by Joseph Klein
Criticizes how Israel is defending itself against a genocidal monster.
[Make sure to read Joseph Klein’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
During Barack Obama’s presidency, relations between the United States and Israel, its closest ally in the Middle East, reached an all-time low. Obama appeased Israel’s mortal enemy Iran, allowed a one-sided, anti-Israel United Nations Security Council resolution to pass in the waning days of his administration, and released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority in his administration’s last hours. This was on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Obama administration had previously bestowed on the Palestinians, which the Palestinian leaders largely used to fund terror and line their own pockets rather than for the benefit of their own people.
Now Barack Obama is once again demonstrating his animus towards the Jewish State of Israel. Commenting on the current crisis in the Middle East, which was precipitated by Hamas’ genocidal slaughter and abduction of Israeli civilians on October 7, Obama warned Israel to restrain itself in its response to Hamas’ unspeakable evil acts. He said that “the world is watching closely as events in the region unfold, and any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire.”
Israel is in a fight for its survival against an enemy whose declared mission in its founding Charter is to wipe out Israel and kill as many Jews as possible. What the “world” thinks of Israel’s military strategy in defending its citizens against any further terrorist rampages is irrelevant. Why should Israel care about what the so-called “international community” thinks when many UN member states have regularly lined up in reflexive support of the Palestinians and have consistently bashed Israel?
“Already, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the bombing of Gaza, many of them children,” Mr. Obama said. He conceded that “Hamas’ military operations are deeply embedded within Gaza – and its leadership seems to intentionally hide among civilians, thereby endangering the very people they claim to represent.” But then he put the onus on Israel for the inevitable civilian casualties resulting from Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields.
It is Hamas, not Israel, that is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity – both against Israeli civilians whom Hamas has slaughtered and abducted and against Palestinian civilians whom the terrorists deliberately put in harm’s way.
“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity,” Obama said, “to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region.”
No matter what Israel has done for peace in the past, such as unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza in 2005 and agreeing to multiple ceasefires with Hamas following its previous rocket barrages, the “international community” demands ever more of Israel. Many in the “international community,” including the lame stream media, make excuses for the Palestinians. They take Hamas’ exaggerated claims of fatalities in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes at face value. They even ran with Hamas’ false accusation that Israel had destroyed a hospital in Gaza, causing multiple deaths, which compelling video and audio evidence proved was caused by an errant terrorist rocket.
Mr. Obama should be blaming only Hamas and its fellow terrorists for the “growing humanitarian crisis” in Gaza that he says he is so concerned about, not Israel.
Hamas has it within its control to secure the full restoration of provision of food, water, electricity, and fuel to Gaza by releasing all the hostages the terrorists are detaining, as Israel has proposed. Out of more than 200 hostages held captive by Hamas and its allies, however, only four have been released so far.
Moreover, Israel has no moral or legal obligation to provide any aid whatsoever to an enemy-controlled territory, especially when that enemy can then turn around and use what Israel provides to sustain the terrorists’ continued war crimes against Israeli civilians. Hamas has had sixteen years since it took over complete control of Gaza to enable the territory it is governing to become self-sufficient in the supply of basic necessities. Instead, Hamas has diverted money and resources that it has received from donor nations and non-governmental organizations to build up its arsenal of weapons, construct war tunnels, and carry out successive attacks on Israel.
Mr. Obama said that “how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters,” adding it matters that “Israel’s military strategy abides by international law, including those laws that seek to avoid, to every extent possible, the death or suffering of civilian populations.”
Israel has been doing all it can to abide by the laws of war by warning civilians residing or working in facilities that are partially occupied by Hamas to leave the premises before Israel’s military strikes those facilities. Israel has also warned Gazans living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes and head south to safer areas along routes that Israel’s military has pledged not to strike. It is Hamas that has been dissuading, and in some cases preventing, Gazan civilians from leaving the more intensely active war zone in the northern part of Gaza.
Obama neglected to denounce the Palestinian Authority and its leader Mahmoud Abbas for remaining silent about Hamas’ blatant war crimes and violations of any semblance of international humanitarian law while leveling their usual accusations against Israel.
Barack Obama did enough damage while he was president. He would do well to keep to himself his opinions about Israel’s counterattacks in defense of its people against a genocidal enemy.
Joseph Klein
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/obama-cautions-israel-that-the-world-is-watching/
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