Resisting calls from the U.N. for an immediate ceasefire in the Israeli-Hamas war, 81-year-old President Joe Biden antagonized many foreign allies unwilling to see reality in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. Mideast policy changed, no longer willing to support terrorism, even when there’s plenty of excuses all referring to Israeli occupation. Hamas could once get away for Holocaust-like atrocities all in the “resistance,” a propaganda term used by Palestinians to justify driving Israeli into the sea, a common refrain since Israel’s independence in 1948. When the British handed the deed to Palestine to Jews two years after the end of the Holocaust, Arab groups went wild, calling for another Holocaust, infuriated that Jews took control of the Holy Land. Arabs lived under Ottoman and British control for over 500 years.
Once the State of Israel was formed and Jews took over the Holy Land, that’s what started the term “resistance,” something that didn’t exist for over 500 years of Ottoman and British rule Britain only took control of the Holy Land after the Ottoman Empire was broken up at the 1920 Treaty of Sevres after WW I. Before that, the Ottomans ruled the Balkans, parts of Eastern Europe, the Mideast and North Africa, in one of the world great empires, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Calls for Israel to stop its war with Hamas stem from the suffering of Palestinians living in the current war zone. Biden doesn’t buy the Hamas-Controlled Ministry of Health citing over 20,000 deaths, mainly women and children since the war began Oct. 7. Whatever the actual casualties, there’s too many civilian deaths but certainly nothing close to the Hamas statistics.
Europeans find themselves torn between Biden’s proxy war against the Russian Federation and the Israeli-Hamas War. Europeans still haven’t caught up to a post-Sept. 11 foreign policy, where the U.S. doesn’t support any group, no matter what the excuse, that practices terrorism as a national strategy. Hamas thinks it can massacre its way into getting concessions from Israel in terms of land and cash. Formed in 1987 by Sheik Ahmed Nassin, Hamas became the military wing to the 1964 Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] founded by Yasser Arafat to reclaim Arab land lost in Israel’s independence. Arafat found out the hard way battling Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, where Palestinians and six Arab countries had their armies wiped out in six days. After the Six Day War, Israel seized Egypt’s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula as buffer zones.
Israel also seized Jordan’s West Bank and East Jerusalem and Syria’s Golan Heights, all territory taken by Israel as spoils of the Six Day War. Since 1967, the U.N. passed a series of resolutions all designed to get Israel to return to the pre-1967 borders, all failed because of continuous wars and attempts by Arab groups to destroy the Jewish State. Hamas was just one of many terror groups seeking to destroy Israel. Osama bin Laden excused his Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon because of Israel’s occupation of Arab lands. Former President George W. Bush set U.S. post-Sept. 11 terror strategy serving notice that there’s no excuse for supporting terrorism, whatever the political excuses. Biden has followed the post-Sept. 11 U.S. strategy of fighting terrorism wherever it occurs. It took the Pentagon 10 years to find and neutralize Bide Laden May 2, 2011.
When it comes to U.S. policy in Gaza, Biden gives Israel the time to fight a difficult, bloody war in the catacombs of Gaza, where Hamas spent years building underground tunnels to survive any possible Israeli attack. Since Hamas seized Gaza June 14, 2007 from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority [PA], they’ve squandered billions in oil-rich Gulf State cash on building tunnels and stockpiling rockets. Iran considers Hamas part of its anti-Zionist “axis of resistance,” designed to eventually destroy Israel. Biden’s decision to resist calls for ceasefire involve the belief that there can be no Mideast peace without getting rid of Hamas. U.S. officials looks only at the humanitarian crisis, not realizing that without getting rid of Hams they’d prolong Gaza’s misery living under Hams rule. Hamas has been given lavish resources to develop Gaza’s dilapidated infrastructure.
U.N. officials have put misplaced pressure on Biden, not on Hamas to return remaining hostages to leave the Gaza Strip. Israel didn’t ask for the slaughter of its citizens, whether it controls the Holy Land or not. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar hunkers down in his tunnel network hoping to ride out the storm while Israel continues to lose more soldiers in the house-to-house. Tunnel-to-tunnel operation to root out Hamas terrorists. U.S. officials should come up to speed in a post-Sept. 11 world that there can be zero tolerance for terrorist states. Listen to Hamas propaganda spread through the U.N. calling Israel’s war a genocide on Palestinians shows the desperate way Hamas lives to see another day. But if the U.N. sees the conflict clearly, they’d ask Hamas to leave Gaza at the earliest possible time. There’s no place for Iran to continue destabilizing the Mideast.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
