The US and other Western states, as well as international agencies such as the UN, continue to adopt and promote policies that defy reason – that is, they defy reason if the goal of these states and agencies is to enhance genuine peace in the world and defeat instruments of terror and malice.
But of course, it is obvious that most of the time this is not their goal, and so Israel is left carrying the burden alone. In light of this, we are doing an absolutely incredible job.
Today I want to touch upon a number of situations that demonstrate precisely how upside down many international policies are and what Israel must contend with.
The fact that the US presidential election is coming in two weeks does not help matters: Biden and company are playing for votes, while ignoring issues of significant international import.
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One of the problems Israel faces – as we work to solidly defeat enemies bent on our destruction – is that the US, and the world more broadly, is not interested in seeing Israel achieve genuine victory against the Iranian proxies of Hamas and Hezbollah. Time after time, the world puts up roadblocks to our efforts so that we are left asking, “Whose side are they on?!”
There is a push for a ceasefire and a “diplomatic solution” – it is a running refrain on both fronts. This means allowing enemies of Israel to stand, enemies that are not interested in – or better put, have no respect for – the niceties of diplomatic agreements and would continue to pursue the destruction of Israel no matter what pieces of paper their representatives might sign.
The US, at least, should have learned this lesson about terrorist behavior with regard to the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993. Yasser Arafat was a terrorist before he signed on the White House lawn, and he remained a terrorist to his death.
So has Mahmoud Abbas of the PA remained a terrorist – he will not abandon “pay for slay,” and, most recently, sent a message of condolence on the death of Yahya Sinwar. The PLO, headed by Abbas, referred to Sinwar as a “great national leader” who suffered “martyrdom.”
https://www.jns.org/abbass-plo-eulogizes-great-national-leader-sinwar/
But the US makes no public criticism of the PA and demands no accountability. Accountability is expected only of Israel.
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Last week a letter, written by Secretary of US State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, was leaked to Axios. It demanded an improvement in the humanitarian conditions in Gaza and threatened the possibility of an arms embargo – or partial embargo – by the US because Israel might be violating international humanitarian law.
This was an outrage: Israel adheres scrupulously to international humanitarian law and is likely doing more than any other nation ever has to protect enemy civilians and provide humanitarian materials.
If there is a food shortage it is because Hamas raids humanitarian supplies (and then sells what it doesn’t need to the civilians at highly inflated prices). It is not because Israel refuses to allow supplies in.
COGAT also reports that currently (as of 10 days ago) there are 13 pita bread bakeries operating in Gaza, producing 3.1 million pitas daily. https://x.com/cogatonline/status/1844742652232937879
Most infuriating, however, were some of the other demands. Humanitarian ceasefires were needed, according to this letter – ceasefires of four months duration. How long?
What is more, sealed trucks should be allowed in, and trucks carrying sealed packages, and some dual-purpose items. A dual-purpose item is one that can be utilized for innocent civilian purposes but is also useful for terror purposes. (An example, although I am not certain that what the Americans were demanding would encompass this particular example, is concrete: a civilian might need it to rebuild his damaged home, but it might also be utilized by Hamas for repairing tunnels.)
I do not remotely believe that it is a violation of humanitarian law to search sealed packages, which might contain weapons or explosives, that are being brought into areas where there is an enemy presence. Never mind merely an enemy presence – where the enemy confiscates packages from the relief trucks.
One would have to be monumentally naïve – or just stupid – not to readily perceive that complying with these demands would give Hamas a major leg up in its attempts to rally. It is difficult not to conclude on the face of the matter, that this may be precisely the Biden administrations intention: OK, Hamas behavior was horrific, and you then had to hit them hard; but it’s enough – now leave them.
We must not forget that Kamala Harris, vice president and would-be-president (Heaven help us), has just said that it’s “real” that Israel is committing genocide.
And while we are considering Kamala, let us look at something else she just said in an interview with Al Sharpton (an anti-Semite who has reinvented himself):
“…the number of innocent Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza is really unconscionable and we have to be honest about that. At the same time, I will always stand in terms of Israel’s right to defend itself and we need this war to end.”
Got that? In a single sentence, covering all bases: We can defend ourselves, but not by defeating the enemy that has sworn to come at us again and again until we are destroyed.
“It’s going to be hard…but we have got to get this war over with…In fact, we’re sending Blinken out to go and meet with the parties there.
“The death of Sinwar has removed an obstacle, so we’ve got to work at it and work at it through diplomatic means.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/397934
Ah, diplomatic means. A deal with the honorable Hamas, which would demand that Israel leave Gaza completely. You will note, of course, not a word about Hamas use of human shields or the extraordinary efforts Israel makes to protect civilians, sometimes at the cost of soldiers’ lives.
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Circling back to that letter, there was another concern expressed: that civilians in the north not be forcibly moved. Many of them had moved to the north under IDF directives to get them out of the way of heavy fighting in the south, notably in Rafah. Now the IDF is fighting Hamas elements in the north that are attempting to regroup; there has been major fighting in Jabaliya. Civilians are being directed out of the way of this fighting. And the US – concerned about a possible tactic to isolate terrorists in the north – protests that it is difficult for the civilians to move. Indeed, it most certainly must be. But Israel is fighting a war of existential importance and attempting to protect civilians at the same time. Should we continue to fight in the area of Jabaliya without moving out civilians, Hamas would hide among them and use them as human shields – and we would be accused of genocide. Again. The US places us in a “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” situation. Their solution: we should stop fighting and reach a diplomatic agreement.
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There is yet one other factor to be considered – and it is apparently the way AIPAC sees it. We are coming down to the election and anti-Israel voters in key states must be mollified. They would not be pleased if the US facilitated the final defeat of Hamas. What the US is threatening to withhold are offensive weapons – the sort of weapons needed to finish Hamas, not defensive weapons.
AIPAC, writing on X, minced no words:
“Threatening to cut off American support for Israel as it confronts Iran and its proxies on seven fronts weakens our ally, undermines American interests, and sends a dangerous message to our common enemies about US support for our democratic allies.”
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In spite of all of this, to a considerable degree right now, eyes of the world are on Israel’s battle with Hezbollah. Back in 2006, the second Lebanese war ended with UNSC Resolution 1701; it called for the disarmament of Hezbollah, which was to relocate behind the Litani River. It was never enforced: UNIFIL – the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon – proved worthless in fulfilling their mandate and assisting with the enactment of the resolution specifications.
Now the Americans are talking about a ceasefire in Lebanon, with enforcement by a possibly enlarged UNIFIL with an enhanced mandate. This is a joke of monumental proportions.
Libelous charges were leveled against the IDF recently, with the claim that our forces were shooting directly at UNIFIL bases. The reality was that Hezbollah had located very close to those bases, utilizing them as shields. It was the Hezbollah the IDF was shooting at.
When Israel asked UNIFIL to move their locations, they refused. At which point Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon declared: “Hezbollah terrorists use UNIFIL outposts as hiding places and set up ambushes nearby. The UN’s insistence on keeping UNIFIL soldiers in the line of fire is incomprehensible.”
But it goes further.
“Hezbollah operatives captured during recent Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ground operations in southern Lebanon have disclosed during interrogations that the organization paid off UNIFIL personnel to use their positions in the region, according to security sources who spoke to Israel Hayom.
“These sources, privy to the details, revealed that Hezbollah also took control of UNIFIL cameras in compounds near the Israeli border and utilized them for their own purposes.” (Emphasis added)
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There are reports that the IDF prefers to rely on the Lebanese army for enforcement of a re-activated 1701 rather than UNIFIL. And US Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein reported on Monday that his talks with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri Beirut were “very constructive.”
But I do not take this seriously – certainly not with regard to what the IDF prefers. For Lebanon, as an independently functioning nation, does not exist – it is controlled by Hezbollah and the terrorist forces are more powerful than the Lebanese army.
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I believe the intentions of the international community, and the US in particular, are quite clear. They want Israel out of the picture. But the reality is that only with Israel IN the picture is a genuine change in the situation in Lebanon possible. UNIFIL won’t do it, the Lebanese army can’t do it.
According to a report last week in Axios, which cited two Israeli officials and two US officials, Israel has given the US a document specifying its conditions for a diplomatic solution to end the war in Lebanon. There is a demand that IDF troops be allowed to engage in “active enforcement” to make sure Hezbollah doesn’t rearm and rebuild its military infrastructure close to the border, and a second demand that the Israeli Air Force have freedom of operation in Lebanese airspace.
Indications are that the US is not exactly enthusiastic about this. Naturally. Although this might change if Trump (please Heaven) wins the election.
If all of this has a sense of déjà vu it is because it so closely resembles the situation in Gaza. The international community wants Israel out after the war, but Israel insists that only if the IDF is in control of the Philadelphi Corridor can re-arming of Hamas be prevented.
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The IDF had been active in fighting in Beirut for some weeks, when Biden protested that too many civilians were being killed (another instance of déjà vu). A period of roughly five days then followed in which there was no action in Beirut. It made the news that the Security Cabinet was angry because Netanyahu made this decision unilaterally. There was an undercurrent of unease in the country: it was beginning to look as if, at long last, Bibi had caved to a Biden demand – although he insisted this was not the case and we would be hitting in Beirut again.
While I felt a certain unease, I was not prepared to criticize Netanyahu, because I understood that I was not in possession of all the facts. There was a wide-spread suspicion that the president had threatened to withhold some badly needed arms, putting our prime minister in a very difficult situation.
In the end, Bibi spoke true, and we are hitting in Beirut again. Perhaps we held off until a very stunning operation could be put in place:
Yaakov Lappin reports (emphasis added):
“Overnight on Monday, the Israeli Air Force launched a series of targeted strikes on branches and sites of the Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial association, which acts as a Hezbollah-run bank and forms the basis for the group’s shadow state in Lebanon. The goal of the strikes was to dismantle the economic network that funds the Iranian proxy army and makes Shi’ite Lebanese dependent on it.
“This is part of a broader strategy aimed at disrupting Hezbollah’s ability to rearm and weakening its stranglehold on the Lebanese population…
“According to a senior Israeli intelligence official on Oct. 20, the Al-Qard Al-Hassan faux bank ‘allows the whole economic functionality of the organization, whether it’s paying the salaries to the various operatives or just the daily payments they have to make for all kinds of things.’”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/397942
Brilliant!!
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Tomorrow night we begin the holiday of Simchat Torah. Last year, Simchat Torah was on October 7, which is when the war began. This year (as we follow the Hebrew calendar for holidays), it is not on October 7, and that day has already been commemorated painfully. Yet the association of the holiday with the massacre weighs heavily upon us.
For weeks there have been discussions about how to observe this holiday. To remember the pain and to honor the dead, and yet to dance joyously with the Torah. To not dance joyously would mean Hamas had won, and this we will not allow. And yet… there will be a difference in tone.
May we garner strength from Simchat Torah and move to full victory.
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Express great gratitude to the Almighty for what we have been able to achieve.
Then, please, pray with a full heart for the continued strength and courage of Israel’s leaders as they make the hard decisions, for the safety and effectiveness of our soldiers in battle as they fight a righteous war, and for the rescue of the hostages at last.
©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
