By Con Coughlin, GATESTONE 13 June 2024
US President Joe Biden meets with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
- Netanyahu’s resolve in the face of so many challenges, from splits in his own war cabinet over the conduct of the war in Gaza to incessant pressure from Washington to agree to a ceasefire, has prompted comparisons with British wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill, with Andrew Roberts labelling the Israeli PM “The Winston Churchill of the Middle East.”
- There is massive evidence that the Biden administration would like to see Netanyahu removed and that someone more “compliant” to the wishes of the US replace him – a new Israeli prime minister who would not object to Hamas continuing to rule the Gaza Strip after the fighting ends, and rebuild its military to be able to attack Israel again as it has vowed to do. The US would also doubtless like an Israeli prime minister would gladly accept a Palestinian state supervised by Qatar, which has a regrettable but endless track record of promoting and sponsoring terrorists. The Biden administration would apparently like an Israeli prime minister who would agree that a nuclear-armed Iran is exactly what the Middle East needs at this time, and, to that end, has been begging European officials not to object to Iran’s nuclear program.
- If the Israelis are smart, they will keep Netanyahu. He has shown time and again that he can stand up to immense pressure from whoever is trying to insert a knife in Israel’s back – whether the Obama administration proposing an Iranian nuclear bomb in 2015, or Senator Chuck Schumer and President Joe Biden’s unsubtle efforts to try to get him ousted.
- Unfortunately, the only way of seeing all the hostages released is by military pressure.
- To prevail against determined terrorist organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel and its allies need to rally support for Netanyahu, rather than constantly criticize him.
- For only by defeating these deadly Iran-backed terrorist groups can there be any realistic chance of peace.
With Hamas facing the prospect of suffering a cataclysmic defeat in Gaza, the recent upsurge in attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah, from Lebanon, suggests that Iran is determined to open a second military front to distract attention away from Hamas’s dire plight, and to further the plan of its patron, Iran, to try to annihilate Israel.
Iran’s support for Hamas was crucial to enabling the terrorist organisation to carry out its murderous assault against southern Israel on October 7. Apart from providing valuable intelligence on the Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF) key positions along the Gazan border, Iran was the main provider of the weaponry used to conduct the atrocities.
Lest we forget, the Biden regime mindlessly lost Afghanistan to the Taliban, triggered the Russian invasion of Ukraine, financially aided and abetted the terrorism promoted by the PA and Hamas, and stood idly by as Iran has come closer to producing nuclear weapons.
As such, the Biden regime has no credibility when it comes to putting pressure on Israel to adopt its mindless plan to end the war with Hamas still in charge of Gaza, and its disastrous plan to impose a “two-state” dissolution of Israel. The Biden regime should be the last “ally” Israel consults with in devising strategic plans for an Israeli victory and for “the day after.”
To the eternal disappointment of many Israelis,there is currently no alternative to Netanyahu. He is the only guy around with enough intestinal fortitude to face the US government. He could have gone home long ago and left the kindergarten game for the others. It reminds me of the Thatcher anecdote that she went to lunch with her cabinet. The waiter asked what she would like and she said, “steak and chips.” The waiter then asked, “What about vegetables, Madam?” She said, “They’ll take the same!”
In Netanyahu’s case, the vegetables are all drinking at the US teat and would love to do what O’Biden is telling them to do, but obviously, that is not good for the Jews of Israel.