Israel in Danger: Enemies Foreign and Domestic

by Guy Millière  • Gatestone • October 10, 2024

TNetanyahu meets with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on July 25, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)

• “[Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar wants everyone to be a martyr—except for him.” Now he appears to want to have discussions again on the condition that the Israelis will not try to kill him during the negotiations on a deal. — David Greenfield, CEO and executive director of Met Council, August 28, 2024.
• When Israelis clamor for the release of their hostages, they are, unfortunately, just letting Hamas know what a valuable bargaining chip it has – so the price goes up. For Hamas, if the families of the hostages succeed in getting Netanyahu pushed out of office, so much the better: he will likely be replaced by a “peace” coalition who will grant massive concessions to Hamas and allow it to stay in power.

• As far as the Biden-Harris administration is concerned, a new Israeli prime minister it hand-picks to replace Netanyahu would presumably agree to US demands to let the Palestinians in Gaza set up a sovereign terrorist state on Israel’s border, from which to continue attacking Israel until it is destroyed. A new prime minister installed by the Biden-Harris administration would also agree to Iran having as many nuclear weapons as it likes. Iran, after finishing off Israel, which Iran’s former President Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called a “one-bomb country,” could then resume trying to take over its oil-rich neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
• The Biden-Harris administration also appears to want Hamas to stay in power because that is what Hamas’s patrons, Iran and Qatar (America’s supposed ally) want.
• Meanwhile, back in Gaza, the Associated Press reports, “Sinwar wants to end the war — but only on his terms.” These terms include a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including the “Philadelphi Corridor” border between Egypt and Gaza. That is where immense cross-border underground tunnels are located, allowing the resumption of unlimited supplies of new weapons to be smuggled to Hamas in Gaza, as well as the ideal gateway for Hamas leader Sinwar to escape to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula — with the remaining Israeli hostages in tow.
• For Hamas and Sinwar, the bottom line for is to stay in power to be able to attack Israel “time and again until it is annihilated,” as one of its officials, Ghazi Hamad, straightforwardly said.
• Israel’s opposition political leaders, journalists, trade unionists, and many senior security officials all appear to be walking into a trap that Hamas has laid out for them: having Israeli anti-government demonstrators demand new elections to force Netanyahu out and a US puppet — agreeable to terrorist Palestinian state, Hamas’s continued rule in Gaza, and a nuclear-armed Iran — in.
• Hamas, remember, never offered to release all the hostages, only a few, alive or dead. Sinwar will undoubtedly try to string out the negotiations as long as he can – refusing to provide hostage names again, and so on. His job will be to keep as many hostages as long as possible, to buy time for Hamas to resupply and regroup.
• For months, Hamas has rejected any agreement, and blamed Netanyahu. They have, of course, been helped by the Biden-Harris administration, which snubbed Netanyahu at the airport in Washington DC in July as well as at his address to the United States Congress. The snubs evidently only succeeded in giving Hamas the impression that the US was done with Netanyahu, that a Hamas victory was in the bank, and that all Iran and its proxies had to do was sit back and wait.
• For months, Hamas has rejected every agreement: its leaders apparently think that the pressure on Netanyahu and his government by the Biden-Harris administration would win their war for them. Hamas has now seen that murdering hostages results in even more pressure for Israel to surrender.
• “We’re asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says, ‘Kill more hostages, murder more hostages! You’ll get more concessions! The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to the protestors demonstrating against him, September 2, 2024.
• The Biden-Harris administration has, in fact, been funding Israel’s anti-government protests since Netanyahu was elected two years ago, to try to oust him. Shortly after the October 7, 2023 invasion by Hamas, the Biden-Harris administration continually pressured Israel to make concessions and withheld or slow-walked weapons shipments, but never applied even the slightest pressure on Hamas, Iran, or the major funder of all Islamic terrorist groups, Qatar.
• In the meantime, Iran appears to be gearing up to take over Sudan. Such an acquisition would complete the regime’s “ring of fire” — a multi-front war encircling Israel.
• “Iran is trying to establish an eastern terrorist front against Israel in the West Bank by smuggling weapons from Jordan and financing terrorists.” — Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, August 29, 2024.
• Worse, this week the Biden-Harris administration announced that it is sending Lebanon an additional $157 million – for “humanitarian relief.” In Hezbollah-speak, that means funding for more weapons to attack Israel. Does anyone really think that the battered Lebanese people will see a cent? This bounty brings the Biden-Harris administration’s prize money for Hezbollah’s war machine to $385 million — all of which will most certainly be diverted to attacking Israel.
• Vice President Kamala Harris has repeatedly called for a rapid ceasefire in Gaza – meaning the survival of Hamas – and said that a “two-state solution is the only path forward” — meaning, undoubtedly, a terrorist Palestinian state.
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently announced that it “needed more time” to find human rights violations in Israel’s “most moral army in history.” The ICJ seems to be hoping that if they wait long enough, a few violations might turn up.
• As Israel turns to the existential danger presented by Iran, it will need all the support it can get, both from its own people and other nations. If they are smart, they will give it.

The Biden-Harris administration appears to want Hamas to stay in power because that is what Hamas’s patrons, Iran and Qatar (America’s supposed ally) want. The Biden-Harris administration has, in fact, been funding Israel’s anti-government protests since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected two years ago, to try to oust him. 

September 1. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announce that the bodies of six hostages, who were abducted alive by Hamas on October 7, were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah. All of them had received recent gunshot wounds to the head.

Several Israeli politicians did not incriminate Hamas. Instead, they tried to incriminate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — as many, both inside Israel and outside it, have been trying do since he won election two years ago.

Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid said, “Netanyahu and the ‘death cabinet’ decided not to rescue the abductees… You can’t go on like this,” and called for a general strike to shut down the economy. In a view that is seriously disputed, he then sent a letter to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, saying: “Their deaths could have been avoided. It was possible to reach a deal.” Yes, a deal could have been reached — had Israel surrendered.”

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