There was much good and nothing wrong with what Joe Biden said in his short speech Tuesday. The problem is what he didn’t say.
“There are moments in this life when pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed on the world,” the president said. “The people –of Israel lived through one such moment this weekend.”
He seemed genuinely outraged in recounting the horrors that have shocked the world, including the killing of “infants in their mothers’ arms, grandparents in wheelchairs, Holocaust survivors abducted and held hostage — hostages who Hamas has now threatened to execute in violation of every code of human morality. It’s abhorrent.”
He thankfully pulled no punches about Hamas, correctly labeling its brutality as the definition of “terrorism.”
“We stand with Israel,” he repeated, and in reference to increased military aid pledged “the United States has Israel’s back.”
‘Restraint’ not an issue
He also said it has a “right” and a “duty” to respond and protect its citizens and notably did not demand restraint.
These are all solid, worthy points but, except for updating the number of dead American citizens to 14 and confirming that others remain hostages, the remarks represented only slight variations on statements Biden and the White House have been making since Saturday, when the attack began.
Because he did not lay out the potential stakes for the United States and mention two other major elements related to the attack, the speech come off as narrow and small for this perilous moment.
For example, the skirmishes with Hezbollah across the Lebanon border heighten the chances the Jewish state soon will be fighting on two fronts.
The implications of both Israel’s retaliation and the Hezbollah confrontations are enormous, meaning we are in the early innings of what could be global shattering events.
What happens in the Mideast will not stay in the Mideast, yet the president’s posture remained tightly focused as though this is a one-dimensional game. As a result, he missed an opportunity to help shape public understanding, here and abroad, of the rapidly growing stakes.
Two other examples are noteworthy.
First, the widespread expressions of antisemitism across the US, Europe and elsewhere are outlandish — and Biden should have denounced them. It’s not just the appearance of Nazi symbols at a Manhattan demonstration or a large crowd chanting “gas the Jews” outside the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
Those expressions of the world’s oldest hatred are repugnant, but so is the wide public support for Hamas, as if its slaughter of innocent civilians was a form of self-defense.
Call it what it is
Much of this support came from the usual suspects, such as preening Harvard students and Muslim-led marches throughout Europe. But wherever it comes from, it must be understood for what it is: antisemitism.
Biden has often cited the march of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 as a reason why he decided to run for president.
He still frequently mentions the incident and links it to Donald Trump. Yet he declines to denounce a far larger and more grotesque expression of that sick allegiance taking place on his watch.
Moreover, as a Democrat, he has an extra burden because the New York march in support of Hamas was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. It often cross-endorses candidates who get the Democratic Party’s nomination, and so the president should have declared that there is no room for anti-semitism in his party.
Even Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, the DSA superstar, finally denounced it late Monday.
Joe Biden should have done at least the same.
Moreover, the Hamas attack is a reminder of its charter, which pledges to wipe Israel off the map. Its assault had nothing to do with better living conditions for 2 million citizens jammed into the Gaza Strip, nor was it a hard negotiating position demanding more land for peace.
Follow along with The Post’s coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas
Instead, despite nearly two decades of Israel’s efforts to find a means of coexistence, from abandoning Gaza to issuing nearly 18,000 permits for Gazans to work in Israel, the end result was a terrorist attack that killed more Jews than on any single day since the end of the Holocaust.
That was the only goal, to kill as many Jews as possible. Anybody anywhere in the world who supports the attack for any reason is supporting the most extreme form of antisemitism.
One additional casualty is the death of a two-state solution, which no Israeli government will dare contemplate in any foreseeable future. The West Bank is about 15 times larger than the Gaza Strip, and the notion that Hamas or another terror entity would rule it is unthinkable.
It would be suicide for Israel to take the risk, and a prime minister who even raised the idea would soon be unemployed.
So peaceful Palestinians who long for a nation of their own now have little hope of getting one. They should direct their anger at the terrorists who have made an independent state untenable.
The other notable absence from Biden’s speech was any direct mention of Iran. His sending of an aircraft carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean is clearly aimed at deterring Hezbollah and other Iran proxies, but by never identifying the source of trouble, the president looks to be pulling his punches.
Unfortunately, this compounds his misbegotten belief that the mad mullahs can be coaxed back into the international system. His release of $6 billion of sanctions as part of a prisoner exchange is a copycat move from the Obama-Biden administration, which bribed Iran to sign the nuclear deal.
Iran is now a much richer country, but has used its new wealth to expand its regional aggression instead of caring for its own people.
Tehran a major funder
The administration’s insistence that it has seen no evidence of Iran’s role in the attack strikes me as more wish than fact. Hamas and Iranian leaders have made public comments to the contrary and there is no question that Iran is a major funder of Hamas and Hezbollah.
The sophistication of the air, land and sea assault also went far beyond anything Hamas did before, suggesting it got experienced help and guidance, most likely from Iran’s terrorist arm, the Quds Force. Without Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas would be nuisances but not existential threats to Israel.
The head of the snake is in Tehran, and Biden knows it; otherwise, why send the carrier group?
All the more reason, then, why a discussion of Iran’s role deserved to be in Tuesday’s speech. The president must be honest with Americans because they deserve it and because he needs to prepare them for the potential crises in the days to come.
