‘If Hamas Survives … Radicalism Will Be on Steroids All over the Planet’: Senator
For a Democratic Party so consumed with the evils of insurrection, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had no problem calling for one in Israel. In a speech that would have astounded Capitol Hill a year ago, the highest-ranking Jewish official in America demanded that Israeli voters hold an unscheduled election to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declaring that the man hunting down the terrorists who tortured and killed 1,200 innocent people has “lost his way.”
“A new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government.” How unbelievably on brand for Democrats. They’re putting the political calculations of an election year ahead of the greater good. What happened to Biden’s October promises, “We’re going to stand with you,” “We’ll walk beside you in those dark days,” and “We’ll walk beside you in the good days to come”? The second the Left’s base of Muslim sympathizers started screaming its support for Palestine, Democratic leaders dropped the Jewish state faster than you can say “two-state solution.”
Of course, the other irony here (apart from Schumer’s meddling in a foreign democracy) is that Americans are the ones living under a virtually incoherent president whose failed policies have led to the dumpster fire we’re seeing in the Middle East, China, and our southern border. It’s Biden’s country, not Netanyahu’s, that has “lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government.” And yet the Left would have been apoplectic if a Republican stood on the Senate floor and railed about the need for a special election.
Netanyahu, it may surprise Schumer to know, actually has more domestic support than his longtime rival Benny Gantz (47-37%). Unlike the prime minister’s fickle friends in the U.S., the Israeli people understand the need to eliminate the monsters who raped, incinerated, and kidnapped their loved ones. “This is World War II for Israel,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) insisted on “Washington Watch” Wednesday. “This is Pearl Harbor and 9/11 rolled into one. Did anybody suggest to our country after Pearl Harbor, ‘Be careful how many Germans or Japanese you kill’”? he wanted to know. And yet, that’s exactly how Democrats are admonishing Israel in Gaza.
“I don’t want innocent people to die,” Graham admitted to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, “but Israel has to destroy Hamas. Hamas is using the Palestinian people as shields. And I’m going to give Israel the time and the space it needs to destroy Hamas militarily. No more October 7th. This is the largest loss of life of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. … Israel is the good guy. Hamas is the bad guy. And Iran is the Great Satan. Without Iran, there would be no attack.”
Another thing Democrats tend to forget, Graham said, is that 33 Americans were killed in this attack. “And if Hamas could, they would add a lot of zeros to that 33. The radical Islamists, they want to kill the state of Israel. They want to the world to bow down to Islam under their terms. They would come after us if they could.”
So when Biden says that an Israeli invasion of Rafah is a “red line,” he’s ignoring the fact that there are six brigades of Hamas fighters still left — four of them in Rafah, Graham explained. “We have to let Israel destroy Hamas militarily. It would be like putting 80% of a fire out. You’ve got to put all the fire out. So I am challenging the Biden administration to say that if the hostages are released, the war is not over. The war is over when Israel destroys Hamas militarily, when they can have the peace of mind never to have another October 7th. It is not over until that day comes to my friends in Israel.”
And if the international community wants to criticize someone, criticize Hamas for using the million people in that area as human shields. But they won’t, Graham shook his head, “because anti-Semitism is alive and well.” He pointed to the dangers that Jewish people are facing all over the world. Even in Nashville, the senator said, Jewish schools are turning into armed camps because of the threats.
“… If you just watch the news, [you’d think] Israel was the bad guy,” Graham pointed out. But “here’s what I would say to the international community: ‘If Hamas survives, they’re coming after you.’ … If they’re still standing when this is over, radicalism will be on steroids all over the planet. ISIS is coming back in Afghanistan. … We’re in a religious war, my friend. Radical Islam wants to bend everybody to their will, and they will kill in the name of God. And that’s what I want you to understand. Dying is first prize for these nut jobs.”
The game-changer Perkins and Graham agreed would be for Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations. “If you could have Saudi Arabia recognize the Jewish State for what it is — a Jewish state, the keeper of the mosque in Mecca and Medina, the center of the faith, it would end the Arab-Israeli conflict.” Think about why this attack happened, he pressed. “On October the 7th, the Iranians live[d] in fear of the Arabs and the Israelis making peace. It would isolate the ayatollah even more. This attack was generated by support from Iran. [And] Iran’s nightmare is for the Arabs — Saudi Arabia and Israel — to make peace and live together and build on the Abraham Accords. They did this to stop reconciliation.”
So frankly, Graham insisted, “the red line should be against the Iranian ayatollah — not against Bibi [Netanyahu]. Bibi is not the problem. The root of all evil is the religious Nazi running Iran: the ayatollah.”
With sobering clarity, the South Carolina senator’s tone changed. “We live in the most troubled times I can remember since I have been in politics. The world is on fire. Russia has invaded Ukraine. China is up to no good all over the planet, and our Jewish brothers and sisters are trying to be annihilated. It is now time to stand strong and without apology for our friends in Israel.”
AUTHOR
Suzanne Bowdey
Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.
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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.
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