RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/387184

On March 18 Jake Sullivan, the United States National Security Advisor, said “The president told the prime minister again today that we share the goal of defeating Hamas.”

And the very next day, on March 19, Matthew Miller, Spokesperson for the United States Department of State, said “every step must be taken to degrade Hamas so such an event like October 7th can’t be repeated.”

Is the State Department now saying that the Biden Administration policy is to see Hamas degraded and not destroyed? If the defeat of Hamas remains “the goal” why hasn’t State corrected its March 19 statement?

Is the delivery of conflicting signals intentional?

To have the goal that Hamas does not ever carry out another October 7th type event assumes that Hamas is evil and both needs and deserves to be utterly and completely destroyed. Destroyed because it is evil. The moral thing to do is to destroy evil when it poses a “clear and present danger” or likely will again.

When the Allies after World War Two conducted a systematic effort of denazification it was not because the Nazi Party or Nazi ideas were going to be threat in 1946 or 1947 but because the Nazis’ ideas were dangerous enough that if not outlawed and fought and vanquished on the battlefield of ideas then the Allies had every right to believe that they might have to return to combat on the actual battlefield in the 1950s or 1960s and fight the Nazis yet again. Israel has fought Hamas too many times already.

The purpose of war is to permanently eliminate the threat coming from your enemy. Far too often history has revealed the eternal truth that wars are things that must be won decisively or they will cause subsequent conflicts that will grow in both intensity and the degree of devastation. Evil must be confronted and evil must be destroyed. Hamas is evil. Hamas is the enemy. Hamas must be eliminated.

Destroying Hamas is the right thing to do.

Destroying Hamas is a necessary thing to do.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-792959

Children, clergymen, and Israeli citizens supposedly are among the Arabs least likely to carry out anti-Jewish terrorism. They don’t fit the profile. And yet all six of the most recent terrorist attacks have been carried out by precisely those individuals.

Supposedly, the “typical” Palestinian Arab terrorist is a young Palestinian Arab man, single, uneducated, and unemployed, who turns to violence because of his difficult personal circumstances.

But the terrorist who was shot dead while throwing firebombs at Israelis near Ramallah on March 4, Mustafa Abu Shalbak, was just 16. 

The next day, a Palestinian Arab terrorist named Muhammad Shehadeh stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli near Bethlehem. The would-be murderer was 17.

And the day after that, a Palestinian Arab stabbed and wounded an elderly Israeli man standing at a bus stop in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood.

Not only was the attacker just 14 – presumably too young to fit the profile of the “typical” terrorist – but he was a resident of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem’s Arabs are supposedly more “moderate” than those who live in the Palestinian Authority territories. Well, not much moderation was on display in that attack.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20488/israel-betrayed

It seems clear that the Biden administration would like to see the rapid creation of a Palestinian state or at least a “Palestinian unity government” — unfortunately composed of the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist group Hamas — and, abracadabra, recognize it.

The Palestinian leaders have, in fact, been admirably clear: They do not want a state alongside Israel, they want a state instead of Israel.

“[W]hile Qatar is helping assemble a new ‘technocratic’ front for the terrorists, the Moscow summit made it clear that the real agenda of the new government would be terror against Israel and the U.S.” — Daniel Greenfield, journalist, March 12, 2024.

“They [families of the hostages] can raise hell for the release of their loved ones – in media, in Congress, and by demonstrating in front of the Embassy of Qatar on M Street in Washington, D.C. Qatar is extremely and incredibly sensitive to being exposed in any way as a terror-sponsoring state… A single statement by a U.S. Department of Defense official, about relocating – or even considering relocating – this base from Qatar to another country that is not a state sponsor of terrorism is all it would take to get the American hostages released. Even indicating that the U.S. has other options besides Qatar would do it.” — Yigal Carmon, Founder and President of the Middle East Media Research Institute, November 6, 2023.

Qatar is not an honest broker…. Qatar has been Hamas’s main funder… Hamas is Qatar’s pet; Qatar most likely does not want Hamas to lose the war and is sure to do all it can to secure that result.

It appears that the Biden administration would like to trade Netanyahu in for a doormat who would agree to a terrorist Palestinian state next door, a Hamas victory in Gaza and Iran having nuclear weapons.

February 15, 2024. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have a long phone conversation. The communiqué published by the White House briefing room says they spoke about humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza and Israeli military operations.

https://www.jns.org/former-amb-friedman-schumers-speech-a-desecration/

Former U.S. Ambassador David Friedman handed the Biden administration a failing grade for its steadily eroding support for Israel since the Oct. 7 atrocities, and reserved especially sharp words for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), speaking during an interview on Israeli TV on Monday.

Schumer made headlines on March 14 when, from the floor of the U.S. Senate, he called Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an obstacle to peace for not supporting a two-state solution, grouping him with the terrorist group Hamas, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and “radical right-wing Israelis.”

Asked by Channel 14 interviewer Libi Alon what he thought of Schumer’s speech, Friedman said, “I’ll say it in the words that your audience will understand. It was a chilul Hashem [a desecration of God’s name.]”

Schumer opened his remarks with a refrain he often uses when speaking about Israel, referring to the fact that his last name derives from the Hebrew word shomer, or “guardian,” and that he thinks of himself as a guardian of the Jewish people.

Friedman said, “It was horrible for a Jewish person who claims to be, you know, the great Jewish protector in the United States government of Israel, for him to say that.”

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-problem-with-schumers-israel-speech

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has long claimed to be a shomer—Hebrew for guardian or watchman—of Israel and the Jewish people. But his speech last Thursday on the Senate floor, in which he called for new elections in Israel, more readily brings two Yiddish words to mind.

The first word is chutzpah, which connotes arrogance-laced presumption. That perfectly describes Schumer instructing Israel—the only democracy in the entire Middle East—to jettison its elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold new elections, or else. Schumer threatened: “[i]f Prime Minister Netanyahu’s current coalition remains in power after the war begins to wind down . . . then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy.” That is election interference, plain and simple.

The Israeli people are quite capable of deciding when to hold elections and whom to elect, notwithstanding Schumer’s insinuation to the contrary. No foreign politician—even, or especially, one who prefaces his remarks with “as a Jew” and “a life-long supporter of Israel”—has any business interfering with an ally’s democratic processes. Critics might point to Netanyahu’s 2015 address to Congress opposing the proposed Iran nuclear deal. Democrats were livid at the time. But Netanyahu was arguing against a specific agreement that many Americans, and most Israelis, believed posed an existential threat to Israel and the world. He was not advocating for President Obama’s ouster.

Schumer claimed Netanyahu is “allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.” But does anyone doubt Schumer is ditching Israel to save Joe Biden by placating his party’s radical left? Unsurprisingly, Biden praised the speech.

The second word is sechel—common sense or wisdom—something Schumer’s speech clearly lacked. The Senate majority leader claimed that the Israeli people are being “stifled by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.” But the only people stuck in the past are those, like Schumer and the foreign policy establishment, who persist in wanting to impose a two-state solution that Palestinians have never favored and that Israelis, brutalized by decades of intifadas and terrorism culminating in October 7, have given up on.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20507/gaza-war-israel-schumer

Rather than taking tangible steps towards peace, [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas has done nothing but bypass and evade bilateral negotiations with Israel, while taking extremely tangible steps toward terrorism – from rewarding terrorists, or the families of those who murder Jews, with “$345-$1200” a month for life, to repeating that terrorist murderers are “heroes” — all the while admitting that Palestinians are not the indigenous people there.

As for Schumer’s “two-state solution,” 64% of Palestinians said they are opposed to the idea. Those polled would like a one-state solution: a Palestinian state with no “Israel” anywhere in sight. More than 60% also expressed support for an “armed struggle” against Israel.

“[T]he only thing we should be focused on is changing the regime in Gaza, bringing down the terrorist regime of Hamas, and not the duly elected government of Israel.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Fox News, March 17, 2024,

The reason [the Palestinians] just keep “saying no” is because they do not want a Palestinian State next to Israel, they want a Palestinian State instead of Israel.

Schumer, by signaling to Hamas and other terrorists that the Americans are on their side against Netanyahu and the Israeli government, has painstakingly emboldened them.

Many Arabs understand — unlike Schumer and many in the Biden administration — that the real problem is the Iranian regime and its terror proxies.

https://www.jns.org/netanyahu-returns-friendly-fire/

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s angry response to recent comments emanating from Washington is as welcome as it was long in coming. For obvious reasons relating to the need for American ammo—and stemming from his deference to his country’s most important ally—Bibi has been careful to keep all discourse from his end dignified.

Despite being subjected to repeated digs from Democrats over his “extremist” coalition and renewed calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has taken every opportunity to thank the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden for its support.

He has managed to keep his cool when admonished by “backers” about his execution of the war against Hamas. Rather than voicing outrage in the face of professed tough-love warnings over potential violations of international law, he has rebutted by describing the care taken by the Israel Defense Forces to avoid civilian casualties.  

He has countered accusations of causing famine in Gaza by pointing to the massive amounts of humanitarian goods entering the Strip and Israel’s efforts to prevent Hamas from stealing and selling it. He has also explained to those admonishing him not to enter Rafah why doing so is necessary, and promised that plans are underway to evacuate non-combatant residents from the area.

But even Bibi’s equanimity, no matter how tactical, has its limits. These were tested on Thursday by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose jaw-dropping chutzpah came on the heels of comparable gall spewed by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a lengthy speech on the Senate floor, Schumer asserted that Netanyahu “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.”

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/03/18/fatah-is-right-hamas-is-to-blame-for-the-war-in-gaza/

So, there you have it: Fatah is now taking a more grown-up line on the Gaza war than most of the woke left. Where Western radicals are still running around damning Israel as a uniquely barbaric state that is carrying out a genocidal pillage of Gaza, Fatah says that, actually, a certain terror army called Hamas bears vast moral responsibility for this calamity. It was Hamas’s ‘adventure’ of 7 October that lit the fire of this war, this ‘horrific and crueller [Nakba] than the Nakba of 1948’, Fatah says. It’s true – so why can so few in the West see it?

Fatah is the party of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank. It has rarely seen eye to eye with Hamas. In fact, they have a bloody history of rivalry. Now they’re at it again. Abbas has appointed a new prime minister, Mohammad Mustafa, and this has ticked off both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We weren’t consulted, they wail. In a stinging reply, Fatah said: ‘Did Hamas consult the Palestinian leadership… when it made its decision to carry out the “adventure” of last 7 October, which led to a catastrophe more horrific and crueller than the Nakba of 1948?’

Ouch. And it gets harsher. ‘Those who were responsible for the return of the occupation to the Gaza Strip and [who] caused the Nakba which our Palestinian people live… have no right to dictate national priorities’, Fatah fumed. There it is, the R-word – Hamas is responsible for the present disaster in Gaza. It’s a significant moment. As the Jerusalem Post says, this marks the ‘first time in which a formal Palestinian voice has blamed Hamas for the disastrous outcomes of the 7 October massacre’.

What’s hilarious – or horrifying – is that if a Fatah official were to say any of this on a ‘pro-Palestine’ demo in London or LA, he’d be rounded on by the mob, possibly punched, and denounced as an apologist for Israel and a Zio-cuck. This isn’t a hypothetical. Counter-protesters who have correctly branded Hamas as terrorists or damned them for bringing war to Gaza have been insulted and even assaulted by these hate marchers masquerading as peace activists. It seems it’s safer to criticise Hamas in Palestine than in Westminster or Brooklyn. What’s going on?

It has been a chief aim of the West’s ‘pro-Palestine’ set to absolve Hamas of responsibility for the war in Gaza. Everything is Israel’s fault, apparently. Even Hamas’s own pogrom. As those overeducated radicals at Harvard infamously said on 7 October, the day of the anti-Semitic slaughter, Israel is ‘the only one to blame’ for the violence (my emphasis). Israel is ‘entirely responsible’ for what’s happening, said the Ivy League midwits. Such craven absolution of Hamas was widespread in the days after the pogrom. All violence is ‘a direct result of Israel’s apartheid regime’, said the Democratic Socialists of America.