President Biden on Tuesday finally spoke to the nation about the “abhorrent” terrorist attacks over the weekend by Hamas as the death toll in the region climbed, vowing that the U.S. would fully support the Israeli people.
The president also confirmed that Americans are among those being held hostage, with officials saying as many as 20 Americans are unaccounted for.
Biden called the actions of Hamas “pure, unadulterated evil,” and did not spare the details when describing the abominable attacks on men, women, and children. He indicated that there is no justification for Hamas’s attacks — a shock to a bunch of Americans on the left, apparently — and compared the terrorist organization to ISIS.
We must be crystal clear: we stand with Israel. We stand with Israel and we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself and respond to this attack. There’s no justification for terrorism. There’s no excuse. Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination; its stated purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed, with no regard to who pays the price.
Biden warned other malign actors against using this moment to press their aims elsewhere in the world. He called on Congress to fund the urgent national-security requirements of the U.S. and critical allies.
He told the American people that he had ordered the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford‘s carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean to act as a deterrent force.
Biden said that he had instructed the U.S. government to “consult with and advise” Israel in its efforts to find and, if possible, rescue the more than 100 hostages held by Hamas.
But he did not directly demand that Hamas immediately release the dozen or more U.S. nationals currently being held hostage. And he did not directly warn Hamas that the U.S. would punish Hamas if it refused.
Why not?
There is, of course, very little chance that the Americans held by Hamas are ever released. Their fates are, tragically, in the hands of bloodthirsty murderers who have not and will not hesitate to break the laws of civilized war. That shouldn’t, however, stop an American president from voicing what every American rightly demands.
Biden said, “As president, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world.”
But what good is American power — or Biden’s self-professed “priority” — if we cannot or will not exact a heavy price on terrorist goons who kill Americans abroad? Why must an American president hesitate and equivocate about using American force to defend American citizens?
The president should have given Hamas 24 hours to release our people, or he’d order the Ford into action. Why didn’t he?
Thankfully, Biden didn’t suggest that Israel’s response should be proportionate.
Yes, it would have been preferable if Biden had taken questions from reporters, but let’s face it, he never does that anymore and if he had spoken off-the-cuff, he likely would have screwed it up. When the stakes are this high, I won’t begrudge the White House staff for telling Grandpa to stick to what’s on the teleprompter.
Foreign policy and national security aren’t usually the determining factor in elections, but right now Hamas has American hostages. (Gas prices are high, and we just went through a terrible bout of inflation. Say, does it feel like 1979 to you?)
Men falling from planes desperate to leave Afghanistan, mass graves and war crimes in Ukraine, and now beheaded babies in Israel. We’ve all witnessed a lot of twisted bloodshed, sadism, cruelty, and brutality committed by evil men in a really short span of time. Next year, the Biden administration will go before the American people and argue that this tidal wave of rampaging evil has nothing to do with their decisions and policies. It’s just bad luck, I suppose, that in country after country, the world’s most evil men have no fear that America will find them and bring their atrocities to an end.
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