With Help From Major Itamar Ben David
By Justine Hemmestad
On May 11 the BBC reported that, “President Joe Biden upended part of one of the world’s most significant strategic relationships,” resulting in a “crack in US-Israel alliance for first time in decades.” That same week, the crack prompted Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa to join Senator Ted Bud of North Carolina in writing a letter to President Biden, to demand answers about why arms are being withheld from Israel. “We are shocked that your administration has reportedly decided to withhold critical ammunition to Israel. You promised your commitment to Israel was ironclad,” they wrote. “Pausing much-needed military support to our closest Middle Eastern ally signals otherwise.” The senators reminded President Biden that he “previously said that providing arms to Israel was imperative to Israel’s efforts to secure the release of the hostages.” They said, “We must give Israel the arms it needs to fight the Hamas terrorists that continue to hold Americans hostage. We call on your administration to immediately restart the weapons shipments to Israel today as it continues to fight Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iran-backed threats.” In addition to asking why Congress was not notified about the withholding of arms, the Senators also asked President Biden if he planned to withhold further assistance from Israel. After the letter, the Biden administration publicly announced that they held up the weapons shipment to Israel. My friend, Major Itamar Ben David, tells me how the Biden Administration’s withholding of arms shipments to Israel is in sync with the policy of the Obama and Biden administrations of not putting any effort into America’s friendship with established allies like Israel. Instead, Ben David says, “They try to incorporate Iran, with ‘regional integration’” (which is the process by which two or more countries agree to co-operate and work closely together to achieve peace, stability, and wealth). Ben David re-words this same idea a little differently when he says that these administrations thought they could “sweet-talk Iran into being more moderate.” Withholding the arms shipment is signaling to Iran that America is restraining Israel from carrying out a full-scale war against Lebanon and leading a slow-walk Gaza, which is what Iran wants. Additionally, the Biden administration wants out of the Middle East in order to focus on other fronts and doesn’t want its allies to “drag” America back. Ben David says that the Biden administration thinks it can do this by creating “a balance of power” in the Middle East. Ben David’s honesty shines through when he says, “I have no idea who’s the idiot in the State Department that thought it was a good idea [to integrate Iran into the region], I have no clue, it’s just so idiotic and so detached from reality that I can’t even start.” (I feel like it's this honesty that democracies were founded in). In this freedom, to speak against the government, America and Israel may find one of their deepest connections. He believes the arms shipments are delayed, “so that Israel won’t be able to conduct a full scale war with Lebanon” (in addition to signaling America’s support to Iran). Ben David helps me trace the origin of Middle East wars when he explains that President Bush’s “second invasion of Iraq in 2003 changed the Middle East forever,” because it changed the balance of power between Sunnis and Shiites. The Bush administration didn’t fully understand the repercussions of this change in power and what it would mean for the region, or that it would result in the incubation of Isis and the creation of a land bridge of terror that stretched from Tehran to the Mediterranean Sea. However, Ben David also rightly reminds me that even in the face of threats from Islamic Jihadists like Hezbullah, Hamas, Houthies, and other Iran backed militias and other terrorists, most Westerners don’t understand that “unless you always show them you are 10-100 times stronger plus actually willing to strike - they won't leave you alone.” In a topsy-turvy observation, Senator Ernst says, “In President Joe Biden’s world, Iran gets sanctions relief, and Israel gets its weapons revoked. “The Middle East is on fire because of Biden’s feeble ‘leadership’ and his unwillingness to stand by our greatest ally in the region at a time of critical need.” Senator Ernst sounds like she’s in personal agreement with Major Ben David when she says, “This president has repeatedly demonstrated that he prefers to appease our enemies rather than help our allies.” Ernst also asserts that, “any weakness in U.S. resolve now only incentivizes Iran-backed Hamas to continue its massacre, and certainly to walk away from any ceasefire negotiations. Biden’s decision to withhold crucial ammunition is not just a betrayal of Israel but to my fellow Americans being held hostage by Iran-backed terrorists.” In a video that Prime Minister Netanyahu made in English last month, he leveled one of his harshest public criticisms of the Biden administration since the war in Gaza began while publicly reacting to Biden’s withholding of arms. As a result of that video, Axios reports that President Biden’s advisers “told Israeli minister Ron Dermer and national security advisor Tzachi Hanegbi that Netanyahu’s video harmed the efforts to release the bombs shipments.” The officials told Dermer and Hanegbi that the shipment would not be released now because “the President was not taking orders from Netanyahu.” Then on July 11, the shipment was partially released to Israel - but does America know the value of its allies? And does America fully understand the need to project power in order not to be attacked? Regarding the latter, Ben David asserts, “Only a credible threat keeps wars away.”
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