On Oct. 11, America’s chief diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, went to Israel to assure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli people that the United States stands squarely behind them. During a recent speech, President Joe Biden compared his experience 50 years ago, in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, to the day Hamas terrorists invaded Israel from Gaza in 2003. In 1973, then-Sen. Biden said he met with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, promising moral support. Yet, a half-century ago, President Richard Nixon bolstered that sentiment with M-60 and M-48 tanks in giant C-5 Galaxy cargo aircraft.
True to form, Biden has sent Blinken to Jerusalem with words and little in the way of deeds. As Liberty Nation’s Graham Noble explained, after Biden had made his long-awaited remarks in minutes counted on one hand, “By the time he walked slowly away from the podium, though – ignoring questions from reporters, as he usually does – Biden had provided nothing that would have comforted the people of Israel or their supporters in the United States. Perhaps worse still, he said very little that would give the Jewish state’s enemies pause for thought.”
“The Secretary will reiterate his condolences for the victims of the terrorist attacks against Israel and condemn those attacks in the strongest terms. The Secretary will also reaffirm the United States’ solidarity with the government and people of Israel,” as a State Department press release outlined Blinken’s message to Israel. Providing a little more insight, Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller posted this statement on X (formerly Twitter): “First, we are standing by the people of Israel and giving them the assistance they need to defend themselves against this brutal terrorist attack. And our support for Israel will be unwavering. The president has announced that we will send security assistance, including munitions, to Israel.” Notice the future tense.
Antony Blinken (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
In 1973, the Nixon administration responded within 72 hours of the attacks on Israel by Egypt and Syria, loading an El Al Airline commercial aircraft with war supplies from the United States. “Number two,” Miller said, “is doing everything we can, and Secretary Blinken has been on the phone with his counterparts all around the world on this question, doing everything we can to keep this conflict from broadening.” Miller then reiterated what an earlier White House statement warned. Hostile individuals and countries should not take advantage of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“Number three, we have been intensely focused on the safety and security of American citizens,” Miller declared … We are focusing on doing everything we can in conjunction with our international partners and to try to get any hostages, whether they be Americans or Israeli citizens or from anywhere in the world, released by Hamas immediately,” he explained.
But offering condolences and condemnation, standing by, talking on the phone, and focusing are just words, and what Israel is requesting from America is concrete action that will assist the Netanyahu government in wiping Hamas from the face of the globe. The Biden administration could assure Israel that US support will be tireless, lasting for as long as Israel needs to eradicate Hamas. The US national security team has repeatedly promised aid to Ukraine for “as long as it takes” — but the timeline is vague. In contrast, Israel has clarity: when Hamas is ended.
State Department press releases have not mentioned Iran and its complicity in the murderous Hamas attack on Israel. In a Fox News interview, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was asked what he would like to hear from President Biden:
“What the president is going to do to avenge the deaths of at least 11 [now confirmed 14] American and an unknown [now believed to be 20] number of Americans who are held hostage or at least missing … What Israel needs now is total freedom of action to go into Gaza and destroy Hamas … The President needs to announce he will immediately halt the $6 billion transfer to Iran; that he will immediately begin to enforce sanctions against Iranian oil shipping.”
Cotton challenged Biden to “warn Iran directly in no uncertain terms” not to prompt or support its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon to attack Israel on the northern border. If it does, there will be a “ferocious” response by America.
The president’s only comment on Iran to date was a fairly cryptic “be careful,” suggesting that the White House is warning against future interactions rather than the likelihood that Iran was directly linked to the Hamas attack. The administration’s love affair with Tehran is inexplicable, and it’s not likely that Blinken will explain why the Biden administration is soft on Iran’s oppressive regime, the number one sponsor of terrorism, and Hamas. It’s Blinken’s opportunity to tell Israel how the United States can offer effective help, not just words. To paraphrase a quip by former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban about the Palestine Liberation Organization: “Some politicians never miss an opportunity to lose an opportunity.”