Pity the Biden Administration. It leads the most powerful nation in human history, but when it attempts to stop or prevent conflict between a tiny state the size of New Jersey and two even tinier failed states, it comes across as a child trying to say, “Mommy, Daddy, please stop fighting.”
For the better part of a year, the American government has been attempting to end the fighting in Gaza, not with an Israeli victory over the Hamas terrorist organization that committed the October 7 massacre (heaven forfend), but with a stalemate that leaves Hamas in power and free to rearm and regroup for another round of warfare.
For even longer, the US has been pressuring Israel not to respond to the near-daily bombardment of northern Israel by the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon. Even with tens of thousands of civilians forced out of their homes and communities for months and months, the administration thought the best course of action was to do nothing and trust a ceasefire in Gaza to restore the status quo ante.
All of those hopes that things could just go back to the way they were on October 6 were dashed on Monday (when Israel decided it had had enough of rockets launched at the Jewish State and that it has to thwart the plans being hatched to launch another October 7 from the north,ed.) not only launched its most extensive strikes on Hezbollah since the Second Lebanon War in 2006, but gave a name to this operation, ‘Northern Arrows.’
When a conflict has its own name, you know it’s serious.
Like clockwork, State Department officials stated that the US does not support rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah or a potential ground operation in southern Lebanon by Israel. America’s goal is to prove the New York Times right by actively preventing Israel from capitalizing on the tactically brilliant detonation of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies last week by turning the disruption of Hezbollah’s communications network into strategic victories.
Even the deaths of Hezbollah officials responsible for the murders of dozens or even hundreds of Americans, like Fuad Shukr and Ibrahim Aqil, terrorists on whose heads the US had bounties worth millions of dollars, are met with shrugs from the administration.
The Biden Administration has proven incapable of adjusting to changing conditions. Its rhetoric on Gaza remains the same even after Israel has wound down much of its operations in the enclave, even after its dire warnings about Israel’s operation in Gaza proved completely false, and even after Hamas rebuffed every single attempt to save it through a ceasefire.
Vice President and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris, whenever she talks about Gaza, seems to forget that it is late September as she repeats the same worthless platitudes from March again and again.
Likewise, the administration fails to see the opportunity created by the decimation of Hezbollah’s leadership and communication structures and is seeking to save Hezbollah the way it has sought to save Hamas so that the next time Hezbollah attacks, it will have recovered from its recent losses and Israel will not have the advantages it currently enjoys.
It is no wonder Israel is not listening to the US, but to the citizens who demand the restoration of security and of their homes after a year of nonstop attacks. When the leader of the free world acts like a child rather than a leader, it is folly to follow his directives.
If the US had been led by a president with a spine, Hamas would have faced constant pressure to unconditionally release all of its hostages and surrender. Hezbollah might have been deterred from firing more than 8,000 rockets at Israel over the course of a year. The Houthis would have suffered such destruction that their attempts to disrupt global shipping would have been stopped in the first week. And Iran would have faced serious consequences for being the true power and puppetmaster behind all these evil terrorist organizations.
None of this happened, because the Biden Administration is made up entirely of Neville Chamberlains. They are worse than Chamberlain, because he at least had a limit and could admit he was wrong once Hitler invaded Poland. This administration would repeat the same mantras about escalation and ceasefires and two-state solutions even if Hamas conquered Judea and Samaria from the Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah was launching a massive ground invasion of northern Israel, and the Houthis were launching a massive ground invasion of Saudi Arabia.
They do not possess the capability of thinking outside their narrow box.
Maybe something would change if Iran built a few nuclear weapons and was threatening to use them in the immediate future, but even then, I have my doubts they would be capable of responding any differently than they have to the current crises. They certainly have no ideas about how to prevent such a scenario from coming to pass since they have no ideas about how to deal with Iran’s deadly ambitions other than to appease.
With no ideas beyond ‘stop fighting,’ with its friends not listening to it because its advice is childish and asinine, the US comes across as less of a superpower on the world stage than a child who does not understand the world and why they cannot have cookies for lunch every day. Like a child, the ideas it has may be well-intentioned in the hopes of making everyone happy, but they will only make things worse if implemented in the real world.
It is truly pathetic that this is what the US has been reduced to in the context of conflicts in places as small as Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon. There is no deterrence, no projection of power, only cluelessness and weakness. It is not dangerous whatsoever to be America’s enemy. And it is dangerous to be America’s friend if one listens to such a clueless friend.
Gary Willigis a veteran member of Arutz Sheva's news staff.