For Israel it is about survival not reprisal

By Jonathan Feldstein

I have always been careful to avoid Holocaust analogies. The Holocaust was the biggest and single most evil deliberate inhuman massacre of people – six million Jews and millions of others – in human history. There are no analogies. If people cannot make an intelligent case as to why some other world event, cause, or human suffering is unique and indeed as serious as they contend that they must refer to it as a Holocaust, they diminish their own case and display a level of ignorance that also diminishes the actual suffering of the Holocaust.

Mindful of that, I see what’s happening in the world now, in pressure on Israel not to conduct certain military attacks, withholding arms essential for Israel’s defense, and even delegitimizing Israel’s right and obligation to defend itself. I see this as Auschwitz diplomacy: akin to leaving Jews on their own to deal with and suffer calamities forced on us.

These are people who, like the Allies in World War II, would deliberately avoid bombing the train tracks leading to Auschwitz, either seeing that as a distraction to conducting a military strategy, who discount the deliberate genocidal massacre of Jews, or both.  Then and now, thinking that Jewish suffering, mass murder, and attempted genocide are within the acceptable norm: that Jewish lives matter less.

Most details are not yet available of the content of this week’s 45-minute conversation between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Biden about Israel’s pending strike on Iran. Regardless of the content, it is noteworthy that this was the first time Netanyahu and Biden have spoken since August.

Mostly innocuous details made public as of this writing. The US readout said Biden affirmed Israel’s right to protect itself from Hezbollah, a global terror group with the stated goal to annihilate Israel and Jews around the world. It also emphasized the Biden-Harris position of the imperative for a diplomatic agreement between Israel and Hezbollah that would allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes. This is shocking because not only did Hezbollah fail to honor the terms of The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006 under the nose of UN “peacekeepers,” Hezbollah grew to the terrorist superpower that it became. Biden proudly claims of having known all Israeli Prime Ministers for decades. It is too bad he doesn’t heed Golda Meir’s truism that you cannot negotiate with people sworn to murder you.

Biden also apparently stressed “the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut.”  There is seemingly no recognition that Israel seeks to minimize civilian casualties while ignoring that the civilian deaths in Lebanon and Gaza, and perhaps soon in Iran. All are all a direct consequence of the terrorists immorally and illegally using civilians as human shields, while firing tens of thousands of missiles, rockets, and drones at Israeli cities, deliberately to maximize civilian casualties.

Following the Biden-Netanyahu call, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US supports Israel’s “limited ground incursions” inside Lebanon, but does not want Israel to extend deeper into Lebanon, to the core of Hezbollah’s military capabilities and its leadership.  As expressed, “We are cognizant of the long history of Israel, starting with limited ground operations in Lebanon, turning those into more full-scale ground operations, turning those into occupation, something that we are very clear we are opposed to.”

Israelis are the last ones who want the consequences of a more long-term and deeper operation against Hezbollah (especially me, as my son may be called into service there by the time you read this), it is a self-defeating military strategy not to win through decisive victory.

The same is true of defeating the Iranian Islamic regime, the head of the global Islamic terrorist octopus and its genocidal threats against Israel, and terror that it perpetuates around the world. The US has made its opposition clear to any Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. In fact, to eliminate the terrorist threat, these should be the first targets, followed by Iran’s IRGC military sites, and even the ayatollahs and Supreme Leader.

Rather than oppose an Israeli attack, the US should lead the attack. But no, the Biden-Harris administration is calling for Israel’s response to be “proportional.” To what? To the threat? Number of missiles launched? Attempted widespread massacre?

Calling an Israeli attack “retaliatory” is misinformation.  Buffered by pathological pandering to, and funding of, since Obama’s 2015’s discredited Iran Deal and the releasing of billions of dollars to the Iranian Islamic regime, Iran progresses, perhaps being weeks away, from having enough nuclear material for one or more bombs. For Israel, it is about survival, not reprisal.

That the Biden-Harris administration appears more concerned about the effects of the upcoming US election than Israel’s long-term security and survival is an abdication of responsibility.  Perhaps, they think, it is preferable to ride out the Iranian storm, put Israeli at greater risk, and do nothing – just like the Allies at Auschwitz!

Before speaking with Biden, Netanyahu underscored the threat Israel faces to a delegation of American Jewish leaders.  Said the Prime Minister:

“There is only one force in the world fighting Iran right now. There’s only one force in the world that stands in Iran’s way to conquest. And that force is Israel. If we don’t fight, we die. But it is not only our fight, it is the free world’s fight, and, I would say, the civilized world’s fight.”

Despite the tense relations between Biden and Netanyahu, and Netanyahu’s lack of trust among Israel’s opposition parties, it is clear that the Biden-Harris administration is out of touch with current Israeli strategic thinking. Recently, three Israeli opposition leaders, including former Ministers of Defense Benny Gantz and Avigdor Liberman, and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, have called for a strong Israeli military attack on Iran. Some of these, and others, have called specifically to target Iranian nuclear facilities.

This ‘out of touch’ treatment cannot be explained away as a one-off but rather as an emerging disturbing trend. The US and others have argued vociferously, even threatening Israel, over major strategies such as the IDF entering Rafah to eliminate Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure and free hostages which was effectively executed with minimal civilian casualties.

Parroting nonsensical mantras including “diplomacy”, “ceasefire” and “getting a deal done” have not made any viable headway to bring any of these about, much less realize anything that looks like peace and security for Israel.

It is anyone’s guess what will happen regarding an Israeli attack on Iran, how Iran will respond, and then, how the US might react. It will of course matter whether all this transpires before or after the upcoming US election in November when different considerations may then come into play.

Will the administration then withhold arms, impose sanctions, or not veto anti-Israel resolutions in the UN?

Even amid the very real stress and threats, personally and nationally, I remain a naïve optimist that the US will wake up and support Israel unconditionally, coordinating to lead the charge against the Islamist threats, and not leaving Israel to its own devices. This is for Israel’s well being of course, but ultimately for the US as well.

About the writer:

Jonathan Feldstein ­­­­- President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).