Tough guys
President Biden is now reading our ally Israel the riot act following the tragic attack on the on the World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza. If only he would show the same “tough guy” profile to our enemies maybe America would earn the respect and fear of nations not aligned with us. We can assume our wounded and killed troops that received incoming rocket fire from Iranian proxies operating in Syria had hoped our president had been a tougher guy respected by both friend and foe.
His double standard of righteous indignation obscures recall of the August 2021 accidental American bombing of an Afghan family in Kabul killing a family of ten. Israel is battling in a very active theatre of war and in close quarters with over a million civilians used as human shields by savage Hamas. The Gaza situation is much more complex than exiting a stage, walking up to Air Force One, or hosting an Easter Egg roll on the White House lawn.
President Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken both avoided military service. At roughly the same times in their lives, Biden began his lifelong governmental service career and Mr. Blinken was the co-editor of the Harvard newspaper. By comparison, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and let’s bypass his political morass, served in the IDF special forces unit, Seyeret Matkal, and was twice wounded in combat. His brother was killed in the Entebbe Raid. Who is the real tough guy?
It is worth remembering that way back in 1982, a young Senator Biden who was threatening withholding aid was informed by then Prime Minister Menachem Began: Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”
Israel depends on its ironclad relationship with the America. At the same time Israel is, in essence, the tip of the spear representing the Western World as they face down an axis of hostile adversaries promising death the America. The world is a scary place and beyond the sheer force of our superpower arsenal are the force of our word and our moral clarity. Enemies and allies can smell out false bravado and disloyalty. This is time for America to stand strong with Israel.
