By Ray Cardello for November 17, 2023, Season 23 / Post 13

John F. Kennedy had a famous saying, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who, in a time of crisis, remain neutral.” I have never been a fan of people who choose to sit on the fence, and the inability to pick a side is a sign of weakness and poor leadership. Maybe the only thing worse is playing both sides, which is the modus operandi of Joe Biden and his Administration.

Unless you have motivations beyond moral clarity, deciding which side to support in the Israeli and Hamas conflict should not require much thought. One side has been our biggest ally in the Middle East, if not the world, for decades, and the other is a terrorist gang supported by one of our biggest adversaries, Iran. One is a civilized democracy with solid human rights beliefs, and the other has proven they do not believe in human rights, nor do they have any respect for human life, period. Some say the contrast blurs when you introduce the connection between the Palestinian people and Hamas. The Palestinians made their choice nearly a decade ago when they put Hamas in power in the last election held in Gaza. We cannot put the Palestinian people in the same category as Hamas, but their failure to remove them from power makes differentiation difficult.

Biden and Blinken have not shown unconditional support for Israel and have put severe pressure on Netanyahu and Israeli forces to agree to a cease-fire. They claim it would be to give the hostages an opportunity to leave Gaza. The problem is we do not even know where the hostages are or if they are still alive. Calling for a break in the battle to get them safely out is premature at best. A cease-fire will only benefit Hamas, which will use the break in hostilities as an opportunity to rearm or kill Israeli troops.

When Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, Biden reacted quickly to direct our Naval resources to the Middle East. It appeared to be a proactive response to the attack and our support of Israel. It also gave us confidence that we were supporting our troops in the region. But after nearly 60 attacks on our military personnel, Biden and his team have sat on their hands and done virtually nothing. The Administration’s actions towards Iran, whom everyone recognizes as supporting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have also indicated mixed signals. Instead of tightening the restrictions on Iran to make it more difficult for them to support the terrorist groups, they relaxed sanctions, freeing another $10 Billion of frozen assets that Iran can use against Israel and America.

The only logical explanation for Biden’s actions is he is compromised by Iran or he has a personal monetary gain to be made by going soft on Iran. That is not the action we need from our Commander in Chief, but can we expect any better from President Biden? I think not.