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April 14, 2024
Key Takeaways:
- Iran launched missiles against Israel in response to Netanyahu's attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria. The Biden administration reiterated its "ironclad" commitment to Israel's security and helped Israel take down nearly all the incoming drones and missiles.
- 191 days ago, on October 7, on Simchat Torah, Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel and murdered 1,200, wounded 3,300, and took 240 hostage during a day of brutal savagery and unspeakable, undeniable sexual violence; 134 hostages, half probably dead, some possibly pregnant, remain captive in Gaza. Hamas refused a ceasefire deal because it claimed it could not find even 40 qualifying hostages.
- Some Democrats are voicing frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his handling of the Israel-Hamas war but President Biden and the Democratic Party continue to support Israel, in contrast to the Republican Party, which has voted against aid to Israel and continues to block aid to Israel.
- The Biden administration blamed Hamas for stalled negotiations. Vice President Harris met with hostage families and reiterated the Biden administration's commitment to bringing the hostages home. She also reaffirmed that Hamas must be eliminated.
- Netanyahu is damaging the U.S.-Israel relationship. The Democratic Party has not changed. Netanyahu's government is the most extreme, far-right government in Israel's history. It does not share many of the values that underlie the U.S.-Israel relationship. We could not ask for better friends of Israel than Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer. The solution is to keep them in power and remove Netanyahu from power.
Read to the end for corrections, what you may have missed last week, fun stuff, and upcoming events.
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Hi Steve,
Yesterday, Iran launched missiles against Israel, ostensibly in retaliation for Netanyahu's attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria. The Biden administration. stood unequivocally with Israel. Iran is no victim but a serial aggressor.
The White House said yesterday afternoon that "President Biden has been clear: our support for Israel’s security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran."
And it did. Biden condemned Iran's attack "in the strongest possible terms" and helped Israel take down nearly all the incoming missiles and drones, in part thanks to the aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers Biden moved to the region during the past week.
President Biden, once again, has risen to the moment in support of Israel despite disagreements with Netanyahu.
Now House Republicans must stop blocking the emergency aid to Israel that President Biden requested on October 20 and bring the Israel/Ukraine aid bill to the floor for an up or down vote on Monday.
It is appalling that Iran's attack might be what it takes for Republicans to wake up and take action after nearly six months of needless delay and obstruction.
The Hamas-Israel war continues, the hostages remain in Gaza, and Netanyahu continues to strain the U.S.-Israel relationship, but the Democratic Party's commitment to Israel's safety and security and Israel's future as a Jewish, democratic state has not changed since October 7. Some Democrats voice frustration with Netanyahu's handling of the Israel-Hamas war but Democrats continue to support Israel. David French explains that Biden’s approach to the Gaza situation--providing military aid to Israel while exerting relentless pressure for increased humanitarian efforts — is superior to Trump's approach, which is a formula for immense human suffering and eventual military defeat. Biden's approach is "much closer to matching the military, legal and moral needs of the moment."
The Democratic Party is not a cult, so we do hear divergent voices on Israel from Democratic members of Congress. Senate and House Democratic leadership firmly support Israel. Words matter. Actions matter more. Republicans have blocked aid to Israel and voted to cut aid to Israel. Israel has yet to see a dime of the $14.3 billion President Biden requested from Congress on October 20 because of Republican obstruction.
Since October 7, Biden has approved more than 100 separate military sales to Israel and authorized the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel. Biden vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions biased against Israel, blocked a UN Security Council statement biased against Israel, and voted correctly by abstaining on UN Security Council Resolution 2728.
The Biden administration and Democrats blamed Hamas for stalled negotiations. On April 9, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that there could be a ceasefire in place today that would extend for several weeks to be built upon longer if Hamas would release some of the hostages. Sullivan said, "let’s train the attention where it belongs, which is that the world should say at this moment to Hamas, 'It’s time. Let’s go. Let’s get that ceasefire.' We’re ready. I believe Israel is ready. And I think Hamas should step up to the table and be prepared to do so as well."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that it's "extraordinary the extent to which Hamas has been almost erased from this story. As we both said going back almost to day one, none of what we’ve seen in Gaza would have happened had Hamas given up the hostages right away, put down its weapons, stopped hiding behind civilians, and surrendered. It has an opportunity now to agree to the proposal on a ceasefire and on hostages. The ball is in Hamas’ court. The world is watching to see what it does."
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and 21 other Democrats urged world leaders to call on Hamas to accept the proposed hostage deal. The letter was co-led by Reps. Madeleine Dean, Kathy Manning, and Jan Schakowsky.
President Biden has brought home hostages and continues to focus on bringing home the remaining hostages. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris met with hostage families and "underscored that President Biden and she have no higher priority than reuniting the hostages with their loved ones. She also reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to bring home the remains of those who have been tragically confirmed to be deceased. The Vice President again condemned Hamas as a brutal terrorist organization and its horrific use of sexual violence, reaffirmed that the threat Hamas poses to Israel must be eliminated, and denounced the rise of antisemitism worldwide."
What has changed is not the Democratic Party but Israel's government. Benjamin Netanyahu's current government is the most extreme, far-right government in Israel's history. Netanyahu's primary objective is to stay out of jail, which means placating his coalition. Hence the on-hold judicial overhaul, opposition to a two-state solution, settlement expansion, toleration of settler violence, and policies that have led to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
At issue is not the undeniable atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. At issue is not the irrefutable right and duty of the State of Israel to defend itself against Hamas and to eradicate Hamas's capacity to inflict more harm, which the Biden administration has repeatedly reiterated.
At issue is that when a country invades another territory, even for just cause, it must wage its war according to certain standards of conduct. When a country uses U.S.-supplied weapons in that war, it must "facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance and United States Government-supported international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance."
It took tougher-than-usual public talk from President Biden to convince Netanyahu to allow more humanitarian assistance into Gaza. That's not how the U.S.-Israel alliance should function but that's how Netanyahu has made it function. It seems unthinkable that an Israeli Prime Minister would play games with the United States, but that is what Netanyahu is doing. Israel needs the U.S. much more than the U.S. needs Israel. Biden continues to approve arms transfers to Israel and is not conditioning military aid to Israel, but it is almost as if Netanyahu is doing everything he can to force Biden to reconsider his choices.
We could not ask for better friends of Israel than Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer. The solution is not to elect Republicans, whose isolationist foreign policy views are not good for America or Israel, but to remove Netanyahu, who has done more to damage U.S.-Israel relations than any single person in history. That's a choice only Israelis can make. But if we care about Israel, we should be telling our Israeli friends that the U.S. has to play the hand it is dealt, and it's up to them to shuffle the deck.
Removing Netanyahu will not be a panacea--the U.S.-Israel relationship has always had and will continue to have its ups and downs. On some issues, Netanyahu's positions are similar to those held by his likely successors. But just as Donald Trump shares many positions with other Republicans and yet is uniquely dangerous to the United States, so too Benjamin Netanyahu is uniquely dangerous to Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship. Bret Stephens explains why Netanyahu must go--not after the war winds down, but now. Times of Israel founding editor David Horowitz writes that it's not whether Netanyahu should go, but how.
I've been engaged in pro-Israel politics for decades. When rifts developed between the U.S. and Israeli governments, the default was to assign blame to the U.S. government and heal the rift through lobbying or election work. But today, aside from the House, we have strong, long-term friends of Israel in power in the White House and Congress. Winning control of the House and replacing Mike Johnson with Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker will help, but it's up to our Israeli friends to heal the rift by removing Netanyahu. The problem is not on this side of the Atlantic. We must urge our friends in Israel to heed former Shin Bet chief Nadav Argman's advice to rally, demonstrate, and do everything possible to force early elections.
It is hard to demand humanitarian aid for Gaza when the hostages held by Hamas are getting no humanitarian aid or visits from the Red Cross. The hostages are starving too but humanitarian aid will not flow to them. The requirements of U.S. and international law seem at odds with common sense and lived experience: Isn't humanitarian aid provided after the war, not to an enemy's citizens in the middle of the war? The Marshall Plan was implemented after, not during, World War II. Reconstruction occurred after, not during, the Civil War.
Writing during World War I, Clarence Darrow--famous for his opposition to the death penalty and his advocacy of non-violence--wrote, "Since war began, starvation has been a legitimate method of warfare, always with one exception, that the people of a starving nation shall have the right to surrender and then be fed."
But starvation is no longer considered a legitimate method of warfare. Starvation is not Israel's goal but starvation is the result of this war, on a scale of hundreds of thousands, if not millions. It's hard to argue that U.S. or international law should not apply to Israel because of the horrors of October 7, as much as we might feel that way emotionally. We have to understand that the U.S. cannot ignore the looming famine in Gaza and that acknowledging and addressing this humanitarian catastrophe does not mean ignoring the threat from Hamas or tolerating a Gaza run by Hamas after the war, nor does it mean forgetting the terrible events on October 7 and the reality that nearly every Israeli knows someone killed or taken hostage.
David French's analysis of Israel's war in Gaza is excellent and a must-read if you don't understand why providing humanitarian assistance will help Israel achieve its political and military objectives, not hinder it. It dovetails nicely with Rabbi Yitz Greenberg's Jewish case for humanitarian aid. You might find one or both hard reading but if you do, you'll know you needed to read them.
Corrections. I'm entitled to my own opinions but not to my own facts, so I appreciate it when readers bring errors to my attention. In last week's newsletter, the first time I mentioned World Central Kitchen I called it World Kitchen Central. And I meant 2023 but I typed it as 2013. I repeated the phrase "of Israel" twice in a row in one sentence. You can read (and retweet) a prettier, shinier version of last week's newsletter on JDCA's Medium page.
In Case You Missed It:
- Republicans will continue to spread misinformation (otherwise known as "lies") about Iran sanctions waivers, so know the facts: These waivers do not and did not give Iran more money to fund military operations or terrorism and the money is not fungible. Weird that our Republican friends didn't say anything when these policies were initiated during the Trump administration or when Iran behaved malignly during the Trump administration.
- After the Bush administration rebuffed the Iron Dome concept, the Obama administration played a key role in its development and backed Iron Dome. Obama had visited Sderot as a presidential candidate and told his aides to find ways to boost Israel's missile defense systems. Thanks, again, Obama.
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How Israel propped up Hamas: Netanyahu gambled that a strong Hamas (but not too strong) would keep the peace and reduce pressure for a Palestinian state.
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Jay Michaelson explores the causes of the recent rise in antisemitism and the myths surrounding antisemitism, including the conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism. He shows "that although antisemitism on the left is real, and arguably escalating, it still pales in comparison to antisemitism on the right ... The real crisis is not leftists on campus but white nationalists, insurrectionists, election deniers, science deniers and conspiracy theorists seizing two if not three branches of the federal government. That is the Titanic. College activists are the string quartet playing on the deck."
O.J. Tweets of the Week. Norm Macdonald and if you like that, here's ten more minutes of Norm Macdonald on O.J. Simpson. Plus Dave Chappelle on the four different times he met O.J. Simpson.
Eclipse Tweets of the Week. Kevin Wildes, Michael Ian Black, and Harrison Weinreb.
Facebook Post of the Week. Jill Zipin.
Video Clips of the Week. Yair Lapid explains Israel's longest war. Thinking about international law and the rules made me think of the knife fight scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
For those new to this newsletter. This is the newsletter even Republicans have to read and the original home of the viral and beloved 2022 and 2023 Top Ten Signs You're At a Republican Seder. If someone forwarded this to you, why not subscribe and get it in your inbox every Sunday? Just click here--it's free.
I periodically update my posts on why Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism and on the IHRA definition of antisemitism. My definition of "pro-Israel" is here (it's a work in progress, as am I).
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