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Friday, February 09, 2024

Melanie Phillips on "Israel's American Frenemy"

As always, Melanie Phillips is right. 

The hostility towards Israel from the Biden administration is the most brazen I can remember.

Here's an excerpt from her column, "Israel's American Frenemy".

"Astonishingly, Israel has to fight right now to defend its existence not just against a line-up of mortal foes doing the bidding of Iran but also against the Jewish state's most important ally, America.

"U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who came to Israel this week to bully it into a ceasefire in Gaza, preposterously demanded a one-to-one private meeting with the Israel Defense Forces' Chief of the General Staff, Herzi Halevi.

"At the meeting that took place instead with the war cabinet, Blinken was reportedly put out when Halevi said the war would continue for months because of the challenge mounted by the vast extent of Hamas's underground military infrastructure.

"Put out, that is, by Israel's refusal to leave itself once again at the mercy of Hamas's genocidal agenda.

"Blinken then publicly bared America's teeth. Although in his remarks alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog, he was careful to say that he appreciated Israel's emphasis on protecting civilians and providing humanitarian assistance, he gave vent at a press conference to accusations that echoed the malevolent demonization of Israel around the world.

"He declared 'the daily toll that [Israel's] military operations continue to take on innocent civilians remains too high'; urged Israel 'to do more to help civilians'; and said although Israelis had been dehumanized, 'that cannot be a license to dehumanize others. The overwhelming majority of people in Gaza had nothing to do with the attacks of Oct. 7.'

"This was all breathtakingly malign. Since the ratio of civilians to terrorists killed in Gaza is running at around two or three civilians to one terrorist — far lower than the proportion of civilians killed in U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan — on what conceivable basis is the number of Gaza civilian casualties 'too high'?

"Israel goes to greater lengths than any other country to protect enemy civilians in times of war. Moreover, from what's been said by returning IDF soldiers and released hostages, the overwhelming majority of Gaza's civilians supported the Hamas atrocities, in which many of them participated while others subjected the abducted Israelis to abuse and ill-treatment."

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You can bet that Biden's ridiculous description of  Israel's response to Hamas as being ‘over the top’ was in accord with Blinken's disgraceful "humanization of Gaza" remarks. The two of them are beyond contempt.

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