LARRY KUDLOW: Biden and Blinken are trying to put the handcuffs on Israel

There’s somebody named Ghazi Hamad. He’s a member of the Hamas Politburo. This is all according to the Wall Street Journal editorial page editorial on October 24 interview on Lebanese television and Mr. Hamad said and I’m going to quote, “We must teach Israel a lesson and we will do this again and again. This is the Al Aqsa Flood.” 

All right. Now, don’t take my word for it. This is from the Wall Street Journal editorial. The editorial was written November 2 and the title was “How Hamas Defines Cease Fire.” What Hamad said was about a week earlier. 

Hamad also said, and I’m going to quote, “We are the victims of the occupation,” period. Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do on October 7 and October 10 and October 1,000,000. Everything we do is justified.”

This guy is from the Hamas Politburo. Now, as Secretary of State Blinken goes through his shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, is he repeating this Hamas cease fire definition to all the parties involved? Is he? I sincerely doubt it, but he should. Mr. Blinken seems to be telling everybody what they may want to hear. This is not the best way to go about clear, effective diplomacy.  

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It is better to have one big point you can deliver on rather than five or six secondary points over which you have no power. Now, the big point in Israel, it’s a hostage release. Prime Minister Netanyahu has suggested a temporary pause if all the 240 hostages are released. The trouble is that’s apparently not the way Hamas defines a ceasefire. 

So, that doesn’t look much like a deliverable for Mr. Blinken or his boss, Mr. Biden. Now, besides the terrorist cut-throat statements of Hamas Hamad, a Politico article, suggests Blinken thinks he might get a ceasefire from Israel without a hostage release or I’ll read this again, I mentioned it to Bret Baier, the money quote from Politico. 

“U.S. officials believe that Netanyahu may soften his opposition to the pause idea if he can be convinced that it is in Israel’s strategic interest to ease the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” 

Now, it seems to me this exactly what Netanyahu should not do, but it also seems to me this is exactly what Biden and Blinken are trying to do. They’re trying to put the handcuffs on Israel. No matter what the rhetoric, they’re trying to trap Israel to some kind of spiderweb of Byzantine Middle East negotiations. The New York Post editorial got it right, saying Biden’s call for an Israeli pause means he’s really jumping ship on our ally and then, of course, Blinken’s telling the PLA they can take over Gaza at some point after the war, but that’s not deliverable. 

Then Mr. Blinken is telling Turkey, whose President Erdogan is already pro Hamas and wouldn’t even meet with Blinken, he’s telling him that there’ll be more Gaza aid, but that’s not deliverable. Then he tells folks the U.S. is committed to the realization of Palestinians legitimate aspirations for establishment of a Palestinian state. Once again, that is not deliverable. 

He’s telling everybody the U.S. can restore calm and stability to the region. That is not deliverable. Then Blinken goes to Baghdad and then he tells Iran to stop widening the war using Joe Biden’s misbegotten phrase “don’t,” but 38 Iran sponsored attacks on U.S. military assets later, Biden hasn’t lifted a finger to fight back. 

Then, the business of easing the plight of civilians during the wartime. Now there’s an important piece in Investor’s Business Daily Tipps Insights by Mr. Daniel Pomerantz. He’s an expert in international law. He’s a lecturer at Reichman and Bar Ilan Universities in Israel and he’s also the CEO of Reality Check, which is a nonprofit NGO dedicated to clarifying global conversations with verifiable data. Now, hear this out. He argues that Israel’s war campaign against Hamas demonstrates “incomprehensible restraint.” His data: Israel has struck over 11,000 terror related targets in Gaza since October 7. 

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Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, on Monday, Oct. 30.  (AP/Tsafrir Abayov / AP Newsroom)

Now, the Gaza Ministry of Health, if you can ever believe them anyway, claim that Israeli air strikes have killed over 10,000 people in Gaza over the same period. That would mean that Israel has killed, on average, less than one person per strike and 10% of the strikes have killed no people at all and he argues that represents an astonishing degree of precision and restraint.  

Now, of course, war is hell. War is costly, but there are just wars and this is one of them. So, I would just suggest that Israel reject the voices of defeat or so-called strategic priorities that might work for other countries, but not Israel first. The IDF has great momentum. They have already split Gaza in two. The tide is with them. Don’t let anybody interrupt this battle. It’s a battle for the right of Israel and for Jewish people to exist in the Middle East and anywhere else around the world. No interruptions, please. All right, folks, that’s my riff. 

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the November 6, 2023, edition of “Kudlow.”