Within days, if not hours, Israel will almost certainly begin a ground invasion of Gaza, the redoubt of Hamas and its terror legions: Hamas’ wanton, beyond-barbaric attacks leave no other choice.
Thanks to Hamas’ policy of siting military personnel and ordnance in civilian areas (mosques, hospitals, schools, etc.) and its orders that civilians not evacuate, we can expect a flood of raw images of ordinary Gazans’ suffering.
Apartment buildings reduced to rubble. Bereft families weeping.
It’s a genus of images the media are only too happy to share in their quest to draw equivalencies between Israel and the baby-beheading rapists.
And that leftists and other antisemites around the globe will use to decry an alleged lack of “proportionality” in Israel’s defense.
Make no mistake: Those deaths will be on the head of Hamas (and its sponsors in Tehran).
They must not shake America’s determination to stand by Israel, and to support what is demanded by the brutality of the terrorist assault: the complete annihilation of Hamas.
“The message I bring to Israel is this: You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourselves, but as long as America exists, you will never have to. We will always be there by your side,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
Good. But now the time for action has come.
President Biden must stand by these words.
That means using our UN veto against any cease-fire resolution from the Security Council.
It means encouraging Israel to follow the examples of the Allies as the Second World War ended in stamping out the last remnants of the Nazi forces.
It means turning up, and keeping at painful levels, US pressure on Iran over its terror financing, its own terror operations and its nuclear aims.
And Biden, Blinken and every other top administration official needs to make this policy utterly, transparently clear: Our enemies must not mistake the situation.
The Israel war has proven that Biden must fully rethink his foreign policy.
Iran is ascendant, thanks in large part to administration weakness; we now need the Saudis more than ever; our closest regional ally stands on the precipice of open war.
Israel will not falter. We can’t, either.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
