The Biden administration’s tolerance for Israel’s war against Hamas is clearly waning. Where does the White House go from here?
Israel’s Channel 12 expands on some of the details that were reported by Reuters and Axios this week regarding the Biden administration’s waning tolerance for Israel’s war against Hamas:
According to Ch. 12 report, Blinken clashed with Israel’s war cabinet about the next phase in the Gaza operation.
“I don’t think you have the credit for that,” Blinken reportedly told the defense minister about his stated goal to “dismantle Hamas, even if it takes months.” pic.twitter.com/qAFnJ2YvAC
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) November 30, 2023
Foundation for Defense of Democracies CEO Mark Dubowitz provides a fuller transcript of Secretary Blinken’s conversation with Israeli Defense Forces chief Herzi Halevi, in which America’s top diplomat presents Israel with what reads like an ultimatum:
Biden admin is setting the stage to abandon Israel. What started off as “We are totally with you in destroying Hamas, which is as bad as ISIS,” is deteriorating into “You don’t have our support unless you can dismantle Hamas very quickly with very limited civilian casualties.”… pic.twitter.com/LJJHk5uTDm
— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) November 30, 2023
“Credit.” Dwell on that word. The Israeli government apparently acquired metaphorical capital following the slaughter of more than 1,200 innocents in the most gruesome fashion imaginable, but that account is approaching overdrawn status. How ghoulish.
If Israel fights its war with the speed the White House wants, it would be a quick campaign but not a clean one. If Israel fights the war as it has — exposing its own soldiers to unnecessary danger to preserve Palestinian life, which is also what the White House would like to see — it would be a cleaner campaign but not a quick one. And Jerusalem doesn’t have “credit” for that. Either way, Israel loses.
The big cave that we all knew was coming is upon us. But by capitulating to those who are increasingly discomfited with the Democratic president’s support for Israel’s just war against the genocidal terrorist group on its borders, the Biden administration may be indulging its instinct to retreat to a comfort zone. But at what cost?
What political goodwill does Biden buy himself back home by aligning with the lunatics in the streets and making life for Americans as difficult as possible on behalf of the objectives of Hamas, a group with a domestic favorability rating within the margin of error of 0 percent? What cache does Biden buy himself by making demands on Israel that the Israeli public would not accept and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would have no choice but to ignore?
Where does the White House go from here? The righteousness of Israel’s war against Hamas is a 70–30 proposition in the United States. Does the president really want to commit himself to a campaign of political conditioning designed to erode public support for Israel — an enterprise he cannot expect will succeed given his own unpopularity? Does the administration continue hectoring Israel from the sidelines with increasing vitriol despite its repeated assurances that the Hamas regime has to go? Does the United States abstain from or even join anti-Israel resolutions submitted to the United Nations General Assembly by the cretins that constitute the international community? Does Biden join Representative Rashida Tlaib on the steps of the Capitol, don a keffiyeh, and demand a free Palestine “from the river to the sea?” What is step two here?
None of this sounds feasible. So, what’s the play? Because it really doesn’t sound like the White House has thought this through.