Joe Biden's double-game

Last week, I noted the obvious tension in Joe Biden’s public stances on the conflict between Israel and Hamas. One of his public stances has been as a wholehearted defender of Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas, a blood-thirsty, sadistic terrorist organization. Another has been as a humanitarian protector of Gaza’s residents.

Since defending Israel against Hamas means crushing that organization, and crushing Hamas means putting Gaza residents in serious jeopardy, Biden can’t really square the circle. Accordingly, at the end of my post, I wrote:

One or the other of [Biden’s] postures isn’t fully genuine. I believe it’s the wholehearted-supporter-of-Israel’s-right-to-defend-itself posture that’s fake.

A week later, I’m more convinced than ever that this is so.

Biden appears to be playing a double-game. He’s using his public pro-Israel pronouncements as cover while he pressures Israel to do much less than what its government and people believe is necessary to defend the Jewish state.

Today on Fox News, an IDF spokesman was asked whether the Biden administration has pressured Israel to hold off on attacking Hamas with ground forces in the Gaza Strip. The spokesman (whose last name is Lerner) answered the question in the affirmative, albeit indirectly.

He said that an Israeli invasion is contingent on approval by the civilian government and that such approval has not come. This contradicts previous reports that the government had given the green light for an invasion and that the timing was now up to the military.

If that report was true, then it’s clear the Israeli government reversed course, and clear enough that it did so under pressure from Joe Biden — pressure that has been widely reported and the existence of which the IDF spokesman did not deny.

But even if the government hadn’t given the military the green light, it’s difficult to believe the hesitation in invading is the result of anything other than pressure Biden indisputably is applying. After all, it wasn’t long ago that the prime minister and the defense minister were promising troops they would be in Gaza very soon.

The IDF spokesman also talked about the invasion in the conditional. It was no longer “when.” Now, it was “if.”

Similarly, John Kirby, one of the administration’s spokesman, corrected a questioner yesterday who assumed Israel will invade. He said the invasion might not occur.

I think its clear that Biden doesn’t want it to. And if there’s no invasion, the reason will be intense pressure from Joe Biden.

I understand that there are reasons for Israel not to go into Gaza. The intense urban fighting will likely cost the lives of many Israeli soldiers. A high percentage of hostages — Israeli and otherwise — will likely be killed. Israel will probably have to fight a serious war with Hezbollah in the north.

Finally, although I don’t regard this as a meaningful consideration, an Israeli invasion of Gaza could cause further deterioration — at least in the short term — of the nation’s standing with its non-hostile neighbors and some of its Western allies.

In my view, these factors are outweighed by the fact that Israel can’t be secure without eliminating Hamas’ military capability. Nor can can it be secure if Hamas pulls off an attack as gruesomely murderous as that of October 7 and lives to tell about it.

I should also note that folks like Thomas Friedman who claim that an attack on Gaza would play into Hamas’ hands need to explain why Hamas has started freeing hostages. The reason, of course, is that Hamas wants the U.S. pressure campaign to succeed. It would prefer survival (both personal and as a fighting force) to “martyrdom.”

Nonetheless, if Israel decides that the factors militating against an assault outweigh countervailing considerations, then it shouldn’t invade. Moreover, in making this evaluation, Israel should listen to what Biden says. Even if one believes, as I do, that America under Biden is a shaky friend of Israel — and that Biden is consistently wrong about America’s own national security matters — we remain a vital source of weaponry for Israel.

So Israel should listen seriously to Biden’s entreaties against an invasion of Gaza.

But the final decision on whether to invade has to be Israel’s. For Biden to veto a “go” decision or threaten adverse consequences for Israel in that event would be a betrayal of the Jewish state and would show his statements of wholehearted support for Israel to be lies. For the Israeli government to accept a Biden veto would be a betrayal of the Israeli people.

Biden has given restraining Israel a good old-fashioned try. In fact, aid is reaching southern Gaza and a few hostages have been released. Although the Nobel Peace Prize will elude him if Israel invades Gaza, Biden can credibly claim to be a “humanitarian.”

Now, having made his case against an invasion, it’s time for him to restore credibility as a true friend of Israel. It’s time to let Israel’s government — a wartime coalition that accurately represents the will of the citizenry — proceed as it sees fit.