There will be no header and/or preface to this text outside of one paragraph below.
I love excuses. Especially, when it comes to Israel. Especially, the ones related to the words “peace”, “civilian population concerns”, “escalation”, “regional war” and “first amendment.”
There are three issues that come to mind when assessing the White House stance on the situation in Gaza.
Issue N1. What prevents the Biden Administration from adding the Gaza enclave/Strip either to the U.S. FTO or the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism lists as a terrorist entity/territory?
Based on what I read, the WH will come up with at least three major points against the aforementioned proposal.
A. HAMAS doesn’t represent the whole population of Gaza;
B. Collective punishment is not an option;
C. We should not allow this conflict to escalate into a regional war.
Well, let’s briefly deal with the above.
A. The residents of Gaza had free elections in 2006. Their choice was Hamas!;
Currently, 64% of the Gaza and 50% of the West Bank residents would vote for the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. This is according to the recent poll quoted by Mark Mellman (the Mellman Group) in his opinion piece published by The Hill (10.25.23);
B. If collective punishment is not an option, how come Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, etc… are recognized as terrorist States by the U.S.?
C. Conflict Escalation into a regional war.
1. The same way of thinking prevented all (but one) modern US administrations from officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In other words, the WH needs to grow beizim (cojones) to explain a few things to its Arab friends;
2. The recent U.S. bombardment of Iran’s military facilities in Syria served as a warning to Teheran or an escalation?
IssueN2.
After the infamous report of the “Israeli bombing” of the Gaza hospital the gullible NYT decided to apologize for its pro Hamas reporting. It took about a week for “the decrepit lady” to produce a whisper of an apology. During the week in question, the U.S. saw mass and violent pro-Palestinian demonstrations, literal hunts for Jewish students in different colleges, etc…
in my book, the NYT has an indirect responsibility for the above and many other actions of the numerous crowds and individuals who are supporting Hamas under the cover of the Free Palestine slogans.
“The decrepit lady” has (indirectly) provided an umbrella of legitimacy to their actions, thus should be “enjoying” legal consequences, but there will be none!
IssueN3
It’s crystal clear that the so-called Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are (in reality) supporters and/or sympathizers of the Hamas organization in general and its crimes committed in Israel. The Free Palestine slogans allow them to abuse the Freedom Of Assembly, since Hamas is on the U.S. FTO list since 2009.