News broke Wednesday night that President Biden on Sunday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Israel Defense Forces mustn’t approach post-cease-fire operations in southern Gaza the way it has in the north: Biden’s worried about the risks to civilians and wants Israel to ease up.
In other words, our president is rewarding Hamas for committing war crimes.
Again.
Gazan civilians are in danger because Hamas for 15 years has placed all of its military assets under and among civilian areas, with a preference for bases dug under hospitals, mosques and schools.
All by itself, that’s a war crime, expressly forbidden by the Geneva Conventions, which clearly state the folks using the human shields bear all blame for the civilian suffering.
That Hamas ordered civilians not to flee as the IDF moved in — and fired on Gazans who sought to leave — is just another war crime.
Hamas’ goal, of course, was to maximize civilian casualties so it could blame Israel for all of them — on the confident assumption that world media and Hamas’ other apologists would play along, as they have.
(Hamas, as one leader proudly explained, builds bomb shelters to protect its own minions, not regular Gazans.)
And Biden has effectively joined the chorus; for weeks, he and the rest of his administration have been “expressing concern” about Israel’s tactics — which in fact do all they can to avoid civilian suffering.
Other Hamas war crimes include diverting humanitarian assistance (especially food and fuel) meant for civilians to its own cadres.
Biden’s rewarded that crime by pushing Israel to allow ever-more aid into Gaza — knowing it would mainly resupply the terrorists.
Why not at least demand that the Red Cross get free passage to supervise aid distribution?
Heck, why no loud public demandever that Hamas release at least the Americans it kidnapped?
Our president has also rewarded Hamas’ hostage-taking by pushing Netanyahu (already under considerable domestic pressure) to accept and extend the cease-fire to get more hostages (the taking of whom was yet another war crime) sprung.
Hamas, by the way, has released very few American hostages: It wants to keep maximum pressure on Biden.
(Interesting note: The first American released “is a great-niece of Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a major Democratic party donor who paid handsomely for Hunter Biden’s art and won an appointment to a plum cultural post from President Biden,” reports Ben Weingarten at RealClearPolitics, noting that the prez made the case a high priority.)
The bottom line remains the same as ever: Hamas promises to commit endless atrocities if it survives — which poses an existential threat to Israel, which will wither away if it can’t keep its civilians safe: It has no choice but to eradicate the terror group in Gaza.
And the war criminals’ only hope of survival lies in their war crimes working to sap the enemy’s will.
Biden may think he’s just covering himself with US voters, but by rewarding every war crime Hamas commits, our president is taking the terrorists’ side.