LOS ANGELS.–Meeting today at the Pentagon, 70-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and 65-year-old Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the two leaders discussed White House concerns about mounting civilian casualties, now exceeding 32,000 according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. No outside source has been able to verify Hamas casualty claims, despite putting added pressure on Israeli to avoid collateral damage. Hamas has refused to release some 250 hostages taken during the Oct. 7 slaughter of 1,200 Israeli citizens, making peace efforts more difficult because Hamas refuses to give up the fight against Israel no matter how much devastation to the Gaza Strip. Gaza remains in ruins after five months of war, all because Hamas blindsided Israel Oct. 7, 2023. Reports of rape and torture of Israeli teenagers adds to Hamas’s reputation as bloodthirsty terror group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 74, wasn’t happy with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling for new elections in Israel March 14. President Joe Biden, 81, said he agreed with Schumer’s speech on the Senate Floor, essentially trying to rehab White House concerns with Arab voters in Michigan and Minnesota expressing disappointment with Biden’s Gaza policy. Despite disagreement with Israel, Biden has given Netanyahu a blank check to conduct his war against Hamas in a manner he sees fit. Mounting global pressure stems from reports of famine and disease on the ground in Gaza, where Hamas hides in heavily armed tunnels while there rest of the population lives above ground in ruins. When Biden signaled March 25 to U.N. Amb. Linda Thomas-Greenfield to abstain from a Security Council Resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, Netanyahu wasn’t happy.
Security Council members tend to have more sympathy for Palestinians than Israel, especially because they see Israel as a well-armed aggressor. Yet they also know that Hamas initiated the war with its Oct. 7, massacre, designed to do nothing more than a pin-prick attack on the Jewish state. Hamas said it proved it could conquer Israel, breaching its border and slaughtering teenagers at a Negev Dessert music festival. Hamas was quickly repelled and retreated back into Gaza’s elaborate fortified tunnel network, leaving Palestinian civilians to take the brunt of Israel’s military assault. “In Gaza today, the number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low,” Austin said today at his meeting with Israeli officials. Biden accomplishes his political goal of placating Muslim American groups with Palestinian sympathies.
No one, certainly not Israelis, doubt that a humanitarian disaster exists in Gaza with its 2.3 million residents, largely living in dilapidate conditions before the Oct. 7, 2023 war with Hamas. “Gaza is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe and the situation is getting even worse,” Austin said, respond to the Security Council calls for ceasefire but also domestic political concerns for the White House. Anyone following U.S.-Israeli politics knows that the U.S. has Israel’s back, despite all the complaints in the U.N. and around the world. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, 77, said today that Israel was losing the world’s patience taking so long to complete its mission in Gaza. Getting rid of Hamas has been no easy task, knowing the extent to which the terror group is embedded in Gaza’s civilians population with its leaders hiding in military tunnels.
Austin’s strong words about a Gaza humanitarian crisis plays well at the U.N. and in pro-Palestinian groups, helping repair damage to Biden’s 2024 campaign with Muslim group. “We need immediate increases in assistance to avert famine,” Austin said, playing the White House politics in a very complicated mess for Israeli. Anyone looking at the big picture knows that Hamas cannot stay in power in Gaza when the war finally ends. No matter how much support Hamas has with Islamic groups like ISIS-K, the group that massacred 137 innocent concertgoers in Moscow over the weekend, Austin walks a fine line in lambasting Israeli. Israel always faces criticism in Islamic circles which generally would like to see Palestinians terrorists prevail against Israel. Watching Moscow’s recent terror attack should remind the White House that terrorism still remains a threat to Homeland Security.
Netanyahu’s recent decision to postpone a White House meeting after Biden signed onto the latest U.N. Security Resolution gives the perfect out to the Biden administration. Biden has been accused by Muslim groups, in-and-out of the U.S., of playing favorites with Israel, allowing Netanyahu to prosecute his war with Hamas without restrictions. Any statements coming from the White House are designed to placate Muslim voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Austin’s apparently harsh words toward Israel are designed for domestic and foreign consumption but largely for politics. Reports of a Biden and Netanyahu rift are grossly exaggerated in domestic and foreign circles, not knowing the good-cop-bad-cop relationship between Israel and the United States. “The United States is Israel’s closest friend that won’t change,” Austin said.
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.
