Hamas is one of three terrorist entities supported financially and ideologically by Iran, one of three permanent enemies of the United States. The other two are Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China.
Not only is Hamas a terrorist fox in the bosom of Israel, it is the once and once-only elected government of Gaza-Palestine, supposedly one of the “two states” often mentioned by American politicians when they begin prating about a “two state solution” to problems in the Middle East.
It has become clear in recent days that the Biden administration favors the much sought after, politically mystical “two state solution.” That is, the Biden administration looks kindly on the treacherous fox in the bosom of Israel that threatens to destroy it and had on October 7, 2023, through its aggressive military actions, very publically declared open war on Israel.
Following the brutal surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu -- loathed by both the Biden administration and that of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama -- -- rightly declared war on Hamas, vowing to destroy it root and branch.
There has been evolution in the Biden administration’s solid support of Israel.
Biden early announced his support of Israel but lately has hedged his bets by also supporting a pause in the war or a temporary cessation of hostilities. Strategists who know something about war have denounced them both as strategic measures that will allow the enemies of Israel – Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, an Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s -- to regroup in order to continue their unremitting destruction of the Israeli state.
Try to imagine what then General Dwight Eisenhower’s response might have been had then President Franklin Roosevelt decided, just prior to the landing at Normandy, that he would yield to political opponents who were encouraging him to make “negotiation not war” with a German Chancellor on the run.
Those who fear the widening of the war have managed agilely to leap over the whole history of Iranian supported aggression. The war already had been widened by Iran ever since Israel withdrew troops and Israelis from Gaza way back in 2005, when Hamas replaced The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO or Fatah) as Gaza’s governing institution. Israel’s current response to Hamas and Hezbollah and Houthi aggression is an honest and forthright answer to a widened war.
Hamas, an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, established itself in 1987, but it had been active in the Gaza strip as early as the 1950s. Following the defeat of Fatah in a series of violent clashes in June 2007, Hamas has governed the Gaza portion of the Palestinian territories. Its first attack against Israel, the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers, occurred in 1989.
Of Iran's 89 million inhabitants, 99 percent are Muslim, according to a 2023 census. A sizable majority, 88 percent, embrace Shia Islam, and 12 percent are Sunni, according to a 2016 census.
Biden is waging a reelection campaign; Netanyahu is waging a war against the real, persistent and ideologically committed enemies of Israel, many of them trained and armed by Shia Iran. The two ambitions clash at important points.
Wars are either won or lost. Campaigns are either won or lost. And the loss of a war or political campaign removes the loser from making important decisions that undoubtedly affect the fate of nations. Peace negotiations are either successful or unsuccessful. And the most successful peace negotiations are undertaken by those who have successfully won wars.
The map of Europe, the peace of Europe, following World War II, was decided by those who won the war. The unity of the United States was decided by Abraham Lincoln, who successfully prosecuted a bloody insurrection by slave holding states. The peace that followed was decided at Antietam and Gettysburg, two of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.
Wars and the victors of wars matter. Successful negotiations – more properly, the choices of those who will shape the peace – are, more often than not, decided on battlefields. All history cries out to us -- to lose the war is to lose the peace that follows war.
Successful foreign policies are shaped by politicians who are wise enough to discern enemies from friends. American voters in November 2024 will have an opportunity to decide who will shape the peace in the Middle East -- the friends or enemies of Israel. And the same calculus applies to Eastern Europe, now holding its own in a defensive war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Who wins the war wins the peace. We can only hope they will choose wisely.
Victor Davis Hanson’s written commentary is widely available through distribution agencies, but he cannot be found in most Connecticut newspapers. The author of A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War and The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won is particularly luminous on the matter of war and its consequences.
Hanson is not certain the American Republic will survive recent assaults upon it by neo-Marxist pedagogues or, for that matter, the a-historical architects of American foreign policy. And patriots who have survived Ivy League universities in recent days tend to agree with him. Yet the man makes too much sense to be included among the commentariat in our state’s newspapers.
Go figure.
Great article. The shift by Biden towards Hamas is purely political calculus in that he is betting that liberal Jewish voters will not abandon the Democratic ticket while trying to hold Arab voters, especially in the swing state of Michigan.
It may well be that the entire election hinges on one factor - whether Cornel West is allowed on the Michigan ballot or else makes some deal in which he is highly compensated not to do so. West supports Hamas strongly and will pull at least 4% out of Bidens hide giving Trump the state and probably the presidency.
TY for this, Don. Another great share. This is excerpted )minus the membership business, fom a ltter that i worte to my mosques this AM. In case you are interested keep it up if you like and if nopt just delete it no harm no foul. It is your column, not mine, but i want you to hear this Muslim's perepective on HAMAS, ( as well, I agree with all you wrote) It concerns me deeply that there has not been much if any effort to "tell the truth even if it is against oneself or one's family-or in this case against a particularly egregious terrorist organization like Hamas. Not one voice have i heard doing anything but blaming Israel. Israel must account for Israel, before G-d , whom we love to call Allah. And we must go before Allah. the atrocities of October 7th were barbaric and unacceptable.
Many of the terrible hardships that the Palestinians experience are because they are caught between extreme leftist style violence on the part of their political parties , which are in effect, guerilla warriors.
This is NOT , in my educated and Islamic-religious-study based opinion (and i have been faithful Muslim for almost 4 decades) a jihad. Nor is it in any way justified. "is not the earth big /wide enough for you- that when you are cast out of a place you hould move on?)" And we are called upon to be good citizens of whatever country in which we find ourselves, so long as we are able to PRAY.
Allah is the guide. And the Palestinians have been sorely tested, but much of the hardest part comes from their own people and the international leftist global goons who encourage hatred and genocide instead of peace and understanding and stoicism with faith in Allah.
We are nor supposed to even hurt a tree in warfare, let alone kidnap, rape, kill by grotesque and hideous means or torture anyone. Ali, the mighty warrior taught us not to strike in anger when we MUST strike. The Qur'an teaches us that terrorism is entirely and completely against our faith.
And i must mention here that had we in fact lived up to our own faith practice as taught and guided by the Prophet SAWS, that the tests that the Palestinians have had to bear ay very well never have occurred, and that like Nelson Mandela, the sacrifice and the beauty of how he handled injustice would likely have earned the workd's respect as well as been so pleasing to Allah, that the course of history in the Middle east may have changed for the dramatically better, instead of the indescribably , brutally dreadfully, heartrendingly worse
And finally Please do not imagine that i do not KNOW for a fact that too many immigrants come to this nation beholden to organized crime. Organized crime is NOT compatible in any way shape or form with the faith path of Islam as it was revealed by Allah and shared with those of us who are Muslim. We as Muslims need to stop blaming others> We need to foiht the jihad pf overcoming our own anger as individual as and socio-political communities.
I want to make sure that I explain the bumper sticker that my truck is wearing, because perhaps a brother saw it and has bounced me off the communication list. So it is an anti-Hamas sticker, because i felt the need to address the silence of our community in speaking up truthfully about the atrocities to the hostages.I wish you would consider my opinion when you do speak.
Please know that
In America there are still freedoms to cherish. Here is my free speech, Let's try to protect it, and i hope you do not simply knee jerk dismiss my input. Allah is the only expert on Islam, and ALlah long ago presented me with fine study opportunity to know that tribalism anywhere is NOT our faith path.
That said my heart goes out to the Palestinian people in diaspora and the decimation of battered and bombed Gaza, and so many innocents. Their leadership has failed them and we need to acknowledge this and stop blaming Israel. but all these years of Arab and Muslim oppression if our own people and terrorism in service of nationalism and landholdings is NOT Muslim but its antithesis. It defames our faith. and injustice by Hamas and the utilization of 6 billion dollars to foment terror has reaped what it sowed.
i have llittle faith that anyone would wish to engage in conversation about this share , but I can make myself available
Peace and Blessings,
Aminah Yaquin Carroll