In an unprecedented move in American-Israeli politics, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly refused to accommodate an American president's request that Israel pull back from the fight.  Netanyahu's willingness to continue the fight reveals a few things: first, Israel may finally have figured out that it needs a victory, not stalemates.  Second, Biden is too weak to matter.  And third, Biden's allegiance is to the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel side of his party, so his demands are suspect and even dangerous.

The current war between Israel and the Arabs* occurred because Hamas, the genocidal terrorist organization that Gazans elected, began indiscriminately lobbing thousands of missiles at Israel's population centers.  Perhaps "indiscriminately" is the wrong word: although Hamas lacks the ability to hit specific geographic targets with accuracy, it wasn't worried about accuracy.  Instead, every Israeli citizen was a target, so its random rockets were doing the job.  It's only Israel's Iron Dome defense system that has spared Israel thousands of causalities.

Israel has responded by ferociously attacking Hamas.  Unlike Hamas, Israel does believe in precisely hitting its targets.  It traps Hamas fighters, and only Hamas fighters, in tunnels before destroying those tunnels.

When it wants to take down a building that Hamas is using for military purposes, its missiles strike only that building — and, moreover, they do it only after Israel has repeatedly warned people in or near the building to evacuate.  When it came to the building that the AP and Al Jazeera knowingly shared with Hamas, the strike is so perfect that it looks like a controlled demolition:

An Israeli missile strike destroyed a tower block in Gaza housing the offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Israel said the building also housed assets belonging to Hamas' military intelligence https://t.co/8DUucPqJtw pic.twitter.com/jn0PuB6jBx

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 15, 2021

Normally, around this time, world leaders start demanding that Israel stand down without defeating her enemy.  It's "unfair," they say, for Israel to use her military prowess to destroy the genocidal enemy on her border.  Eventually, American presidents add their voice to the demand, at which time Israel gracefully and stupidly accedes to the world's desire that she snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  For the past four decades, it's the American request for Israel to stop that does the trick — and that's because it carries with it the American promise to have Israel's back when the fighting stops.

(Notably, this was not an issue when Trump was president.  Hamas and Lebanon's Hezb'allah left Israel alone because they knew that America would have her back, not just in other contexts, but in any direct strikes against Israel.)

Things are different now that Biden is in office.  Israel knows three important things about Biden: (1) he's a puppet for the hardest left-wing elements in the Democrat party, as exemplified by AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, all of whom share Hamas's genocidal opposition to Israel; (2) Biden wants an alliance with Iran, which funds Hamas and is willing to sacrifice Israel; and (3) Biden is weak.

Knowing these three things leads inevitably to a conclusion: for Israel, there is no graceful retreat because America will not provide a cushioned landing.  For Israel, this war, unlike any other since the 1947–48 War of Independence, is existential.  It must destroy Hamas or, in a world that's become increasingly anti-Semitic, it will be destroyed.  That's a "never again."

All of this makes relatively unsurprising the fact that, when Biden told Israel to stop attacking Hamas, Netanyahu said no:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday brushed off President Biden's call for a "significant de-escalation" of the conflict in Gaza, saying he is "determined to continue" the operation against the terrorist organization Hamas — just as Biden is facing pressure from the progressive arm of his own party on the issue.

Biden spoke to Netanyahu early Wednesday, and the White House said the two "had a detailed discussion of the state of events in Gaza, Israel's progress in degrading the capabilities of Hamas and other terrorist elements, and ongoing diplomatic efforts by regional governments and the United States."

"The President conveyed to the Prime Minister that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire," the White House said in a statement.

But, after a visit to military headquarters hours later, Netanyahu said he "greatly appreciates the support of the American president," but said Israel will push ahead "to return the calm and security to you, citizens of Israel."

He added that he is "determined to continue this operation until its aim is met."

Weak, leftist presidents (Carter, Obama, and now Biden) always make the world a more dangerous place.  Netanyahu is not going to let his country go down with that ship.  In a way, therefore, Biden is a blessing because Israel, for once, might fight a war to win it.

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*You will no longer find the word "Palestinians" in anything I wrote because that gives the Arabs in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank a historic legitimacy that has no basis in truth.  There has never been an independent, Arab- or Muslim-controlled "Palestine" on that land.

Image: Biden, while Vice President, meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu.  YouTube screen grab.

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