Fifty years ago, when I was about to graduate from Emerson College in Boston, I needed one additional semester, so I elected to go to summer school abroad. Our destination was a place that I have always wanted to visit because I love history – Israel. As time progressed, it became apparent that the war rumblings in Israel suggested that we should pivot, and our professor . Instead of Israel, we visited Italy for six weeks.
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, was launched on the holiest day of Judaism. Thankfully, despite a vast array of Muslim forces, the Israelis finished mopping up the conflict in three weeks.
As the shocking, disgusting, and vile surprise attack by Hamas folded out over the past few days in which more than 900 Israelis have been murdered and innocent civilians, women, and children along with Americans and other nationalities, and even a Holocaust survivor were kidnapped, at the least, to be held for ransom or at most for horrific public displays of execution as promised by the radical terrorists.
What makes this dastardly act so unbelievable is that Hamas knows that by starting this war and deploying themselves among Gaza citizens as they have always done, means that many Gaza civilians will perish so that they can then hypocritically claim war crimes by the Israelis.
Over generations, this tit-for-tat “get even” mindset has led to countless unnecessary deaths. Despite what many of the Palestinian lackeys in Congress like AOC, Talib, and the other so-called “Social Democrats” state, there is never a justification for a wholesale slaughter without provocation and putting your own people knowingly at significant risk.
These “Social Democrats” use this innocuous-sounding name but let’s call them out for what they really are – Marxists/Socialists who are anti-capitalists, who wish to tear down our American history and all of our institutions because these snowflakes believe naively that European-style socialism is the right answer despite history’s rejection of that flawed theory for America.
Sadly, for them, they and their ilk are about to learn a very hard lesson because Israel today is what the United States was when we had a strong, intellectually sharp, morally right, elected leader who knew that a “soft” America was a weak America. Think President Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, to name just a recent few.
The fact that our weak-kneed President Joe Biden is too feeble to address the American people immediately about this frightening new development is but a sad commentary for a president who has not even felt compelled to justify our efforts in defending Ukraine and defeating the Russians. He will finally address the American people, but his administration has been in disarray – again – and this is not serving our best interests abroad, as it projects weakness and a lack of focus on mission.
Our president should have taken the same approach that any prime minister of Israel always has had to undertake, and that is that eternal vigilance and being prepared 24/7 for any and all provocations that may arise that threaten the viability of a great country is the order of the day, and that means telling the world – an Americans – that this Hamas attack is a violation that will be answered and that evil must be condemned and wiped out.
Think about it for a moment. Since its founding, Israel has been surrounded by the enemy, many that detest its very existence and regularly advocate for its total destruction. A democratic state in the Middle East full of authoritarian regimes clearly means that America must unabashedly and unequivocally demonstrate our support for a nation that has been one of our most loyal allies in the world next to the United Kingdom.
The Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) statement that the blame is on Israel and not Hamas is another indication of the Far Left totally consuming the party. How is it that Democratic Jews still support a party that does not support Israel?
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has been laughable as America’s premier diplomat ever since the fact came out that he was the original author of the idea of a letter signed by 53 intelligence officials that the Hunter Biden “laptop from hell” was a Russian ploy. He has had to delete several stupid and insensitive tweets calling for a “stand down” by Israel as if America would entertain such a thought after 9/11.
A too-long silent president, a confused SOS, and a gaggle of demagogic Democratic-Marxists illustrate to the rest of our country how far we have fallen that these voices, and I’m sure that the Hollywood elites will weigh in even more, demonstrate that our country has stumbled from trying to be right to trying to be appeasing and habitually being wrong on foreign policy matters.
Of course, few Americans believe that Biden, who recently gave Iran $6 billion in cash, was ever in our best interest. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal indicates that Iran has been helping to plan for months this atrocious and repulsive attack. Biden’s actions are an extension of the Obama administration’s ignorant belief that giving Iran billions (he gave $1.7 billion on the eve of his leaving the White House) will alter their behavior.
Instead, America and Israel, once this war is concluded, should take out the mullahs and let the Iranian people have the freedom and liberty they once enjoyed and desire once again because otherwise, the regime is on a course to possess a nuclear weapon and that will tilt the balance of power in an unsustainable way for us and the world.
Israel needs more than an American carrier task force, more than an infusion of new weapons and cash to survive and defeat their enemies, Israel needs an American president who insightfully appreciates that America’s voice, along with the rest of the Western world, must be loud, strong, and leave no doubt that we will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Israelis whenever they are threatened.
If President Biden does not do this now, or if he continues to fiddle while Rome is burning, shame on him. This will confirm that when he stated as a presidential candidate that he was the most-seasoned elected official in foreign relations he is instead become the most impotent president in our nation’s long and glorious history.
Barney Bishop III is a conservative Republican who is the Chief Executive Officer of Tallahassee-based Barney Bishop Consulting LLC and a longtime columnist on the issues of the day. He can be reached at Barney@BarneyBishop.com
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