Bad, Untimely and, Ultimately, Insulting Advice
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently made a shameful speech targeting Israel. What he did was deeply disturbing for our security. And it’s symptomatic of how the U.S. government is both morally unmoored—it’s ready to betray a democratic country today the way the West did Czechoslovakia in 1938—and extraordinarily derelict in the face of a world that has become as dangerous as it was in the 1930s, which led to World War II. The White House, in fact, wants to cut military spending in real terms.
Senator Schumer delivered what amounted to an ultimatum to the democratic state of Israel: Do what I (and the Biden Administration) order or else, the implication being that Jerusalem would see slowdowns or cutoffs of aid and military equipment if the Israelis didn’t carry out what was being required of them.
Schumer declared that Israel should hold new elections once the war starts to wind down, replacing the unity government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with one more to amenable to how Schumer and President Biden think things should be done. How condescending. Israel is a vibrant democracy that will hold elections as it sees proper.
Israel is fighting for its existence. Iran and its proxies like
Hamas are clear that they want Israel eradicated. Hamas’ deliberate, meticulously planned atrocities committed during its October 7 invasion graphically demonstrated that nothing less than a second holocaust will suffice.
Urban warfare, in contrast to fighting on open battlefields, is difficult to prosecute. Hamas is fighting with the express purpose of maximizing civilian casualties to generate international pressure on Israel to pull back. The civilian suffering is grievous as Hamas hobbles straightforward assistance that is not under its control. Perhaps the Israelis could do more without jeopardizing their forces, but Israel gets little credit for the extraordinary efforts it has already made to minimize civilian casualties.
Hamas’ murderous strategy is working with this White House and fairweather friends like Chuck Schumer. President Biden has warned Israel not to wage its planned offensive in the city of Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas. Letting Hamas survive as a force that controls a real base of operations in Gaza would be a huge win for both Hamas and Iran. The ayatollahs could say that if Israel can’t eliminate Hamas, it stands no chance of ultimate survival, given all the other growing forces arrayed against it.
AntiIranian Arab states would get the message: Iran is in charge of the Middle East now.
That Senator Schumer would advocate an approach that saves Hamas from elimination is beyond understanding. After all, as he said in his speech, his surname is derived from the Hebrew word shomer, which means guardian.
Schumer also declared that Israel must accept a twostate solution for the Palestinian situation. This decadesold idea is always a nonstarter because Palestinian leaders won’t accept the existence of Israel. After all, Israel withdrew unconditionally from Gaza almost 20 years ago. What happened next? Hamas, with its uncompromising platform to wipe Israel off the map, was voted into power.
Israel doesn’t need Senator Schumer’s illtimed, utterly counterproductive kibitzing.