The Israel-Palestinian War, the Gazan War, and Protecting the Jewish People: Reply to Ms. Tlaib
Ms. Tlaib is one of the progressive lawmakers who are saying Mr. Biden helped facilitate the deaths of Palestinians in Israel by his embrace of Israel. She already beat back an attempt to censure her in the House this week over her comments on the war and is facing attack ads from a Democratic pro-Israel group.
A message is written on the screen after she speaks, stating that Biden supported the genocide of the Palestinian people. The American people won’t forget. Biden, support a cease-fire now. Don’t count on us in the years to come.
Mr. Biden has also grown more critical of the Israeli government’s response as the death toll in Gaza has ballooned and the humanitarian crisis has deepened, even while declaring unambiguous support for Israel and its right to defend itself.
The leaders of Israel have tried to prepare their country for a long war in the beginning of this conflict and a humanitarian pause is not likely to change that. But it is a vital step to ease the burden on civilians in Gaza, and to allow international aid agencies, which are essential to life in Gaza, to keep functioning. Israeli officials have so far been willing to hear the concerns of allies who have pressed Israel to live up to its commitments to the laws governing conflict. Those laws are designed both to regulate conduct during hostilities and also to create a baseline of humanity for what follows.
One clip features a demonstration in Michigan in which protesters chanted “from the river to the sea” — a chant used by Hamas that many Jews view as calling for the eradication of Israel.
“As the Israeli government carries out ethnic cleansing in Gaza, President Biden is cheering on Netanyahu, whose own citizens are protesting his refusal to support a cease-fire,” Ms. Tlaib said on Thursday. It is important that we are laser focused on saving lives, no matter their faith or ethnic background.
The House struck down a resolution on Thursday to formally rebuke Ms. Tlaib, with about two dozen Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. The resolution accused Ms Tlaib of having antisemitic activities and referred to the protest she had in the office building.
Around 20 members of the House have signed onto a resolution urging the White House to call for a cease-fire in the Middle East. The pope called for an end to the war on Sunday, and the second highest ranking Democrat in the Senate called for a cease-fire if hostages are released.
For any such measure to be effective, both sides in this conflict must abide by it. Hamas has to accept the proposal of stopping the launching of rockets at Israel. Arab countries in the region should also put pressure on Hamas to release all of its hostages, which include many women and children.
This situation makes Israel’s fight against Hamas exceptionally difficult. As a liberal democracy, the only one in the Middle East, Israel has made a commitment under international law to protect Palestinian civilians while pursuing its military objectives. It is right that Hamas doesn’t have a commitment, it is just that Israel has a higher standard. It cannot allow anger or vengeance to undermine its moral obligations.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far resisted them, those calls have grown louder and more insistent after Israel’s recent bombardment of the Jabaliya neighborhood in Gaza, which Israel said targeted Hamas militants located there. The damage to the area is “horrific and appalling”, according to the UN children’s aid organization, and it said that the bombardment had resulted in the deaths of thousands of children.
Observations of the Axis of Resistance: Israel, Hezbollah, and the Prospects for a Second War in the Middle East
It is not Hezbollah’s plan, the group’s leader said in a widely anticipated address to his followers on Friday.
But it fit with analysts’ assessment that Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be calibrating their actions to avoid setting off a broader war. Mr. Nasrallah stated that Hezbollah’s objective was to use a controlled battle along the border to take out Israel’s resources.
Mr. Nasrallah said that the Hezbollah front reduced a large portion of the forces for the attack on Gaza. “Some in Lebanon say that we are taking a risk, it’s true. That risk is part of a correct calculation.
Hezbollah is a more powerful and sophisticated military force than Hamas, with tens of thousands of trained fighters, an arsenal of more than 100,000 rockets and a stock of precision-guided missiles that can strike sensitive targets deep inside Israel. Military analysts say that the group may have other military capabilities they haven’t yet revealed.
Mr. Nasrallah warned that he was keeping Hezbollah ready should hostilities with Israel go from bad to worse. “All the possibilities on our Lebanese front are open,” he said. “All the choices are available and we could resort to them at any time.”
During one of the most tense periods in the Middle East in recent years, though, Mr. Nasrallah’s speech offered a small measure of relief for many, that at least one powerful force was not seeking to plunge the region into even greater violence.
Mr. Nasrallah is a highly respected figure inside a group that calls itself the “axis of resistance,” a network of Iranian-backed militias in several Arab countries that share an anti-American and anti-Israeli ideology and have come to coordinate their operations more closely in recent years. A decision by Hezbollah to launch a full-on war with Israel would most likely encourage attacks by an assortment of allied militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Mr. Nasrallah criticized the US for being so supportive of Israel that it had to respect it, accusing President Biden of not being honest in telling Israel that it had the right to defend itself.
The group was not intimidated by the two aircraft carriers that the United States had dispatched to the eastern Mediterranean, which could hit Hezbollah targets.
“Your fleets in the Mediterranean do not scare us and will never scare us,” Mr. Nasrallah said. We are ready for the fleets that you threaten us with.
Hezbollah could be attacked by its allies, if the United States intervenes directly in the war.
The United States sent the carriers because they feared a wider war in the region, as well as the mounting anger in the Arab countries over the plight of the civilians in Gaza. Israel has been faced with increasing international criticism over the dire conditions in Gaza, but so far resisted calls for a cease-fire or humanitarian pause to help deliver aid.
Mr. Nasrallah praised the fighters of his group for launching daily attacks on Israeli military positions and destroying communications infrastructure. Israel’s civilians were forced to flee due to those attacks so that they wouldn’t contribute to the attacks on Gaza.
Thousands of Hezbollah supporters gathered to watch the speech on giant screens in locations throughout Lebanon. The largest site, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, was decorated with Hezbollah and Palestinian flags. He appeared on screen and supporters chanted, “We are here for you, Nasrallah.”
The Palestinian cause had become the world’s top issue because of the bad treatment of the Palestinians by Israel, he said.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza was not attacked by terrorists, nor was Israel a threat to Jews or foreign citizens, as suggested by Mohammed Sbeti
In Beirut, Mohamad Sbeti, 40, fired a volley of celebratory gunshots into the air with a pistol after Mr. Nasrallah finished speaking. He said he would answer any call by Hezbollah to fight Israel.
A driver who had grown poorer during Lebanon’s deep economic crisis in recent years, Mr. Sbeti was not overly worried about the vast damage that Israel could do to Lebanon in a new war.
Ross Abramson, a software engineer and recent New York University graduate, had a fairly conventional news diet until recently. He checked his phone often for The New York Times. He would browse The Times of Israel as a Jew with an interest in Israel.
“Did I watch it religiously before? No,” he said, adding that he found Fox’s reporting and commentary on Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “less antagonistic for sure” than that of other news organizations. Mr. Abramson said that you do not feel attacked.
It’s somewhat of an improbable alliance. Jews overwhelmingly identify as Democrats. Fox News hosts and guests promoted views that were antithetical to the Republican Party’s brand of politics, which vilifies corporate interests and wealthy liberals.
All of this shows that this collision of values is happening not just here in Israel but everywhere and that the terrorist ideology threatens all decent people, not only Jews. History has taught us that foul ideologies often find the Jewish people first — but tend not to stop there. All nations have the same threat and need to understand that they could be next.
I have written these lines after spending time with the families of some of the people who were kidnapped by Hamas. There are Jews, Muslims, and foreign citizens among the hostages held in Gaza.
In all my years of public life, the meetings with these families were the most difficult and fraught I’ve ever held. I spoke with families of some of the people who were killed that day, as well as people who were dancing at a music festival in their homes. I had to wash my blood off my shoes after returning from one kibbutz devastated in the attack.
Just like ISIS and Al Qaeda, the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israeli homes and families had no qualms about burning babies. They tortured children, raped women and destroyed peace-loving communities. They made sure to record them on video and broadcast them live because they were so proud of their actions. These videos will forever remain a stain on those Palestinians and their supporters who celebrated that day and a testament to the depravity of the terrorists and of the ideas that inspired them.
But almost as disturbing for me is the realization that many in the world, including in the West, are willing to rationalize these actions or even support them outright. In the capitals of Europe we’ve seen rallies supporting the total destruction of Israel “from the river to the sea.” Professors and students at American colleges make speeches and sign statements justifying terrorism, even glorifying it.
As Hamas fires hundreds of rockets at our cities while our soldiers are falling in battle, we’re trying to give early warnings to the civilians and move them out of the main battle areas so that they can receive humanitarian aid. Hundreds of aid trucks are arriving each day.
These questions will be key among the strategic issues on the agenda in our discussions with Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to the region beginning Friday — as they were during the visit to Israel of President Biden a few weeks ago.
Saturday’s marches, scheduled to take place in large metro areas including New York, Seattle and San Francisco but also in smaller cities like Orono, Maine, are extending a stretch of vocal opposition toIsraeli tactics, which sparked vast demonstrations a week ago in Asian and European capitals.
84 percent of voters think that the United States will be drawn into the conflict in the Middle East, according to a poll. Nonetheless, a 51 percent majority supported sending more military aid to Israel for their campaign against Hamas, and 71 percent supported humanitarian assistance for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The demonstrations on Saturday were poised to reflect the constellation of causes and groups that have long connected themselves to Palestinian politics, including student organizations, labor unions and antiwar campaigns.
Well before the protest’s scheduled start, many lifted placards high, broadcasting messages like “Mourn the Dead, Fight Like Hell for the Living” and “Let Gaza Live!” A coffin with a Palestinian flag resting on the ground not far away from where adults and children stretched out another flag. Around 1 p.m., a Muslim call to prayer sounded through the plaza.