The time has come to hold up a mirror to the United States: For obvious reasons Netanyahu and his ministers cannot be the ones to do so – there are after all diplomatic protocols to adhere to. The media can not only do so, it is its duty to point out the absurdities inherent in US policy to Israel, which is tainted with moral hypocrisy of dimensions that cry to the heavens.
Biden is demanding that Netanyahu show flexibility toward Hamas in negotiations over a hostage deal, but the almost hostile positions that his administration has adopted toward Israel in the last couple of months are just distancing a deal. Its policies have just led Hamas to harden and radicalize its position even further and thus prolongs the suffering of the hostages and their families.
The US wants Israel to shorten the war, but the pressures and restrictions it applies and imposes on Israel concerning an operation in Rafah, the use of American-made weapons, and the manner in which we conduct ground maneuvers, have exactly the opposite effect. It prolongs the war and the suffering of Gazans and Israelis alike.
All this and more is supposedly done to prevent the "harming of innocent people" by the IDF, but when none other than Maj (ret) John Spencer (Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at Westpoint) has said that the IDF has done more to avoid harming civilians than any other army in the world, it is time to break the silence.
It is true that we are no more than a "mosquito" in comparison to the US and that "what is permitted for them is out of bounds for us", but on a moral level we are much better than the Americans, who, in their military campaign over the past decades, have left behind a trail of thousands if not tens of thousands of "non-combatant" deaths.
A few examples: hundreds of civilians were killed by an American bombing when they took shelter in Baghdad (1991); many civilians were killed by two missiles fired into the main Baghdad market (2003); some 500 Yugoslav civilians were killed in a 1999 airstrike conducted by the US and its allies in Yugoslavia.
Some 8,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in direct attacks by the US coalition from 2003-2018. More than 2,000 civilians have been killed, among them children, in drone operations conducted by the US in Pakistan in its war on terror (during the Obama presidency). According to Amnesty International, in 2012, 18 men, including loggers, vegetable sellers, and boys, were killed in the village and a 68-year-old woman who was picking vegetables was killed in another one (her five grandchildren were injured).
In September of the same year, a pregnant woman and her three children were killed in a US airstrike in Yemen. The US had no intention of killing innocent people, neither there nor in many other places, but during the wars against terror, it killed and injured countless people. Israel has been far more cautious and has harmed far fewer, yet it is judged by double standards and unparalleled hypocrisy.
Instead of pointing the finger at Hamas, the Biden administration is pointing the finger at the victim, Israel. It is aiding and abetting evil, not acting against it. This is the result of the hostile stance of State Department officials against Israel, and because of the president's political situation as he campaigns for a second term.
Biden and his administration need to hear from Israel a resounding "no" to their demands – on the issue of the hostages, on Rafah and the continuation of the war. Netanyahu is entitled in this case to substantive wall-to-wall support, both from within his government (Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot) and outside it (Gideon Sa'ar and Avigdor Lieberman – no matter the protests by the "Kaplanists."
