paper that would forestall further military action by Israel. But Israel is far too savvy to buy into this.
Israel is keenly aware of the fact that Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006 was breached in its entirety. Eric Mandel, director of MEPIN (Middle East Political Information Network), has just written that the UNIFIL forces put in place by that resolution did not stop a single one of the missiles moved by Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
There was an Israeli proposal – rejected by Hockstein – that 1701 be enforced now. Resolution 1701 calls, among other stipulations, for Hezbollah to pull back behind the Litani River, which is some 18 miles from Israel’s northern border; Hochstein proposed an agreement that would require Hezbollah to pull back some six miles. What Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has his head screwed on properly, said was that any “diplomatic” solution would have to be reinforced by Israeli troops. The IDF would have to move into southern Lebanon and ensure that Hezbollah truly did pull back.
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I have written previously about how nonsensical it was that Hockstein went into Lebanon and spoke with members of the Lebanese government regarding some sort of diplomatic agreement. The Lebanese government is powerless, I wrote, and Hockstein should have recognized this and spoken with Hezbollah.
Eric Mandel certainly concurs that the Lebanese government is powerless. Pretending that Lebanon is anything other than a failed state misleads the American people, he wrote. An example of how powerless the government is: Iranian weaponry is being moved into Lebanon via air. At the Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri International Airport, security personnel turn a blind eye, explaining that their families would be at risk if they tried to stop the movement of weapons.
According to a report of just over a week ago, the weaponry not only comes in via the civilian airport, ballistic missiles, Burkan rockets, anti-tank guided missiles, explosives containing toxic powder and much more are being hidden in the civilian airport after arrival.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rjhi11ibu0
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But while I said that Hockstein should have gone to Hezbollah, Mandel takes it further, and properly so: Hockstein should have gone to Tehran, he says, as Iran is calling the shots.
Or, wrote Hockstein (and please note this very carefully): “At the very least the administration should send Hockstein to Oman or Qatar, where the president’s minions engaged in secret negotiations with Iran behind the backs of Congress. I heard that from the Omanis and Qataris during my visits last year.”
And here we are getting to the heart of the matter. The reality, when faced, chills the blood. Hezbollah – which, says Mandel, is best viewed as a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – may petition Tehran regarding a disinclination to engage in a full war with Israel now. Such a war would be a disaster for Hezbollah, and for Lebanon more broadly. But ultimately it is Iran that will make the decision.
Since October 7, as we see above, the arsenal of rockets in the possession of Hezbollah has been reinforced, including with additional Iranian smart rockets. Says Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, “Hezbollah’s missiles and growing military might are a true threat.”
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Mandel believes that the most likely reason Iran is not promoting a full-scale attack by Hezbollah on Israel now is because it wants to “preserve Hezbollah’s massive 200,000 accumulation of missiles, rockets, drones, anti-tank weapons and mortars as a sword of Damocles hanging over Israel’s head, a deterrence against an Israeli preemptive strike on the nuclear weapons infrastructure in Iran.”
https://www.pressreader.com/israel/jerusalem-post/20240628/282037627353837
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My friends, to say that this is enraging is an understatement. If the world had paid attention, had cared, this would not be the current situation. Iran is on the cusp of becoming a nuclear nation, this because of the weakness of the agreement that was to prevent this, and the degree to which Iran ignored the limitations of that agreement.
We must go back to the Obama administration to understand this situation. Obama negotiated a very bad deal with Iran, a deal that, on top of everything else, had a sunset clause. As I followed reports about the negotiations for the deal, I often wondered which side the American team was supporting – so willing were the Americans to make allowances for Iran, incorporating with everything else, a sunset clause. What is more, I became aware of lies that Obama told the American people, so that they were in the dark regarding the leniencies in place in the agreement.
Obama, who was no friend to Israel, empowered Iran. And the world, not terribly invested, sailed blithely by.
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For years, who was it who spoke against the dangers of Iran, over and over? None other than Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
He wasn’t taken seriously. He was seen as “over the top” with his warnings. And the world kept going.
Had there been more attention paid to what he said, we wouldn’t be where we are now. And what must be noted is that while the world sees Iran and Hezbollah primarily as Israel’s problem, it is a problem for all of the western world.
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We saw a four-year reprieve in the situation with the Trump administration, 2017 to 2021. Donald Trump, for all his bellicose style and worrisome eccentricities, got it. He broke off the deal with Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—and reimposed sanctions.
When Biden – who was vice president under Obama and takes instruction from him to this day – entered the White House, he sought to reverse the good that Trump had done. Biden has made outrageous concessions to Iran and seeks entente with Iran, to the advantage not of the US but the rulers of Iran.
Among the things Biden has done is weaken sanctions against Iran, which has enabled Iran to bring in billions of dollars, some of which has been utilized for strengthening Hezbollah. Iran is currently bringing in more money than it was before sanctions were instituted by Trump.
This should not have happened, but it did happen:
“Texas Senator Ted Cruz has condemned the Biden administration for its role in financing Iran’s military aggression against Israel. In remarks made on his podcast ‘Verdict,’ Cruz stated…“This tragically is the result of the Biden Foreign Policy of Appeasement and the entire Democrat Party backing away from Israel and sending billions of dollars to Iran.’
“He further criticized the administration for allowing sanctions on Iranian missiles to lapse…”
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-797625
I urge you to see and share the video below, of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that further exposes how the Biden administration has enabled Iran instead of blocking it, hiding information from the people in the process. Senator Cruz says that Biden has permitted $100 billion to flow into Iran.
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I recently cited Rabbi Moshe Taragin, and I am moved to cite him again here. On Friday, he wrote:
“It has been our legacy to stand tall and block out the noise and the hatred. We have always possessed this courage and this different spirit, and our current crisis should be no different…
“To be a Jew is to be comfortable standing alone…
“For centuries, we preached monotheism to a world drunk on pagan gods. We stood alone. For centuries we spoke of a civil society that preserved the dignity of humankind, while the world was subjugated by brutal tyrants and miserable societies. We stood alone. For the past thousand years, we have faced malicious hostility and brutal violence while we were consistently demonized as the ‘other.’ We stood alone.
“During the nightmare of the Holocaust, Hitler tried to erase us from this planet, while much of the world stood by silently. We stood alone. During the first few decades of the State of Israel, hostile Arab countries partnered with the powerful Soviet Union in an attempt to crush our small country. We stood alone.
“As people of a different spirit, we cannot be intimidated by the violence and the rage we face. This is our responsibility to past generations who stood tall and stood alone. We owe it to them…”
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-808023
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Rabbi Taragin was not alluding specifically to Hezbollah and Iran, but to world Jew-hatred more broadly. But his words echoed loudly in my own heart.
Right now, as we face the dangers to our north, we stand alone. And we know it.
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We are at the eleventh hour, and yet I believe it does not have to be this way. I dream, in my fantasies, of a western world that says, we failed the Jewish people inexcusably during the Holocaust and now “Never Again” calls to us. Iran must realize that today we stand with Israel: An attack on Israel is an attack on all of us.
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Yes, yes, fantasies, as I said. Expressions of a longing deep in my soul.
But there is something that can and must be done. Donald Trump, who gets it and will tighten the screws on Iran, must be brought back into the White House.
This is not just for Israel, it is for a safer world. The world is badly served by the belligerency, hegemonic aspirations, enablement of terrorist entities, and fostering of widescale violence of the mullahs.
In my view, the current policy of the Biden administration is not just bad policy, it is evil in what it promotes.
It was the hope of many of us here (and well as of many in the US), that Biden would do badly enough in the debate to lower his chances of winning the election, but not so badly that the powers that be in the Democratic party would decide to remove to him before he was officially nominated at the Democratic convention in mid-August.
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Well, he performed horrendously (although Jill gushed about how well he did). Many are calling for his removal, and the nightmare aspect of this is that Michelle Obama’s name is floated as a possible replacement. I am reading that Biden himself will decide whether to run again, although it is perhaps too soon to see how this will play out.
The information I have provided above, with regard to how Biden’s government has been conducting itself and the dangers inherent in his stance, must be shared very broadly.
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Keep praying to Heaven for Israel. Pray that the tears might be lifted from our hearts.
Pray for the strength and wisdom of our leaders, for the safety of our soldiers, and for the rescue of our hostages.
Pray in a spirit of hope.
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©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
