On the menu today: A bombshell report in the Washington Post, citing four sources, says that the Biden administration has offered Israel “sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group’s hidden tunnels.” This means the U.S. has had this information, and has chosen not to share it with the Israelis, unless they make concessions to not launch a full-scale raid into Rafah. It’s just the latest jaw-dropping contradiction of Biden’s pledge at the start of the conflict, “We will not ever fail to have their back. We’ll make sure they have the help their citizens need and they can continue to defend themselves.” Apparently, Biden doesn’t think the Israelis need to know where the Hamas leaders are — Hamas leaders who are always surrounded by hostages to deter raids upon them. Meanwhile, Maryland Democratic representative Steny Hoyer laments, “I regret that there are members who really are in effect, I think, reflecting the views of Hamas, which are to kill Jews and eliminate Israel.”
Whose Side Are We On?
The Washington Post, Saturday morning:
The Biden administration, working urgently to stave off a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, is offering Israel valuable assistance in an effort to persuade it to hold back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group’s hidden tunnels, according to four people familiar with the U.S. offers. [Emphasis added.]
So, the U.S. knows where the Hamas leaders are hiding but isn’t telling the Israelis?
For a moment, forget blindsiding the Israelis and not telling them about Hamas’s counteroffer and ruse that it had agreed to a cease-fire deal, forget the Gaza Pier, forget cutting off arms exports to Israel . . . if we know where Hamas leaders such as Yahya Sinwar, the accused architect of the October 7 attacks, are hiding, why would we not tell the Israelis that? Why would we effectively protect Hamas leaders?
Why are we protecting the lives of the leaders of a terrorist organization that has taken Americans hostage?
For months now, there have been consistent reports that Sinwar keeps hostages around him to deter any operation to capture or kill him. From a Post report in February:
The Israeli military is confident that Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, the alleged architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, is hiding inside a labyrinthine network of tunnels beneath southern Gaza. But he is surrounded by a human shield of hostages intended to deter an operation to capture or kill him, frustrating Israel’s efforts to dismantle the terrorist organization and bring the more than four-month-long war to a close. . . .
Sinwar is believed to be bunkered in the warren of tunnels beneath Khan Younis, the city in southern Gaza where he was born in 1962 into a family that had been forced out of the Palestinian town of Majdal, now Ashkelon, in the wake of Israel’s 1948 war for independence. U.S. officials said they concur with the Israeli assessment that Sinwar is hiding somewhere underneath his hometown and has surrounded himself with hostages, an ultimate insurance policy. . . .
In recent days, some officials have speculated that Sinwar may have moved a few miles away to Rafah, on the border with Egypt. Israeli officials have publicly disputed press claims that Sinwar escaped over the border.
If you know where the Hamas leaders are, you will probably find at least some of the hostages nearby. And we’re refusing to share this information with the Israelis, unless they make concessions?
Whose side are we on? Because right now, it really looks like we’re acting like Hamas’s defense attorney, trying to get it the best deal possible.
I want to remind you of President Biden’s words on October 7, 2023:
In this moment of tragedy, I want to say to them and to the world and to terrorists everywhere that the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back.
We’ll make sure they have the help their citizens need and they can continue to defend themselves. . . .
And my administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering. . . .
And let there be no mistake: The United States stands with the State of Israel, just as we have from the moment the United States became the first nation to recognize Israel, 11 minutes after its founding, 75 years ago.
Since then, Biden has broken every word of that pledge.
On Friday, Axios quoted a pro-Israel Democratic leader putting the best possible spin on how Biden has handled the conflict so far:
Mark Mellman, the president and CEO of the influential group Democratic Majority for Israel, told Axios that “there has never been a president more pro-Israel than Joe Biden but at the same time we are very concerned about what appears to be a significant shift in US policy.
Horsepucky.
The term “gaslighting” gets thrown around willy-nilly these days, and it is often misused as a synonym for “a statement I don’t like,” or run-of-the-mill lying. Traditionally, it’s supposed to be more insidious and manipulative, an attempt to make you doubt what you know for certain and fool you into believing a false narrative of events. Up is down, left is right, the lights in the room are not getting dimmer.
Running around insisting that “there has never been a president more pro-Israel than Joe Biden” while the president and his team refuse to turn over the exact information that Israel has been hunting since the beginning of the war, with the lives of hostages in the balance, is spectacular gaslighting. I mean, that’s just chef’s kiss.
President Biden appeared at a campaign fundraiser at the Seattle Art Museum on Sunday, and for a few moments veered off script and started acknowledging the obvious, before realizing that what he was saying was contradicting his recent policy decisions:
Look, before I begin, let me answer a question related to the hostage deal I get — keep getting asked by the press and all the folks out there.
You know, there would be a ceasefire tomorrow if Hara- — Hamas would release the hostages — the women and the elderly and the wounded. Israel said it’s up to Hamas; if they wanted to do it, we could end it tomorrow. And the ceasefire would begin tomorrow. It all has to do — you know, we’ve not — anyway, I don’t want to — I guess I shouldn’t get into all this about Israel. But, you know — well, I don’t want to get going, I guess. (Laughter.)
But, look, I want to thank you for your support and — for this campaign, especially Brad and — and Kathy Smith. Brad, you’ve been — we were — where — there you are. We were recently in another part of the world — in Wisconsin doing an incredible job.
Can’t let Grandpa Magoo speak off-the-cuff for too long! He might acknowledge that his administration is bending over backward to save the terrorist organization that started the war, broke the previous cease-fires, keeps refusing new cease-fire offers, refuses to release the hostages — American hostages! — and keeps raping the hostages.
A lot of Democrats know that the president’s stance on the conflict is a contradictory hodge-podge at best. It began with the right words and actions, and is has slowly morphed into a de facto pro-Hamas stance, driven by a spectacularly wrongheaded notion that the entire presidential election comes down to Michigan (it may not) and that winning Michigan comes down to Arab-American, Muslim-American, and Palestinian-American voters. (If Biden had a high job-approval rating on the economy and the border right now, he wouldn’t be worried about the campus-activist voters drifting to Cornel West and Jill Stein or staying home.)
Once a Democratic official is safely retired, or near retirement, they can acknowledge the obvious. Most of the young rabid anti-Israel protesters don’t know the first thing about the Middle East, don’t know which river and which sea they’re chanting about, and operate from a “colonial oppressor vs. noble savage” mindset that completely misreads the history of the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Hillary Clinton is never running for office again, so she can admit what everyone else can see — Democrats are attempting to placate a youth-activist corps that doesn’t know squat about any of this:
“I have had many conversations, as you have had, with a lot of young people over the last many months now,” she said on the MSNBC show “Morning Joe” on Thursday. “They don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or frankly about history, in many areas of the world, including in our own country.”
Ms. Clinton then went on to imply that young people “don’t know” that had Yasir Arafat, the former leader of the Palestinian Authority, accepted a deal brokered by her husband, President Bill Clinton, the Palestinians would already have a state of their own. “It’s one of the great tragedies of history that he was unable to say yes,” she said.
Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer is running for reelection, but he’s 84 and usually wins with about two-thirds of the vote. He got surprisingly blunt in an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju:
While not mentioning [New York Democrat Jamaal] Bowman specifically or calling out any members by name, Hoyer said some of his colleagues’ rhetoric has given him pause.
“I regret that there are members who really are in effect, I think, reflecting the views of Hamas, which are to kill Jews and eliminate Israel,” Hoyer said.
Hear that? There’s a de facto pro-Hamas caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.
ADDENDUM: Over in that other Washington publication I write for, a look at what is likely to be Donald Trump’s long search for a running mate:
Expect Trump to drag this out as long as possible. He doesn’t really need a running mate until the Republican convention, which starts July 15. The closer we get to that date, the more intense the speculation will become — and if there’s anything Trump loves, it’s being at the center of a media frenzy. Trump announced his selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on July 15, 2016; the Republican convention in Cleveland began three days later.
It’s easily forgotten today, but in 2016, multiple news organizations reported that sources claimed Trump got cold feet about Pence and asked if he could alter his selection after word had leaked. Trump loves people competing to be his choice. He’s less comfortable with actually making a decision and being locked into it.
And that’s the problem with ever-increasing veepstakes hype. Eventually, that long list of names whittles down to one, and then you’re not left with a blank slate but an actual flesh-and-blood selection who will please some voters and disappoint others.