” I come to Israel with a single text”, President Joe Biden said during a conversation in Israel 111 days after the savage assault by Hamas, whose jihadists slaughtered 1, 200 Israelis, kidnapped thousands more, wounded dozens more, and ignited a regional battle. ” You are not alone. As long as the United States stands, and we will have long, we will not allow you always remain single”.
But somewhere along the way, the Biden administration, spurred by the extremely violent, malicious left-wing of the Democratic Party, lost its muscle, succumbing in speech and actions to a savage “yes, but” research for “balance” that threatens to vessel the enemies of freedom. As we mark the first anniversary of the Hamas assault, it’s fair to wonder: How did we get here?
The good
I’ll start by praising the material and verbal blessings the United States has shown to Israel in the spirit of the Jewish High Holidays. More than 500 cargo planes and more than 100 ships have been dispatched to the Jewish state since last October, bringing in more than 50 000 tons of military equipment. Congress passed, and Biden signed, a$ 17 billion aid package to bolster Israel’s fight against Hamas and Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy on its northern border.
A 98-0 margin in the Senate and a overwhelmingly 412-10 vote in the House confirmed that the United States” stands with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists” and that it is ready to support Israel with emergency supplies, diplomatic, and intelligence support. Polls demonstrate steadfastly and enduring support for the Jewish state.
By bringing carrier groups and other military assets into the region, Biden famously warned Iran and Hezbollah to” Don’t.” He was doing so to counteract his threat by moving them. Meanwhile, White House spokesman John Kirby grew emotional during a CNN interview days after the attack, in which he detailed and condemned Hamas’s brutality. The United Nations General Assembly, which is acutely morally hampered, has admirably held the line in hostile environments.
And just last week, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said,” This is a significant escalation by Iran, a significant event. Iran fired more than 200 ballistic missiles at Israel’s population centers. For nearly an hour. We have made it clear that this attack will have severe consequences, and we will work with Israel to resolve this issue.
The bad
However, the Biden administration has failed at key points, including effectively preventing Israel’s entry into Gaza’s Rafah region, where Hamas had smuggled weapons and hostages ( Vice President Kamala Harris claimed to have” studied the maps” and concluded a Rafah offensive should be off-limits ), withholding weapons and munitions at key points, and putting pressure on Israel to “take the win” by urging them to” What happened to “ironclad support“?
The most charitable explanation, perhaps, is that neither Biden nor Harris wants to see an expanded war during an election year. The administration simply wants things to settle down, and a Middle East that is spiraling out of control only reinforces the perception that many Americans have that the world has become much safer since 2021.
Another explanation is absence: The president’s glaring physical and cognitive decline have recently hindered the vigorous defense of freedom he asserted a year ago when he bravely entered a war zone. Biden’s retreat from public view has emboldened both Israel’s enemies abroad and its detractors within the administration. The United States resembles nothing more than” a headless superpower in a time of war,” according to former Washington Examiner Executive Editor Seth Mandel.
Then, too, the administration’s sins of omission and commission reflect a vestigial allegiance to the Obama administration’s willful blindness to the Iranian threat. The mullahs ‘ burgeoning ballistic missile program, which included imposing “daylight” between Israel and the United States, unfreezing billions of dollars in Iranian assets, and neglecting Iran’s ability to carry out its plan to destroy both the Little Satan ( Israel ) and the Great Satan ( the United States ) served only to bolster its capacity to carry out its plan. Indeed, as National Review editorialized last week,” Iran’s ballistic missile attack is a failure of Democratic appeasement”. And instead of giving Israel “logistical and intelligence support” to attack the clerics ‘ nuclear program and other sensitive sites, the administration is demanding that Israel’s counterattack be carried out “proportionally,” as Rich Goldberg of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies recently stated. ( As this article went to press, Israel was readying that response. )
Most problematically, however, Biden and company have kowtowed to a restive left-wing hungry to demonize the Jewish state. And that’s where things have gotten ugly.
The ugly
Washington Examiner readers should not be conned of the startling emergence of the Democratic Party’s lunatic fringe, which has unapologetically supported the anti-Israel cause and marched proudly under Hamas and Hezbollah flags through New York and Washington ( to mention of European capitals ).  ,
Nowhere has this sentiment been more ignominously exposed than at American universities, where progressive groups have spent months occupying campus quads, preventing Jewish students from entering, and chanting genocidal slogans.
Perhaps more troubling, though, is how Harris’s campaign has genuflected to these hateful fanatics, openly courting the “uncommitted” faction that withheld support from the Democratic ticket over Israel. In parallel, her running mate, Gov. While Biden himself claimed at the Democratic National Convention that the pro-terrorism protesters “have a point,” Tim Walz (D-MN) claimed that they were” speaking out for all the right reasons.” Harris and Walz have indulged these morally and intellectually grotesque activists rather than refuting them.
( Former President Donald Trump’s instability has also been unfavorable, most notably when he recently compared Iran and Israel to” two kids fighting in the schoolyard.” ) Much more constructive: The debate statement by his running mate, Sen. J. D. Vance (R-OH), that “it’s up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe, and we should support our allies wherever they are when they’re fighting the bad guys”. )
To wrap up, I’ll say with optimism that some mainstream Democrats are actively battling to maintain their party’s traditional support for the Jewish state and to extinguish antisemitism. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA ) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY ) stand out for their extraordinary courage amid vicious progressive slander. They are genuine, righteous gentiles. We can add prominent Jewish Democrats like Governors to their steadfastly pro-Israel ranks. Josh Shapiro (D-PA ) and Jared Polis (D-CO ). From the cadre of Democratic Israel haters, we can subtract the odious Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY ) and Cori Bush (D-MO ) — both soundly defeated earlier this year in primary elections. Meanwhile, many university administrators, perhaps chastened by the congressional hearings that contributed to the ouster of Harvard’s and Penn’s presidents for their failure to stem campus antisemitism, appear to have cracked down on the “tentifadas” this semester. We can only hope that Israel’s steadfast supporters will not only uphold the party’s standards but also advance the standing of the Jewish state.
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” Israel will be a safe, secure, Jewish, and Democratic state today, tomorrow, and forever”, Biden vowed while in country a year ago. Israel has since helped to provide its citizens with a measure of safety and security over the past year, bringing both Hamas and Hezbollah to justice, even as tens of thousands of Israelis are still unable to go back to their homes in the north and more than a hundred are still in captivity in Gaza.  ,
There is still a cause for concern, though, despite Israelis ‘ deep gratitude to the Biden administration and Congress for their fierce rhetorical and material support. As we mark the anniversary of Hamas’s malicious attack, our gratitude is tempered by our worry.  ,
Michael M. Rosen is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a lawyer and writer in Israel.