What a difference a day makes.
On Tuesday President Biden was speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Museum commemoration at the Capitol in Washington.
There he drew a direct comparison between the events of the Holocaust and the attacks on Israel of October 7th.
That is not my comparison. It was President Biden’s. Talking about the phrase “Never Again” he said:
“Here we are not 75 years later but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting. They’re already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror. It was Hamas who brutalized Israelis. It was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten, nor have you. And we will not forget.”
As I say, what a difference a day makes.
Within hours the same President who uttered those words was attempting to prevent Israel’s victory in Gaza. By withholding arms shipments to Israel Biden made it clear that he does not want Israel to achieve its military objectives in the final battle of Rafah.
Opponents of the war have briefed for months about the need for a pause or a ceasefire. But there has been an effective pause for months as Israel has waited for this push into Hamas’s final stronghold.
It is believed that Rafah is the place where the remaining Israeli hostages are being held, and the place where Yahya Sinwar — the mastermind of the October 7th attacks — is hiding.
Most likely surrounded by “the best” hostages — which to his sick mind would include the remaining child captives.
“Never again” indeed.
If the Israeli army does not destroy Hamas in Rafah then the war is effectively for nothing, and all the pain and grief on all sides might as well not have occurred.
As I have said before, there is no point in putting out 80% of a fire. Until the Israeli army can clear Hamas out of Rafah the fire of Gaza is not out.
But Biden seems to be bowing to pressure from some of his own base. As someone joked a few months back, Biden does indeed want to focus on a two-state solution, but the two states are Minnesota and Michigan.
He is desperate to chase the few tens of thousands of voters who might turn on him because they care about Hamas more than they care about America.
What else has pushed the issue of arming Israel up the list of priorities? Perhaps the Biden administration is bowing to the unsustainable pressure of a few overweight students threatening to “hunger-strike” for Hamas. I’m sure Hamas are touched by the solidarity.
Perhaps he finds it impossible not to yield to the demands of “Queers for Palestine” and the other weirdos who are ruining this academic year for so many sensible American students.
But I see no reason by a superpower should be affected in its alliances by a few screaming, entitled know-nothings at a small number of over-privileged campuses. Most of these people are paid agitators anyway.
Yet the pressure seems to have got to Biden. How else to explain his decision to hold up arms supplies to Israel just hours after giving that speech on Tuesday?
On Thursday evening the war cabinet in Israel was meeting to discuss the next stage of the war. And presumably also to work out what to do if the country’s chief ally abandons Israel now.
One of the people in the room stepped out to speak to me yesterday evening. I asked the Israeli official what they thought about the idea that their country of ten million people had now been left to fight alone against the forces of terrorism.
The reply: “It seems that the leader of the free world is the Prime Minister of a 10 million person country.”
What an indictment of the situation that Biden has led America to.
At the beginning of his term in office President Biden performed his famously bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan.
After two decades and thousands of lost American lives Afghanistan was effectively back to where it was twenty years earlier.
While the Taliban took back Afghanistan it was as if America and her allies had never been there.
The schools shut again, the Taliban dealt with their enemies, and all the blood and treasure was for nothing. At this point Biden reminded the world that America is not always the worst enemy.
Now in withdrawing supplies to its principal ally in the Middle East Biden is at risk of showing that America is also not the best friend.
How to explain this disconnect? Between the warm and strong words that Biden utters and the betraying stance he is now taking?
Only that he has bowed to domestic political pressure here in America.
Who knows what effect that will have in November. Perhaps the pro-Hamas lobby in a couple of states will be pleased to have some of their way.
Perhaps they will be jubilant, “forgive” Biden for the months in which he was a strong ally of Israel, and vote for him anyway.
Or perhaps they will stay at home. Or vote for someone else.
In any case, what a price to pay in international leadership for such a small, sordid domestic political pressure.
There will be serious consequences from this.
Because for months Biden has stressed — rightly — that the fight Israel is engaged in is a fight the whole civilized world is engaged in.
For months he said that he would be unwavering in his support for America´s ally. And for months he has reassured Israelis — as he did again this week — that he would not forget the horrors of October 7th or the Israelis and Americans still in Hamas captivity.
And now we have this. A decision to cut Israel off just before the point at which it can win.
In Afghanistan Biden piled defeat upon defeat. With Israel it looks like he wants to steal defeat from the jaws of victory.
So it is Israel alone. As Biden has sworn it would not be.
Actions speak louder than words.