Selective Outrage

Why would the World Central Kitchen workers be delivering food at midnight under the cover of darkness in a highly volatile combat zone? Makes me wonder if they were engaged in some nefarious activities. My suspicions are not cynical, or blaming the victims, they arise from the fact nonuniform Hamas terrorists routinely embed themselves within the civilian population, as well as in ambulances, hospitals, aid-worker vehicles, schools, mosques, and UNRWA facilities. Israel admitted to making a mistake in its attack against the WCK trucks but there are mistakes made in all wars, because war itself is a mistake.

That said, Biden had the temerity to state that he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the killing of seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers. As if his reckless rhetoric wasn’t damaging enough to America’s ally, Israel, Biden added, “Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians.”

Well, I am outraged at Biden’s hypocritical and disingenuous statements as would be any fair-minded person. Biden’s unwarranted remarks, saying that Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers and other civilians is untrue and dangerous. Worse, it further fans the already raging flames of antisemitism.

Has Biden forgotten that during the war in Afghanistan the US accidentally struck a wedding party resulting in the deaths of forty-seven civilians. Where was his outrage then?

Has Biden forgotten that a US drone mistakenly killed ten civilians in Kabul, among them an aid worker and seven children. Where was his outrage then?

Has Biden forgotten that America killed over 400,000 civilians in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan? Where was his outrage then?

John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point said, “Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” I would append to Spencer’s statement, remember Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, Mr. President?

Nowhere in his scandalous statement, crafted for him by some political hack, did Biden acknowledge Hamas’ responsibility for the war. It is Hamas who attacked Israel; it is Hamas who is prolonging this war by not releasing the hostages and surrendering. In his selective ‘outrage,’ Biden needs to castigate, reprimand, and chastise, Hamas, not Israel.

Finally, all the proposed cease-fires, truces, and armistices will fail as long as long as Hamas and like-minded Islamist actors like Iran, and Hezbollah retain their genocidal aims against Israel. Only after frustrating the aims of the sponsors of terrorism, by dismantling Hamas, can the region begin to work toward the realization of a peaceful future.