One of the things that I find most distressing is the House Republicans reluctance to support Ukraine in its battle against Russia. As I discuss below, support for Ukraine is critical, a top priority! Russia is the largest and most effective terrorist organization in the world. They have deliberately murdered over 10,000 people with total casualties of more than 29,000. These people have been killed and injured by deliberate Russian drone and missile attacks on apartment buildings, marketplaces, schools, and hospitals. And now they have blown up a children’s hospital (July 8/9, 2024).
The Greatest Threat to National Security
If Americans and Republicans want to stop terrorism and defeat or at least contain the greatest threat in the world to our national security, we must send more ammunition and weapons to Ukraine without any further delay and no conditions. Support for Israel is of almost no importance in comparison to the needs of the Ukrainian people.
Hamas murdered and raped about 1,200 people and kidnapped hundreds more. That pales in comparison to what Russia has done in its illegal land immoral military attack on Ukraine and the deliberate murder of civilians. Congress and the President must make aid and assistance to Ukraine a higher and immediate priority, much, much higher than any aid to Israel.
Hamas and its supporters are evil – and stupid. I do not think, I certainly hope, that the vast majority of Gazans do not support Hamas. The members of Hamas are just murders and rapists. Hamas is not a threat to the security of the United States or the existence of Israel!!!
Time for a New Strategy
Seventy-five years of war and terrorism have gotten the Palestinians nothing. They needed long ago and need now to adopt the tactics of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Those tactics would’ve been far more successful in shaming Israel into acting to stop the conflict, in gaining the support of the nations of the world for a two-state solution, and condemnation of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In addition, the Palestinians and their supporters should have eliminated Hamas, again, long ago. Hamas’s actions have resulted in the deaths of far more Palestinians than Israelis and in the leveling of Gaza.
I wonder whether the leaders of Hamas are even Palestinians or are they just Iranians in disguise. Iran’s Ayatollah seems to have an unreasoning hatred of Israel and its support of criminal gangs and terrorists like Hamas and Hezbollah cause the deaths of 1,000s and, AGAIN, accomplish nothing. They have created a situation where Israel may not be able to act in support of a two-state solution because Hamas will claim that as one of their successes. The new leaders that Israel requires will need to rise above that.
What About Israel?
Because of Israel’s seeming total destruction of the buildings and infrastructure of Gaza, the killing of tens of thousands of Gazan civilians through the indiscriminate use of bombs and artillery rather than responsibly targeted attacks on identified Hamas members, we should only be supplying Israel with spare parts for their equipment and, perhaps, small arms ammunition – no 500+ bombs and no howitzer ammunition. All the howitzer ammunition that we have to spare should be going to Ukraine.
Israel is the occupying power in Gaza and has the sole legal responsibility under international law for providing food, water, shelter, medicine and other necessities. They have not and are not doing this. Israel should have drafted sufficient Israelis to conduct more rapid inspections of trucks and opened more sites on the border for moving supplies into Gaza. I don’t think that Israel will be found guilty of genocide, however, they are clearly guilty of war crimes including not taking care of the Gazans who have been displaced from their homes.
DEFENDING UKRAINE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SUPPORTING ISRAEL
I do not mind a U. S. destroyer shooting down missiles fired at Israel. I am disgusted that we have never done that for Ukraine. We have been far too pusillanimous, too timid and too slow, and done too little to help Ukraine. They need munitions more than Israel, and two years is far too long for us to build more munition factories. We must supply Ukraine with the anti-air weapons that it needs including rapid provision of all necessary supplies and munitions.
We are still not producing enough ammunition for the howitzers or the infantry. President Biden should have used his executive powers to get the new plants built and running within less than a year. If we were at war, we would’ve done that already. We were once the arsenal of democracy. We need to be again! We must act militarily to stop Russian attacks on civilians including attacking missile and drone launch sites in Russia, end any current Russian blockades and prevent any new ones. We (NATO) need to provide air cover even if that means fighting in Russia to gain air superiority. Providing less than a battalion of M-1 tanks is far too few, and they still don’t have them.
If we must, to get these things done, we and our allies need to kick Hungary and Turkey out of NATO. Nothing, not even Republican cowards and misers, must stop our active support for Ukraine and the protection of its civilians.
We stepped in to save Kuwait form Iran. We cannot let nuclear blackmail stop us now. If we do, there will be no limit to what Russia, today’s Nazi Germany, will do. President Biden must act NOW!!!!
Your critique of our Ukraine and Israel policy is powerful and spot on. This is Biden’s great failure in an otherwise successful Presidency.
Thanks! His response was too weak and slow. I am especially bothered that we still aren’t making enough munitions for us and them, and shipping them!