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| Netanyahu and Biden -- Avi Ohayon, Israeli Government, via Associated Press |
The views of Connecticut’s all-Democrat U.S. Congressional Delegation on war and peace in Israel are remarkably similar, as if they had all flowed from the same mind and pen. Very likely they did. Democrats are famous for producing campaign scripts and assuring that all the players, both nationally and in-state, rigidly adhere to them. This saves politicians the trouble of thinking independently.
We owe to the Harford Courant’s Chris Keating an unobstructed view
of the delegation’s scripted mindset. And the mind of the delegation is set in
concrete political narratives.
U.S. Representative John Larson of Connecticut’s 1st
District, which has lain sleeping in Democrat hands for 64 years, may serve as
an example. To the politically unlettered observer, the district appears to be
horseshoe shaped gerrymander. The principal cities in Larson’s district are
Bristol, Hartford, and Torrington. The district has been represented by Larson
since 1999. The last Republican to hold the seat was Edwin May, who left office
in 1959.
Congressman Larson says Netanyahu ‘failing
his country’ as Israel-Hamas war,
the Courant proclaimed in a top of the fold, front page story on December
20th.
Larson wanted the paper’s readers to understand that Israel
“’has the unequivocal right to defend itself’ following an invasion by the
Hamas terrorist group on Oct. 7.”
But there is a “but.” Larson told the Courant that “Israel
needs to take further steps to bring peace in a war-torn land.” And, he
continued, “Continued failure to heed President Biden’s warnings about
prioritizing the protection of civilians, developing a plan for Palestinian
governance of Gaza post-war, and putting an end to settler violence in the West
Bank are eroding support for Israel among the international community and here
at home in the United States. I am calling for a new pause in fighting until
Netanyahu and his government are able to lay out a strategy that would protect
civilians, provide for sustainable delivery of humanitarian aid, remove Hamas from
power, and begin immediate multilateral talks on securing a two-state solution.
As with the previous humanitarian pause, it must also include the release of
hostages from Hamas.”
Several questions arise, none of them answered in the
Courant story.
Israel, in the person of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declared war on Hamas – both a
terrorist organization and the government of Gaza -- shortly after
Hamas had murdered 1,200 unarmed and defenseless Israelis on October 7, a
declaration of war heartily backed at the time by President Joe Biden. Larson
also has Israel’s back, but he has reservations (see above), and Israel’s back
has of late been conditionally protected by Democrat politicians who had vowed
immediately after the Hamas assault on Israel – not to worry – we’ve got your
back.
It simply is not true that Israel has renounced reasonable
measures to protect Gazan citizens unconnected with Hamas. Indeed,
extraordinary measures to protect Gazans had been put in place before
Biden and Larson’s remonstrances.
What precisely are Larson’s demands at this juncture?
Larson wants a new pause in fighting “until Netanyahu and
his government are able to lay out a strategy that would protect civilians,
provide for sustainable delivery of humanitarian aid, remove Hamas from power,
and begin immediate multilateral talks on securing a two-state solution.”
It would be simpler, and more honest, had Larson demanded an
immediate end to hostilities – that is to say, an end to Israel’s declared war
against Hamas – because his own declared ends are incompatible with his
approved destruction of Hamas by Netanyahu’s military.
Israel has left Gaza to its own devices for 18 years. In
2005, Israel unilaterally dismantled Israeli citizen settlements in Gaza. So
much for recent claims of Israeli colonization. At the same time, the Israeli
army evacuated from inside the Gaza Strip. Rather than using money pouring into
Gaza to uplift its population, the government of Gaza – Hamas mass murderers –
used the funding to lay its made-in-Iran military plans, built miles of tunnels
leading from the sea into Israel proper to help Islamic extremists financed by
Iran to “drive Israel into the sea,” with the bloody results we now see plainly
before us.
Larson knows all this, and so do other long serving Democrat
members of Connecticut’s all-Democrat U.S. Congressional Delegation such as U.S.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal, and foreign policy wunderkind U.S.
Senator Chris Murphy. They all know that the war against Hamas—and also a
hearty opposition to a menacing Iran – must be won decisively before Hamas
oppressed Gazans can enjoy a prolonged much deserved peace.
Wars are not peaceful affairs. Sustainable peace arrives
only after one of the contesting parties is victorious. Who wins the war shapes
the peace, and it has become plain, even in the midst of war, that Gazans who
have for 18 years suffered fear and want at the hands of their governing
oppressors, may be rooting for the Israelis – not Hamas or Iran. Indeed, a sustained Western backed Israeli
protectorate in Gaza at war’s end, may bring a sustainable peace and prosperity
to long suffering Gazans and Israelis. The protectorate should be spearheaded by
Israel and supported by the United States, its allies, and reliable Arab states
such as Saudi Arabia with a view to thwarting the malign influence of Iran.
President Barack Obama’s highly romanticized vision of Israeli
lambs lying down peacefully with Hamas/Iranian lions was always a pipe dream.
There can be no “two state solution” if one of the states is either Hamas or
some updated version of the former Palestinian Authority.
Blumenthal’s realpolitik is a more just and workable
solution. The Courant’s Keating tells us that “U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is
offering bipartisan legislation with U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican,
to clamp down on Iran for providing funding for Hamas, which attacked Israel on
Oct. 7, prompting an ongoing war.
“‘They are equipped, supplied, trained by Iran,’ Blumenthal
said recently. ‘They are fueled by the financial wherewithal that comes from
Iran’s sales of oil. The United States has said it is imposing sanctions to
prevent Iran from selling that oil. But all too often, these sanctions have
been unenforced. The result has been a deluge of dollars going to Iran’s
proxies. That’s the stark, undisputed truth. Hamas would not exist without
Iran.’”
Someone in Connecticut’s U.S. Congressional Delegation –
Larson, DeLauro, Murphy, Blumenthal – should put a bug in Biden’s ear. So far,
President Biden has advanced Iran’s cause by relieving the once and future
caliphate of its crippling sanctions.
“Without Iran’s support, Hamas could not operate and would
have run out of supplies long ago,” Blumenthal said.
Nail, meet hammer. Likewise, without Biden’s end to
sanctions, Iran long ago would have run out of money with which it has purchased
the murderous activities of Iran’s terrorist proxy armies in Gaza, Lebanon and
Yemen.
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