Biden-Harris and the Death of Sinwar - Dr. Mackubin Owens
Dr. Mackubin Owens, MINDSETTER™
Biden-Harris and the Death of Sinwar - Dr. Mackubin Owens
Vice President Harris issued a congratulatory message praising the elimination of Sinwar. The vice president said all the right things. “Israel has a right to defend itself, and the threat Hamas poses to Israel must be eliminated. Today, there is clear progress toward that goal. Hamas is decimated, and its leadership is eliminated…And I will say to any terrorist who kills Americans, threatens the American people, or threatens our troops or our interests, know this: We will always bring you to justice.” Meanwhile, during a trip to Germany, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan emphasized the role of US intelligence and other support in leading to the killing of Sinwar.
There’s only one problem: Sinwar was killed in Rafah, and the Biden-Harris administration had strenuously opposed an Israeli incursion into Rafah. Biden said that such an incursion was a “red line” for him, while the vice president warned that there would be “consequences” because she “studied the maps.” The Biden-Harris administration went so far as to halt ammunition shipments to Israel because of the Rafah incursion.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTEven worse, it has now been reported that highly classified documents detailing possible Israeli strikes against Iran in retaliation for the Iranian missile strikes earlier this month have been leaked online. According to the New York Post, “The documents describe military preparations by Israel – including the amount of various kinds of missiles – at Ramat David Airfield on the dates of October 15th and October 16th.” Whether leaked on purpose or because of incompetence, this does not bode well for the US-Israeli alliance.
No matter how much the administration seeks to revise the record when it comes to Rafah and other aspects of the war, the fact remains that any Israeli success has come despite the best efforts of Biden-Harris to hamstring Jerusalem. As I have written before, the first lesson of diplomacy is to treat your friends and allies better than you treat your enemies.
Much of the problem can be traced to the Biden-Harris administration’s insistence on a ceasefire, come hell or high water. The fact is that Israel has agreed to previous ceasefires. Unfortunately, rather than leading to reduced tensions, previous ceasefires have enabled Hamas and Hezbollah to regroup, rearm, and strengthen their positions by rebuilding infrastructure, restocking arsenals, and planning future attacks. Sinwar’s own story illustrates the weakness of ceasefire agreements.
In 2011, Israel released 1,026 convicted terrorists, including Sinwar, in exchange for a single Israeli soldier who had fallen into the hands of Hamas. The so-called Shalit deal foundered on the assumption that jihadists such as Sinwar could be co-opted by the promise of power and wealth. That assumption was false.
But so are the assumptions that underpin ceasefires in general. Vice President Harris has repeatedly claimed that the Gaza War must end soon and that the only way for that is to reach a cease-fire deal that includes the release of Hamas’s hostages. In Cairo recently, Secretary of State Tony Blinken insisted that a cease-fire is the only way to stop Middle East violence from spreading. But a ceasefire should never be understood as an end in itself. Instead, it must be part of a comprehensive strategy combining sustained security measures with diplomacy and supported by robust monitoring and enforcement.
Unfortunately, the fact is that sometimes an enemy simply is not interested in compromise. Hamas constitutes such an example. Article 11 of Hamas’s Covenant makes this clear: “the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [endowment] consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up.” And in 1985, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah penned an open letter to the Arab newspaper Al Safir, proclaiming that “…our struggle will end only when this entity [Israel] is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease-fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.”
I just happened to re-watch the movie Independence Day recently. Earth is under attack by aliens, who seek the extermination of the human race. In a powerful scene, the president asks a captured alien, “What do you want from us?” To which it replies, “We want you to die.”
The only chance for peace in the Middle East is for Iran and its proxies to be convinced that their war goals are unattainable. This, and not the fatuous reliance on ceasefires that fail to achieve core objectives is the path forward.