Benny Gantz in DC: ‘Time for action in the North has come’

JERUSALEM POST STAFF

“We need to make a deal to return the hostages even if it comes at a very painful price.”

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MK Benny Gantz speaks at the MEAD conference in Washington DC. September 9, 2024. / (photo credit: Itzik Belnitzky)

Benny Gantz, chairman of the National Unity party and a member of Knesset, declared at the MEAD Conference in Washington that Israel must prepare for war in the North if a deal to free hostages is not reached soon.

“The time for action in the North has come – if we do not reach a deal for the hostages within days or a few weeks, we will have to go to war in the North,” Gantz said, adding that Israel’s security policy post-October 7 cannot return to what it was previously.

On the situation in the North

Reflecting on the ongoing conflict, Gantz admitted that Israel had made errors in its initial response.

“I think we made a mistake by evacuating such a large portion of the population. We should have only evacuated the towns and kibbutzim near the border,” he said, taking responsibility for the decision made out of the uncertainty felt at the beginning of the war.

He stressed the urgency of the situation in the North and the need for a hostage deal, even at a painful price. If this goal is not achieved within days or weeks, Israel will have no choice but to escalate the conflict with Hezbollah.

MK Benny Gantz at the MEAD conference in Washington DC. September 9, 2024. (credit: Itzik Belnitzky)Enlrage image

“We must ensure that residents can return to their homes. We can achieve this goal, even if it means damaging Lebanon itself. Unfortunately, I don’t see another way,” Gantz said, noting that UN Resolution 1701, which was meant to end the Second Lebanon War, is now outdated.

“We must now move toward a resolution where we proactively strike in response to any violation or threat to our borders, especially the threat of infiltrations into our towns,” he added.

A decade of operations in Gaza

Gantz outlined his view of what victory in Gaza should look like.

“True victory is bringing the hostages back to their families and the residents back to their homes. That’s the foundation of victory. It will take another decade of operations in Gaza to ensure that Hamas cannot rebuild its strength,” he explained.

Gantz also voiced support for earlier operations in Rafah, which he had previously advocated for during a visit to Washington in March.

The Iranian threat

Turning to Iran’s involvement in regional conflicts, Gantz argued that the Islamic Republic is the true root of the problem. He cited Iran’s influence in Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon, as well as its involvement in global conflicts, including the war in Ukraine.

“Hezbollah is certainly an operational threat, but we must focus on the root problem – Iran,” he said.

Gantz called for continued pressure on Iran, not just militarily but also economically and diplomatically.

“If another nuclear deal is on the table, it must not have the loopholes of the previous one regarding enrichment and launch capabilities. It must include strict restrictions on Iran’s funding and use of proxies. Iran is a global and regional challenge, not just an Israeli problem,” he stressed.

Building regional partnerships

Gantz expressed hope that regional partnerships, particularly with Saudi Arabia, could be strengthened through platforms like the MEAD Conference.

“I hope we can develop regional partnerships, and conferences like MEAD play a key role in that. I hope we can also expand partnerships with Saudi Arabia, an important Arab country, so that we can all benefit from security, economic cooperation, science, and more,” he said.

It is worth noting that Saudi Ambassador to the US, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud was in attendance at the conference and listened to Gantz’s remarks.

The MEAD Conference

The MEAD Conference is a global, apolitical event held for the first time this year in Washington, DC. It serves as a platform for strategic dialogue between the Middle East and the US. The conference’s leadership includes Tom Nides, David Friedman, Dennis Ross, and Elliott Abrams, who are hosting discussions on the region’s evolving geopolitical dynamics.

Senior leaders from the US, Israel, and moderate Arab countries are participating in the conference alongside experts in security, economics, diplomacy, governance, academia, think tanks, and the media.

Inside the Anti-Israel Congressional Black Caucus Event That Whitewashed Hamas, Rejected Zionism

Corey Walker

US Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) raises her fist as US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses a pro-Hamas demonstration in Washington, DC. Photo: Reuters/Allison Bailey

An anti-Israel panel event held during a conference hosted by the US Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, DC on Thursday urged the audience to show “solidarity” with the Palestinian cause while rejecting Zionism and justifying the Hamas terror group’s atrocities against the Israeli people.

The event, titled “Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free: The Struggle for Black & Palestinian Liberation,” discussed the necessity of black and Palestinian Americans joining forces to dismantle the Jewish state. The panelists — US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), US Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), George state Rep. Ruwa Romman, progressive journalist Mehdi Hasan, and left-wing academic Marc Lamont Hill — attempted to draw parallels between the historical discrimination faced by African Americans with the alleged mistreatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Panel at a conference hosted by the US Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, DC on Sept. 12, 2024. Photo: Corey Walker

Zgromadzenie Ogólne ONZ w 2012 roku nadało „Palestynie” statut niebędącego członkiem obserwatora. We wtorek 10 września Palestyńczycy zajęli miejsce wśród państw członkowskich Zgromadzenia Ogólnego ONZ, co jest nowym prawem przyznanym delegacji Autonomii Palestyńskiej, mimo że nie jest pełnoprawnym członkiem tego organu. (Zdjęcie Rick Bajornas archiwum ONZ)

Nagroda za terroryzm: „Państwo Palestyna” zajmuje miejsce w Zgromadzeniu Ogólnym ONZ

Robert Spencer
Tłumaczenie: Małgorzata Koraszew

Why is Hamas so confident that it’s winning?

Jonathan S. Tobin

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Hamas senior official Khaled Meshaal (left) and Ziyad al-Nakhalah (second from left), secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, at the funeral of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh (who was assassinated in Tehran on July 31) in the Qatari capital of Doha, Aug. 2, 2024. Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images.

After nearly a year of suffering and grievous losses, most Israelis and Palestinian Arabs will likely observe the anniversary of the war started by Hamas on Oct. 7 with sorrow. But not everyone. An interview The New York Times conducted with Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas’s “political wing,” in his luxurious living quarters in Doha, Qatar, revealed he thinks the war has gone just fine.

As the Times put it, Mashaal thinks that Hamas is “winning the war” and is confident that the genocidal Islamist organization will, despite the battering it has received from the Israel Defense Forces, play a “decisive” role in Gaza in the future.

It takes an extraordinary amount of chutzpah to sit in a comfortable place of exile where you are protected by Qatar—an ally of Iran and Hamas—while the Gulf State also pretends to be friendly with the United States. It’s odd for a “political” leader to be so blithe about a conflict that has, despite the inflated statistics of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip produced by Hamas, certainly inflicted tremendous harm on his own people. By hiding from the IDF in a warren of tunnels the size of the New York subway system underneath civilian homes, they set in motion a confrontation that guaranteed that much of the Strip would be destroyed. And Hamas itself has been severely hurt. Reportedly, 17,000 operatives have been killed, and all of its organized military formations are no longer combat-effective. The same is true of its ability to send long-range missiles into Israel.

Survival equals a Hamas victory

By any normal definition of victory or defeat, it’s hard to argue that in the aftermath of its orgy of mass murder, rape, torture, kidnappings and wanton destruction in Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas hasn’t been beaten.

But Mashaal disagrees, and it’s hard to find fault in his reasoning.

While most of us have understandably focused on the fighting in Gaza as well as the way Hezbollah terrorists have been able to essentially de-populate a portion of northern Israel with its indiscriminate fire on civilians, one of the key fronts in this war is not in the Middle East. It’s in the United States.

Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans support Israel and oppose Hamas, the political battle over the war in Gaza has been going pretty much the way the terrorists wanted it to. That’s reflected in Mashaal’s confidence, as well as Hamas’s negotiating tactics and its strategy in Gaza. After Oct. 7, the terrorists have been doing nothing but playing for time. And they expected that the time they needed to outlast the Israeli offensive would be provided to them by Israel’s closest ally.

Biden’s flip-flops helped Hamas

At first, it seemed as if their bet would not pay off. President Joe Biden’s initial response to the Oct. 7 massacre was to join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in saying that the only proper response to this atrocious crime was for Hamas to be “eliminated.” But almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Biden began to slowly back away from that position.

Over the next several months as Israel’s counter-offensive into Gaza began, the United States played a double game. On the one hand, Washington continued to supply Jerusalem with munitions badly needed by the IDF; eventually, however, it was reported that the Pentagon slow-walked its delivery to maintain leverage over the Israelis. While America was playing the faithful ally in one respect, Biden and his administration were soon singing a different tune about the war.

Biden was heavily influenced by the open revolt against a pro-Israel policy from lower-level administrators and congressional staffers. With the Democrats’ left-wing base similarly outraged by his initial position of stalwart backing for Israel and the war on Hamas, he realized that it might imperil his chances of re-election. As a result, statements about the war soon were more about its impact on the Palestinians rather than the need to eliminate the terrorists who committed the largest mass slaughter of Jews since World War II and the Holocaust.

This tilt to the left would escalate as the presidential campaign began in early 2024, with gestures from Biden intended to appease the pro-Hamas antisemitic voters in Arab-American strongholds like Dearborn, Mich., as well as woke left-wing activists who falsely label Israel a “settler/colonialist” and “apartheid” state. Rather than push back against the left’s demand for an immediate ceasefire that would essentially save Hamas, the administration began echoing it and pushing for a deal that would end the war at virtually any price, even if it didn’t result in freedom for all of the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.

And when Israel forced Hamas’s fighters back into their last enclave in southern Gaza, Biden and Vice President Harris were just as vocal about demanding that Israel not enter Rafah as the antisemitic demonstrators on America’s streets and college campuses.

While the public pressure on Israel was bad, even worse was the duress the administration was employing against Netanyahu behind the scenes as it sought to delay every Israeli effort at finishing off the terrorists.

Administration officials were soon parroting the defeatist line about Hamas being an “idea” that could not be defeated, rather than a terrorist force that could be eliminated. Plenty of “ideas” have been militarily defeated, such as Nazism, which didn’t survive the defeat of Adolf Hitler’s genocidal regime. But to Americans and Israeli liberals, Hamas is regarded as an eternal force. By adopting this position, the opportunity to convince Palestinians to give up their fantasies about Israel’s elimination was thrown away and their century-long war on Zionism prolonged.

Combined with the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism made obvious by the pro-Hamas encampments at elite universities, it gave Hamas every reason not to negotiate seriously for a hostage release deal. As Mashaal told the Times, Hamas viewed all of this as encouragement for its plan to simply hunker down in its remaining tunnel strongholds, and hold out until U.S. and international pressure—heightened by the anti-Israel bias of the mainstream media—forced Israel to stand down and allow the Islamists to emerge as the victor in the war.

Demoralizing the Israelis

It must be recognized that a key element in the Biden administration’s efforts was the fact that, as the Times story also noted, many in the leadership of the IDF and Israeli security establishment had adopted similarly defeatist stands about dealing with Hamas.

The conduct of the military leadership—both before and after Oct. 7—will be a subject for formal investigations and then historical inquiry for many decades. Suffice it to say that this attitude about Hamas seems very much a product of the same thinking that left the country unprepared for the attacks that Shabbat morning and then needing weeks before it could initiate an attack on the perpetrators.

It should be noted that Netanyahu bears responsibility for these failures as the head of the government. But the military leadership should not be shielded from the same opprobrium because of the respect their uniforms and records inspire. As I’ve heard from so many Israelis in the last year, if the war has not always gone as well as it should have, it was always the fault of the generals, not the rank-and-file soldiers and lower-level officers who have fought bravely and often sacrificed their lives in order to limit Palestinian casualties.

While Israelis have every right to protest against their government even in wartime, Hamas also views the unrest inside the Jewish state as an asset. The families of the remaining hostages and Netanyahu’s political opposition now seek to pressure him to give up the war and sign a ceasefire agreement, even if it means essentially handing Gaza back to Hamas and ensuring a repeat of the horrors of Oct. 7. I understand why some feel that way for a number of different reasons, but the fact remains that Hamas is counting on that sentiment.

Claiming U.S. ‘recognition’

But above all, Hamas views American pressure on Israel as its ace in the hole. As Mashaal pointed out, the way that the hostage negotiations have been handled by Washington has amounted to American “recognition” of Hamas as a diplomatic partner as opposed to a despised and outlawed terrorist organization. He’s right about that.

While it’s not clear just how closely they are observing the presidential election or counting on one outcome over another, they obviously prefer Harris’s stand in favor of an “immediate ceasefire” to former President Donald Trump’s comments, which amount to a green light to Israel to “finish the job” of eliminating the terrorists.

Hamas’s military position inside Gaza is not completely eliminated, but it is a shadow of its pre-October self. And there are even reports now starting to circulate about Gazans drawing some obvious conclusions about the high cost of letting Hamas lead them into disaster after disaster. Even as Israel’s focus is increasingly turning towards its northern border and the imperative to stop the Hezbollah fire that has depopulated a large area in the direct line of terrorist fire, the need to continue the work of demolishing tunnels and rooting out remaining Hamas elements is not over. It may take years—something that discourages Israelis, and that infuriates Biden and Harris. But the notion that there is any realistic alternative to continue fighting that would ensure Israeli security—whether in the form of a ceasefire/surrender or bringing international forces into Gaza to stop Hamas—is a pipe dream.

The reality of Palestinian politics

As the Times article makes clear, Hamas will never budge from its demands that Israel hand back Gaza to them. And as long as they are useful to their cause, they will hold onto many of the hostages, despite the belief among some Israelis that it is Netanyahu’s stubbornness or political ambition that is the obstacle to their freedom. Moreover, Hamas leaders are right to believe, despite the understandable anger in Gaza, that the basic equation of Palestinian politics remains unchanged. Over the last century, Palestinian groups and leaders have always gained credibility primarily by shedding Jewish blood. Hamas thinks that it will eventually reap a great benefit from the atrocities of Oct. 7 in the form of broad support that will enable it to topple and replace Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party in Judea and Samaria as well as Gaza. All they have to do to cash in on that is to survive the war, and they think they’ve found the formula to enable them to do just that.

If left to carry out its tasks without foreign interference, the IDF will eventually eliminate Hamas, though that task will not be accomplished easily or quickly. It can certainly prevent it from returning to power in Gaza, thus ensuring that its reign of terror over Israel as well as Palestinians is over. Still, Mashaal and the rest of the terrorist group are counting on feckless American politicians, ideologically motivated leftist demonstrators and political activists, a media that is always prepared to demonize Israeli efforts at self-defense, as well as war-weariness and anguish about the hostages inside Israel to guarantee their survival. We may hope that they are wrong about that, but it’s easy to understand why the terrorist leader is confident that he can outlast the Israelis … with American help.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him @jonathans_tobin.

Largest Township in US Creates Antisemitism Task Force for Second Biggest Jewish Population in the Nation

Shiryn Ghermezian

Antisemitic graffiti daubed outside Miriam, an Israeli-owned restaurant on New York City’s Upper West Side. Photo: The Algemeiner.

The Town of Hempstead in New York, which is the largest township in America, has a new task force to combat antisemitism and help keep its local Jewish community safe.

Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin announced on Thursday the creation of The Antisemitism Task Force. The newly formed group of local community and spiritual leaders will take a number of approaches to combat hate and intolerance in the Town of Hempstead.

“Education and community outreach will include various methods such as partnering with local educational institutions to host historical programs, implementing Holocaust education programs, working with local villages within Hempstead Town to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, supporting interfaith and multicultural initiatives to promote tolerance, and enhancing security for Jewish community centers by working with local law enforcement, to name a few,” read a statement about the task force published by the town and shared by the Combat Antisemitism Movement.

Clavin made the announcement about the new task force in front of West Hempstead’s Hebrew Academy of Nassau County Samuel and Elizabeth Bass Golding Elementary School.

The Town of Hempstead reportedly has the second largest Jewish population in the US, following New York City. In 2021, it become the first municipality in its region to adopt legislation against the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Hempstead also adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the IHRA definition includes denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.

In April, Clavin and other local leaders denounced anti-Israel and antisemitic graffiti that was spray painted on an elementary school and over posters of the hostages taken from Israel by Hamas terrorists during their deadly rampage on Oct. 7. One of the American hostages still held in captivity in the Gaza Strip, Omer Neutra, is from Plainview in Long Island.

Sebastian Patino Caceres, 23, was arrested in connection to the incident and charged with seven counts of criminal mischief, possession of graffiti instruments, and seven counts of making graffiti.

“The Town of Hempstead has a zero-tolerance policy against hate and intolerance of all kinds,” Clavin said on Thursday. “We are quick to publicly denounce any and all acts of intolerance within our township, however there is a growing trend of antisemitism ramping up through the nation. It is our responsibility to be proactive against this disturbing trend and the creation of an Antisemitism Task Force is the first step towards making this defense a reality.”

“As the holy days of the Jewish faith approach, I am proud that the Town of Hempstead is a home where residents from all walks of life can practice religion freely and without concern,” he added. “I remain committed to combating hatred and intolerance in all forms, and I thank the spiritual leaders and global activists who have joined me today for this important announcement.”