Biden’s Waffling Could Spell Trouble for Israel — and America, Too

As President Biden enters a year fraught with political fights in America, he decides to wade into the politics of Israel. Go figure. Threatened by numerous enemies intent on its destruction, the Jewish state, after a long period of internal strife, is finding unity of purpose. That is the moment that our president is choosing to spar with Prime Minister Netanyahu. His aversion to Bibi, we fear, could hurt the interests of both Israel and America. Mr. Biden, concerned over his left flank but unwilling to turn his back on the majority of Israel-supporting America, seems to go after what he believes is an easy target. The cease-fire now crowd in academia, the press, and Squad-style politics is hiding its anti-Israel instincts by attacking Bibi instead. America should not send $10 billion “for the right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military approach,” Senator Sanders says. Israel’s approach to ending Hamas, however, is far from a Bibi whim. From right to left, Israelis are as united as they have ever been behind the need to use all military means to assure that no one in Gaza would ever again be able to replicate the October 7 atrocities. While many abhor the prime minister, few Israelis are calling to topple the leadership now. The war course is decided by a small group that includes centrist ex-generals, rather than extremists. Mr. Netanyahu “has to change this government,” Mr. Biden told Democratic donors Monday at a fundraiser. He zeroed in on a far-right government member, Itamar Ben Gvir — never mind that he is loudly complaining that his advice is widely ignored by the war cabinet. That inner group includes a centrist former top general, Benny Gantz, who is leading all polls after joining the government of his rival, Mr. Netanyahu, for the course of the war. Nevertheless, Mr. Biden tells his donors that this is “the most conservative government in Israel’s history.” He also criticizes the war conduct. “Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States,” he said. “It has most of the world.” Yet, now Israel is “starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place.” In reality, as a Tuesday General Assembly vote shows, the “world” never backs Israel.The United Nations always accuses the Israel Defense Force of being “indiscriminate.” In reality it has heeded Mr. Biden’s endless reproaches and has put its own troops in danger to avoid more civilian casualties in Gaza. By some estimates, the ratio of enemy combatants to civilian casualties in Gaza is analogous to or better than a similar statistic last decade, when an America-led coalition was fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria.Mr. Biden was then vice president in, arguably, the most liberal administration in America’s history. Now, beyond dictating Israel’s conduct of war, he tries to sow divisions among its politicians. “I’m a Zionist,” he said Monday. He has backed Israel diplomatically and sent necessary arms and funds to help a country at war. This is no time for him to buckle under pressure from his left-wing critics and feckless Europeans. It is no time for weakness.

Biden’s Waffling Could Spell Trouble for Israel — and America, Too

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