(March 19, 2024, Washington, DC) – Last week, in an ill-advised, ill-informed speech, Senator Charles Schumer stood on the floor of the United States Senate and demanded that the democratically elected government of the state of Israel be replaced.
This could not possibly be more inappropriate. Israel is a fellow democracy — not a banana republic — and the United States has no business interfering in the electoral process of the sovereign state of Israel. Whether or not one is a fan of Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is not up to a US politician to dictate who should be the leader of a fellow democracy, particularly one in the midst of fighting an existential war.
Israel knows the simple fact that if Hamas is not defeated now, the horrors of October 7th will be repeated. We all know that war is not pretty. It is difficult for Americans, such as the Majority Leader, who have been cushioned by the good fortune of the United States after World War II, and with our two "liquid assets," the Atlantic Ocean to our east and the Pacific to our west — not to mention our northern and southern neighbors, Canada and Mexico — to be able to relate to a part of the world in which one must fight simply in order to survive.
As someone who has worked with the office of Senator Schumer for several decades now, it is beyond disappointing that the Majority Leader could state in a single breath, that "There are four main obstacles to peace in the Middle East, listing, (in his own words), "Hamas, and the Palestinians who support and tolerate their evil ways; Radical right wing Israelis in government and society; President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu."
This frontal assault on the democratically elected Prime Minister of Israel in the same breath as the 88-year-old, corrupt, Mahmoud Abbas (who is in the 19th year of his 4-year term), and the Iranian sponsored, terror group Hamas, is nothing short of morally reprehensible. The assault on any opposition political groups, against women, and against individuals of different sexual orientations by President Abbas, let alone Hamas, has been documented time and time again by organizations such as Amnesty International.
According to a November 14 poll by the Arab World for Research and Development, 83.1 percent of Palestinians supported the Oct. 7 massacre. What does this tell us about the day after a Palestinian state is declared? What are the reasons to believe that this will create long-term stability for the United States and her allies in the region? How will this affect Jordan, which is approximately 70 per cent Palestinian, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
We should note that in 2005, before the Gaza withdrawal, members of the State Department had been convinced that the Palestinian Authority would be a more moderate alternative to Hamas. Of course, we all remember recent history. In 2006, elections were held, and, despite all the West's predictions, Hamas easily won. By 2007, there was a violent coup d'état, and before long Hamas was executing members of Fatah and throwing them off of rooftops.
It is essential to remember that on October 6th, there was a ceasefire with Gaza. It is Hamas, a terrorist proxy of Iran, who violated that ceasefire and entered Israel by land, sea and air; kidnapping 253 Israelis and foreign nationals; murdering 1200 people in cold blood; raping and mutilating women in the dastardliest way possible; and butchering and burning babies in front of their parents.
Just as America has an interest in protecting the Red Sea shipping lanes from the Iranian terror proxy, the Houthis, it is incumbent upon the Israeli government and Israeli Defense Forces to protect the citizens of the state of Israel from the Iranian terror proxies of Hamas and Hezbollah.
The quick and simple refrain of "two states living side by side in peace and security" is not so easy to achieve. Certainly not, when young Palestinians since 1993 have been indoctrinated with a steady stream of antisemitism, propaganda to go back to the pre-1967 borders and replace Israel with "Palestine from the river to the sea", a theological glorification of martyrdom, and the incentivizing of terrorism through the notorious "pay for slay" program.
It would take at least another generation to be able to re-educate this population away from these hate-infested ideas.
According to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, every single nation has the moral obligation to protect its own citizens. Iran has long employed the strategy of using terror proxies, rather than having the courage to fight its own battles on its own soil.
By fighting this war, the Israelis, as well as the courageous young men and women of the Israel Defense Forces, are not only protecting the people of the state of Israel, but the Sunni Arab states who fear Iran, as well as the United States and the West from the creeping grip of Iran. It is time to display some gratitude, respect and appreciation for the state of Israel for doing now, what eventually the rest of the world will have no other choice but to do: to fight, ourselves, against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its rapidly multiplying terrorist proxies.
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