The Policies That Are Killing Israeli Soldiers

E. Rowell:  Israeli military leaders are mindful of the power the US exerts in terms of weapons procurement.  However, there is a calculation to be made in formulating battle plans:  which plan will defeat the enemy most effectively with the fewest IDF casualties?  If the Biden directives call for a plan that will be less effective or ineffective at defeating the enemy AND also cause maximum IDF casualties, how can Israeli military leaders justify honoring them?  Surely weaponry can be supplied to Israel some other way than having to accept degrading terms from the United States.  There is a report of the US discussing the ceasefire with Gallant and Gantz.  There is a word for those who help the enemy in a time of war.

By Jonathan Schanzer, COMMENTARY    1 June 2024

Three soldiers from Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were killed on May 28, when they encountered a Hamas booby trap in a building in Rafah. In a separate incident, three other soldiers were killed in a Hamas improvised explosive device (IED) attack on May 18.

The Hamas terrorist organization is undeniably the culprit. And the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hamas’s top military patron, bears significant responsibility, too. But this is also the unfortunate result of Biden Administration policies that have put Israeli soldiers in greater danger.

To understand why the White House bears some responsibility, we need only look back upon US Gaza policy over the last 3 months.

On the eve of the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan, in March, the White House warned Israel to halt its military advance on Rafah. The Israelis had removed Hamas from the vast majority of the Gaza Strip. The IDF was on the cusp of destroying the terrorist group, defying the predictions of most Middle East experts. The U.S. warned that war during Ramadan could lead to a multi-front conflict the Israelis wanted to avoid. These warnings resonated with the Israelis, who had had first-hand experience with Ramadan-inspired conflicts in recent years. So they agreed to halt for a month.

But when that month was over, and the Israelis readied for a renewal of the war, the White House moved the goal posts. The U.S. immediately began to warn of a potential humanitarian disaster in Gaza. The State Department went so far as to suggest that Israel could be guilty of war crimes in Rafah. The White House even threatened to halt the provision of ammunition to Israel, as a result of these purported fears. Never mind that Israel had kept the civilian to militant casualty count lower than any of America’s previous engagements in Iraq or Afghanistan.

So, instead of finishing their war with the Iran-backed terrorist group, the Israelis began to ramp up efforts to bring additional aid into Gaza. They began to move the estimated 1.4 million displaced Gazans out of Rafah to areas outside of the zone of direct conflict.

Then, in mid-May, a major lawfare campaign against Israel kicked into high gear. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a charge sheet against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for purportedly engaging in siege warfare against Gaza civilians. This was followed by a hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that called upon Israel to halt its Rafah operations for fear of humanitarian concerns.

The Biden Administration opposed the ICC measure but failed to take any direct action to prevent it or to punish the court. As for the ICJ, the charges of siege warfare leveled at Israel would likely have never been aired had the State Department not first suggested it was occurring in the first place. And rather than sanctioning the ICC prosecutor or defunding these Orwellian institutions, the White House has stood aside, and allowed the legal farce to continue.

As this was going on, America paid little attention to the hostages, including women and children, not to mention American citizens, who remain in Hamas custody after they were kidnapped by the Iran-backed terror group on October 7. And there has been zero acknowledgement that Israel is fighting a war that it neither started nor wanted.

But it’s worse than that for Israel. The cumulative effect of all of this over the last three months has prompted the IDF to halt its advance in Rafah, and to move much slower than it originally anticipated. These three months of relative quiet afforded Hamas, and their terror masters in Tehran, the time and space to prepare the lethal booby traps and IEDs that are now killing the Israeli soldiers.

We must, of course, place the blame on Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran for the deployment of these deadly traps and bombs. But it’s fair to say that we are likely going to see a lot more death notices out of Israel in the coming weeks, as Israel’s ground operations in Rafah continue to widen, and as Israel soldiers are faced with more deadly Iranian and Hamas surprises.

The time and space that Hamas and Iran needed to prepare these attacks, and attacks that will undoubtedly come, are the direct result of Biden Administration policies—both explicit and implicit.