Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
“Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire Thursday, halting a bruising 11-day war that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, brought life in much of Israel to a standstill and left more than 200 people dead.” AP News
The right supports Israel, and criticizes Democrats for pushing for a premature ceasefire before Israel accomplished its military objectives.
“Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran saw that Democratic support for Israel in the U.S. has declined. We credited President Biden this week with not trying to dictate Israel’s security decisions, but he soon bent rhetorically to his party’s left, saying Wednesday he ‘expected a significant deescalation today.’…
“The progressives who are increasingly driving Democratic social and economic policy want to drive Mideast policy as well. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, whom President Biden praised on a Michigan trip this week, accused fellow Democrats of ‘taking orders from Netanyahu’ the day before. Sen. Bernie Sanders is trying to block a U.S. arms sale to Israel…
“Wavering American support could increase the risk of military clashes, as regional actors perceive that the Jewish State is militarily constrained when attacked. Israeli leaders have at least partly priced in the erosion of bipartisan backing in the U.S. This could lead it to lean more on China or Russia, which would not be good for the U.S. or Mideast peace.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“To protect itself and deter future strikes, the Jewish state needed to inflict a sufficient price for Hamas’ unilateral attacks — and drastically weaken, if not eliminate, its ability to attack again. Even after firing some 4,000 rockets these past 11 days, Hamas and its allies have a stash of 30,000 rockets and mortar rounds, Israeli intelligence believes…
“We expect Netanyahu stuck to the line he drew after rejecting Biden’s request Wednesday, ‘to continue this operation until its goal is achieved: to bring the quiet and security back’ to Israel’s citizens. But it’s still tough for Jerusalem to say no to Washington for long, even as (as Jonathan Schanzer notes) Team Biden is cozying up to Iran (which supplies Hamas with money and weapons), pooh-poohing the Abraham Accords and resuming hundreds of millions in aid to the West Bank and Gaza. If Biden truly backs Israel’s right to self-defense, he should quit appeasing the forces bent on Israel’s destruction.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
“According to the IDF, many of Hamas’ rockets have misfired, so the Palestinian terrorist group may be responsible for many of the deaths in the Gaza Strip. Israel has claimed that Hamas misfired 350 rockets in the first 3 days, killing innocent civilians in Gaza. Before Israel sends precision-strike rockets, it first warns occupants of the targeted building, allowing people time to leave before destroying buildings that allegedly house Hamas weapons and intelligence. Hamas gives no such warnings to Israeli targets…
“While the ceasefire may give grounds for hope that the conflict is drawing to a close, the key issue is not whether or not Israel will back down but how high a cost is Hamas willing pay to keep attacking Israel. Will Hamas decide that it has lost enough military bases and terrorist allies, and decide to stop the attacks? Or will the terrorist group continue to violate international law, thinking that the world will support its attacks against Israel?”
Tyler O’Neil, PJ Media
“Very glad there is a ceasefire. I genuinely don't know what the right course of action is long-term, but as I keep saying: until you figure out Gaza, you won't get a final deal on two states. And everybody just saw why.”
Seth Mandel, Twitter
The left criticizes Israel and argues that greater rights for Palestinians are the only way to achieve long-lasting peace.
The left criticizes Israel and argues that greater rights for Palestinians are the only way to achieve long-lasting peace.
“[Earlier this week] a clinic run by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), providing trauma and burn treatment to victims of the recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, announced it had been struck by an Israeli aerial bombardment…
“Since virtually no one, including journalists and human rights observers, has been allowed access to Gaza from Israel or Egypt since the fighting began and borders were sealed, the onus is on Israel to provide sufficient evidence that the clinic was a legitimate target…
“Importantly, even if Hamas was using the medical clinic to conduct military operations, Israel must still meet certain conditions prior to any attack. Under international law, protection of medical centers ends ‘only after a due warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a reasonable time limit and after such warning has remained unheeded.’ MSF has stated it didn’t receive any prior warning about last week’s strikes… Israel cannot continually destroy Gaza’s health care infrastructure and remain unaccountable.”
Ahmed Twaij, NBC News Think
“The Israeli occupation of the West Bank is, by every definition, apartheid: two legal systems for two ethnic groups. If a Jew and an Arab commit the exact same crime in the West Bank, the Jew will face a civil court; the Arab, a military court…
“The only thing that can bring about Palestinian liberation is if the cost of the occupation begins to outweigh its benefits to Israel… [To end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] coercion could take the form of consumer boycott[s] of Israeli goods, corporate boycotts of Israeli technology, and sanctions by Israel’s main trade partners and political supporters, the United States and the European Union. An apartheid state will not willingly change itself.”
Raphael Mimoun, Washington Post
Others posit that “Economic boycotts of any significance will not happen. Israel’s economy is too strong, diversified and advanced… Israel’s per capita GDP dwarfs that of its neighbors: it is 14 times that of Egypt, eight times that of Iran, nearly six times that of Lebanon, and nearly double that of Saudi Arabia. Israel has built an industrial and information-age economy that excels in highly sophisticated arenas such as artificial intelligence, computer-aided design, aviation and biotechnology…
“While the rocket attacks are unnerving and terrifying to civilians, they do not inflict much damage on the country. Israel’s ferocious and effective security services, aided by the construction of a wall along the West Bank and the creation of the Iron Dome air-defense system, have virtually eliminated fatalities from terrorism… In short, Israel doesn’t have any practical reasons to make a deal with the Palestinians…
“But the country remains a liberal democracy. It was founded by people who believed deeply that their new country should embody not just nationalism but also justice and morality. There are many in Israel who argue passionately that it can find a way for Israel to have security and Palestinians to have dignity. The only hope — and right now it looks remote — is that those forces will gain strength and one day lead the country to give the Palestinians a state of their own.”
Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post
