Auschwitz Diplomacy
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. Suppose people cannot make an intelligent case as to why some other world event, cause, or human suffering is unique and indeed as profound as they contend that they must refer to it as a Holocaust. In that case, they diminish their 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 specific military attacks, withholding arms essential for Israel’s defense, and even delegitimizing Israel’s right and obligation to defend itself 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, discounting 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 about 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’s noteworthy that this was the first time Netanyahu and Biden have spoken since August.
Mostly innocuous details are known publicly 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 honor or keep the terms of UN resolution 1701 in 2006, under the nose of UN “peacekeepers,” Hezbollah grew to the terrorist superpower that it became.
Biden proudly claims to have known all Israeli Prime Ministers for decades. It’s 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, particularly in the densely populated areas of Beirut.” There is seemingly no recognition that, while tragic, Israel seeks to minimize civilian casualties. However, civilian deaths in Lebanon and Gaza, and perhaps soon in Iran, 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. “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. 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? To Hamas and Hezbollah’s attempted widespread massacre?
Calling an Israeli attack “retaliatory” is misinformation. Buffered by pathological pandering to, and funding of, since Obama’s 2015 infamous Iran Deal and the release of billions of dollars to the Iranian Islamic regime, Iran continues to progress, perhaps being weeks away from having enough nuclear material for one or more bombs. For Israel, it’s about survival, not reprisal.
To the extent that the Biden-Harris administration is concerned about an Israeli attack and regional escalation because of the upcoming election, that’s a criminal abdication of their responsibility. A global economic impact, including Increased gas prices or the need to defend Israel too publicly (or not) can have negative consequences on November 5. Perhaps, they think, it’s better to ride out the Iranian storm, put Israel 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. “There is only one force in the world fighting Iran right now. Only one force in the world stands in Iran’s way to conquest. And that force is Israel. If we don’t fight, we die. But it’s not only our fight; it’s the free world’s fight, and, I would say, the civilized world’s fight.”
Despite tense relations between Biden and Netanyahu, and Netanyahu not popular among Israel’s opposition parties, it’s clear that the Biden-Harris administration is out of touch with prevailing Israeli attitudes. 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 explicitly called to target Iranian nuclear facilities.
Being out of touch has not been a one-time thing in the past year. The US and others have argued violently, even threatening Israel, over strategies such as the IDF entering Rafah to eliminate Hamas terrorist infrastructure and free hostages, which were effectively executed and with minimal civilian casualty.
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