Kamala Harris’ attempt at the DNC to express “equal” sympathy for both sides — the Israelis and the Gazan Arabs — has not satisfied anyone. Political commentator Noah Rothman calls her remarks on Gaza “a lot of nothing.” More on his disappointment can be found here: “On the Gaza War, Kamala Harris Says a Lot of Nothing,” by Noah Rothman, National Review, August 23, 2024:

Why have “innocent lives” been lost in Gaza, and why are its people “desperate” and “hungry”? Because Hamas has abused the people over whom it presides. Their only value to Hamas is as sympathetic corpses. Why are they “fleeing to safety”? Because they are being evacuated via no-fire corridors by the IDF to temporary refugee cordons. Israelis do not oppose Palestinian self-determination….

“Innocent lives” have been lost in Gaza because Hamas deliberately embeds its men, weapons, and rocket launchers among civilians, in their schools, hospitals, mosques, and apartment houses. Hamas has a stake in maximizing civilian casualties; they are the central pillar in the terror group’s propaganda war. Israel, by contrast, tries always and everywhere to minimize civilian casualties, mainly by deploying an elaborate warning system, which by March had already included nine million dropped leaflets, fifteen million text messages, and sixteen million robocalls, all to warn Gazans away from areas, and buildings, about to be targeted. This warning system has allowed Israel to attain a ratio of civilians-to-combatants killed of 1:1, a result that no other army in the history of warfare has come close to achieving. Kamala Harris ought to ponder the significance of that achievement.

Harris could have told her adoring fans at the DNC that “as I speak, Israel has already accepted the deal for a ceasefire and a hostage-for-prisoner swap, but Hamas continues to refuse. In my administration, I will press hard for Hamas’ cooperation in relieving the suffering of people in Gaza.”

Harris did say: “I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists.”

Harris will “defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists”? Well, there is some unfinished business with Hezbollah and its killing of 241 Marines in their barracks in Beirut in 1983. Shouldn’t Harris want to “defend” our interests by showing Hezbollah that America has not forgotten that attack and will now pay back the terror group? And “our interests” certainly include guaranteeing the safety of our most loyal ally, the state of Israel, that now is faced with fighting a seven-front war, with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Assad’s army in Syria, the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia in Iraq, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Iran. Harris should have said something along the lines of “as Israel now faces a war on many fronts, we will supply our ally with all the weapons it needs not just to defend itself, but to bring the fight to the enemy so that it can end the threats to its existence rather than be forced to continually fend them off. Above all, with Israel’s help we need to ensure that Iran not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, which could set the entire Middle East ablaze.” But Harris did not even mention Iran’s nuclear threat.

If Harris is serious about opposing “Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” should she become president, she must be prepared to provide Israel with bunker-buster bombs that will allow the IDF to take out the key nuclear facilities that Iran has built underground at Fordow.

Instead of trying to satisfy both sides, as she did in her brief remarks about Israel and Gaza at the DNC in Chicago, Harris ought to clearly choose a side – the right side. For the well-informed, the choice should be easy. The Jewish state is now fighting its fourth war for its survival — the others were in 1948, 1967, and 1973. It is fighting Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and their puppet-master in Iran. Hamas, with 3,000 of its operatives, smashed into Israel on October 7, where they proceeded to rape, torture, mutilate, and murder 1,200 Israelis and kidnap 251 others, who were taken back to Gaza is fighting to destroy the Jewish state. Its 1987 charter calls for that destruction. Hamas spokesmen such as Ghazi Hamad insist that the terror group will repeat the October 7 attacks “again and again and again.” For that is what the chant “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free” means: Israel must disappear, to be replaced by a twenty-third Arab state. How hard is that for Kamala Harris to understand?

AUTHOR

Hugh Fitzgerald

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