Thane Rosenbaum

The good news: Israel’s air defense systems — Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow 3, and its vaunted fighter pilots — assisted by the United States, Jordan, England, France and Saudi Arabia, performed brilliantly in intercepting the 300 projectiles (over 100 of which were ballistic missiles) that Iran launched at Israel on Saturday night. Except for an Israeli-Arab child seriously wounded by shrapnel, the nation didn’t suffer a scratch.

The bad news: What language does the Biden administration speak when it reassures Israel that it stands in solidarity with the Jewish state and warns Iran, repeatedly, “Don’t”? Because, here again, those expressions of support soon come to mean something less boldly protective and cautionary. Does anyone know of a diplomacy thesaurus that Israel, and the rest of us, can use to decrypt the mixed messaging that emanates from Biden’s West Wing and State Department?

During those first days after Oct. 7, Biden unequivocally stated that Israel had a legal and moral right to self-defense in response to Hamas’ invasion and massacre in southern Israel. Hamas was deemed an Islamic state clone that needed to be completely vanquished. Any country in the same position would do the same thing.

Anticipating civilian casualties once Israel’s bombing campaign and ground incursion into Gaza commenced, Biden made clear that the responsibility for those Palestinian deaths would lie with Hamas. The terror group broke a ceasefire and started a war with a barbaric massacre. Worse still, it insisted on shielding itself with Gaza’s civilian population.

A fair reading of Biden’s assessment of the situation was that Israel couldn’t be faulted for striking at the locations where Hamas and its weapons are located. Gazans elected a terrorist organization that grotesquely deployed its own people as the first line of defense. Tunnels were built to transport terrorists and hide weapons, and not as bomb shelters for Gaza’s civilians.

Israel is not to blame for that sad state of affairs.

A few months later, however, a very different Biden showed up. He mumbled that Israel’s military operations were “over the top,” warning against any precipitous invasion of Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas’ remaining battalions. He questioned whether the large Palestinian civilian death toll comported with international humanitarian law. And he hinted that future military aid would have to be reevaluated. And the topper: The United States abstained when the U.N. Security Council called for a temporary ceasefire without the release of any Israeli and American hostages.

Then, just the other day, Doctor Jekyll returned to the Oval Office. President Biden, having been apprised through intelligence communiques that Iran was about to launch a significant attack against America’s only democratic ally in the region, stated, repeatedly, that the United States’ commitment to Israel was “ironclad.” His message to Iran, repeated by both his Secretary of State and Defense Secretary: “Don’t!”

But Iran did. Biden gave the same “Don’t!” warning to Iran’s proxies in the early days of the war. Yet, Hezbollah and the Houthis did, as well — the Lebanese terrorists have been launching missiles at Israel nearly every day; and the Yemenite terrorists have wreaked havoc on Israel and commercial shipping lines in the Red Sea.

And then Biden once again revealed his inner Hyde. On Saturday night, not long after Iran’s arsenal of missiles and drones detonated in the sky, the president spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and advised him to “take the win” — no need to escalate tensions further.

Really? If Mexico had launched 300 missiles at New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, the United States would have been satisfied with simply defending against them? I have news for the president: Texans wouldn’t take it, and the Rangers would be suiting up (the special ops guys, not the baseball team).

The necessity for nationwide air raid sirens blaring across Israel, warning of ballistic missiles incoming at major population centers, was not a proportional response to the killing of a few senior commanders in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Damascus.

This was a major act of aggression, tantamount to a declaration of war.
Biden’s advice to Israel? Just walk away. And one more thing: America will not take part in any Israeli reprisal.

Obviously, “ironclad” means something different to Biden than it does to everybody else. And “don’t” apparently means “don’t take us seriously.”

If “don’t” actually means, “don’t,” why are any Houthis still alive? Back in October, the most powerful nation in the world warned them that taking an ancillary interest in Hamas’ escapades would come with consequences. The Houthis aren’t even Iran’s most dangerous proxy. Most people never even heard of them. Shouldn’t all of them have been killed by now?

On Saturday, Iran finally decided to get its own hands dirty, rather than direct its proxies to do the dirty work. For two decades, trash-talking mullahs threatened to “wipe Israel off the map!” Finally, rather than delegate skirmishes to its proxies, Iran’s maniacal Islamists mixed brinksmanship with the Rubicon and lit up the Middle East sky with missiles and drones. Israel can now, justifiably, retaliate. F-35 pilots can lock on Iran’s ostensibly civilian nuclear facilities — something the rest of the region has secretly been longing for.

Will Biden stand for that? Last week he orchestrated Israel’s withdrawal from southern Gaza, leaving Hamas intact. Now he’s seeking further capitulation.

American foreign policy, these days, seems to be directed from Michigan and Minnesota. Are Muslims in battleground states actually dictating which battles America’s Jewish ally is permitted to fight? Foggy Bottom will soon be renting space from the Ford Motor Co. based in Dearborn. That would make sense. Its founder, Henry Ford, after all, was the leading antisemite of his day.

I realize there’s an election on the horizon and Biden is beholden to shrieking progressives and petulant, ignorant students. But perhaps now, more than ever, is the time for this president to exercise moral leadership, remain actually faithful to “ironclad” commitments and eschew political calculations.

Iran is a world menace. Why else would Jordan and the Saudis have assisted in downing drones whizzing over their airspace? No one other than Bernie Sanders and the Squad is rooting for Iran.

Here’s a tip, Mr. President: Stop the political schizophrenia. Demonstrate that America knows how to stand beside a friend and won’t stand in the way of allowing the Jewish state to finish the job in Gaza, and, finally, take steps to bring a long-awaited end to the Iranian Islamic regime.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society.

Mitchell Bard

I have not hesitated to criticize many of President Joe Biden’s policies before and after Oct. 7, but I have also consistently maintained that he has been the most pro-Israel president ever during any of Israel’s wars.

That should have been obvious this past weekend when the United States coordinated a regional air defense that helped Israel avoid suffering any serious harm from a barrage of more than 300 Iranian drones and missiles. It was the first time U.S. forces took an active role in fighting to defend the Jewish state.

Rather than gratitude, Biden-haters aren’t convinced. Some have concocted a QAnon-like conspiracy theory that the United States and Iran cooked up a plan to ensure that no Israelis would be hurt, thereby giving Jerusalem no justification for retaliation that would ensnare Washington in a war that would interfere with the president’s appeasement of Iran or re-election.

Admittedly, there were some peculiarities about the attack. Reuters said that Iran warned Turkey, Jordan and Iraq 72 hours in advance of its plan. Turkey said it informed the United States, which the Biden administration denied. Nevertheless, the president announced that an attack was imminent before it occurred. The countries in the region even closed their airspace to make sure there were no accidents. This gives the impression of a plan orchestrated by everyone except Israel.

Defending against the attack also seemed too easy. The videos looked like an arcade game where slow-moving targets were shot down. The only thing missing was the kapow sound effects.

Still, how could the United States count on all the targets being shot down? Iron Dome isn’t foolproof. Could the Saudis, Jordanians and NATO allies be trusted to defend Israel? If only one rocket had hit a significant target or caused more than a handful of injuries (one Arab girl was seriously wounded by shrapnel; The New York Times essentially blamed Israel for not building shelters for Bedouins), Israel would have had no choice but to retaliate. As it is, it’s hard to imagine how Israel can feel it can deter its enemies if it does not respond.

Also, if America was going to conspire with Iran, wouldn’t it have made more sense to persuade the Iranians to respond proportionally by, say, attacking an Israeli diplomatic mission, ideally in the middle of the night when no one was there? Iran would have still looked tough, and Israel wouldn’t have felt the need to retaliate on Iranian soil.

Another oddity is that no one attacked the launchers. When Hamas or Hezbollah launch a rocket, Israel immediately strikes the source. During the Iraq War, the United States took out Scud launchers. Wouldn’t that have been accepted as a reasonable response, or was everyone sure that the first volley would be the only one? That’s what the Iranians said, but could they be trusted?

Afterward, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “take the win.” That also sounds nutty at first blush. After all, what would Biden do if China, Russia or North Korea launched ballistic missiles at the United States? If we successfully intercepted them, would he be satisfied with the “win.” Would the American public consider it a victory if millions had spent hours terrified in non-existent bomb shelters? Would they be content or demand retaliation? Of course, Washington would have to consider the risk of its response escalating to a nuclear war, whereas Jerusalem does not have that concern.

Which brings up Iran’s nuclear program. What if one of those Iranian missiles — built to deliver a nuclear weapon — had been carrying one? Thanks to the failures of the last three presidents, Iran is on the cusp of having the capability. After this weekend, does anyone believe that Biden would use military force to stop Iran from getting the bomb? If Iran’s nuclear capability is not taken out, Israel and the rest of the region will have their own North Korea to deal with, which will make them all vulnerable and stimulate a nuclear arms race among the Arab states.

Iran’s attack was a severe blow to both Israeli and American deterrence. Israel failed to deter Hamas, Hezbollah and now Iran. How harsh will retaliation have to be to restore it? Wouldn’t this be the ideal time, as John Bolton has been telling everyone, for Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities? And while they’re at it, why not also take out their oil terminal?

As grateful as we should be for Biden’s defense of Israel and the success of the defensive operations, Americans should be concerned about how emboldened our other enemies must feel after seeing the Iranians ignore Biden’s pitiful warning of “don’t.” The weakness of Iran’s military was revealed in the attack, making our timidity even more unconscionable.

If Israel does react with more than a U.S.-style pinprick, it would likely erase the benefits of its “win”: a return of world sympathy (which will only last until the next report on famine in Gaza); a rapprochement in relations between Biden and Netanyahu; a U.N. Security Council discussion focused away from Israel; a fast-tracking of aid to Israel; and a momentary diversion from Gaza. The “win” also came at a high cost, creating widespread fear among the Israeli population, reinforcing the image that Israel is a dangerous place to visit just as airlines had begun to resume flights and requiring a significant expenditure of military assets that will need to be replenished.

The State Department’s Palestinian focus was once again proven wrong as Israel’s peace partners came together to mount a joint defense. Granted, they acted out of self-interest and their fears of Iran; nevertheless, they could have left the responsibility to the United States. When America’s security concerns were on the line, we also saw who stood with us (Jordan and Saudi Arabia) and who did not (Qatar, Egypt and Kuwait). The administration refused to recognize that Qatar is an enabler of Iran and a malevolent actor on its own.

The Iranian attack laid bare the hypocrisy of Israel’s critics, as if they needed further exposure. There are no calls for boycotting Iran or protests against its aggression on college campuses. The Islamophobia lobby is silent about an attack that threatened the third holiest site in Islam and millions of Muslim civilians (one of whom was hit and is fighting for her life). The protests that have occurred, as in Michigan, where Biden hopes he can appease the antisemites to win the state, featured Iranian-like chants of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”

Mitchell Bard is a foreign policy analyst and an authority on U.S.-Israel relations who has written and edited 22 books.