The White House was illuminated in the blue and white colors of the Israeli flag on Monday evening, in solidarity with the Jewish state and the victims of terror.
The White House is lit up blue and white tonight as a symbol of the United States’ enduring support and solidarity with the people of Israel in the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks committed by Hamas. pic.twitter.com/DAluoPKpMr
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 10, 2023
The crisis began Saturday with a massive terror attack by Palestinian Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers in a cross-border raid that killed roughly 900 Israelis (as of this writing), wounded nearly 3,000 others, and saw over 100 Israelis kidnapped. The attack occurred on the Jewish Sabbath, and on the festival of Shemini Atzeret, the final holiday in the High Holy Day cycle. It also followed the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War (at least according to the secular calendar), on October 6, 1973.
President Joe Biden has been faulted for policies that, critics say, emboldened Hamas to attack. As Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow wrote, Biden has struck a weak posture on the world stage, and has placed Israel at greater risk of attack:
His Afghanistan withdrawal strategy lead to chaos, horror, and death – including for children and American servicemen. His Ukraine/Russia policy undoubtedly played a major role in Putin’s decision to invade. China has routinely humiliated the U.S. on the world stage. Biden is more responsible than any single person for the humanitarian crisis at the U.S./Mexico border. His efforts to keep America’s Southern border opens confirms that, stunningly, national security is simply not a priority for the U.S. President.
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Meanwhile, Biden has been icy to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, despite Bibi’s efforts to engage productively with President Joe. Biden and his team refused to meet with Israel’s duly elected government. They also restored funding to Palestine over internal objections that the aid could be diverted to Hamas.
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Yet it’s not in a vacuum. There is context. And the context is that the United States government under Joe Biden has signaled a weakening of our relationship with our allies in Israel, it has elected to fund the funders to terrorism, and it has repeatedly entertained a nuclear deal with the hideous Iranian regime that hopes to eviscerate both us and Israel.
The State Department tweeted, then deleted, a message calling for Israel to show restraint after the terror attack. Later, it also tweeted, and then deleted, a message calling for a cease-fire, which would have given Hamas (and Iran) a major victory.
Still, Biden also ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean to deter Iran from opening a second front against Israel from Lebanon, and airlifted munitions to Israel. The president himself has also been unequivocal in his support.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked Biden — who once isolated him — repeatedly for his help, and reports have emerged that Biden did not object when Netanyahu told him Israel intends to wage a ground war against Hamas in Gaza.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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