Israel understands that failing to destroy the terrorist group Hamas would be disastrous
Are anti-Israel protests influencing foreign policy?
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wa., discusses President Biden withholding weapons to Israel on 'Fox News Sunday.'
Some young children believe puppets control their own actions. Unfortunately, too many adults have this misguided view of Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist terrorists, failing to realize that Iran is their puppet master, pulling their strings as they spread death and destruction.
The Iranian regime celebrated the unprovoked Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that began the war that continues today. Invading Israel from the Gaza Strip, terrorists murdered about 1,200 people and committed rape and other atrocities. They took about 250 hostages to Gaza, where about 130 (including some now dead) remain, including five U.S. citizens.
Iran has funneled billions of dollars and massive amounts of weapons and munitions to Hamas and other terrorists for decades, seeking to achieve its genocidal goal of killing as many Jews as possible and wiping Israel off the map.
President Biden and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Getty Images)
As a result, stopping the Israel-Hamas war and preventing a full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah will require action by Iran to rein in its terrorist puppets. But Iran won’t do this unless it will suffer dramatic consequences for refusing.
Iran is also a military threat to America’s important Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. If it develops nuclear weapons, Iran would endanger the world.
The fanatical Iranian regime is committed to the destruction of the U.S. as well as Israel. It oppresses its own citizens, imprisoning and frequently killing those who oppose it. Women can be beaten and imprisoned simply for refusing to fully cover their hair and bodies.
Iran has the wealth to serve as an ATM for terrorists because it sells oil and natural gas to other nations, with 90% of its oil exports going to China. Iran has reported earning $35.8 billion from oil exports in the 12 months ending in March, despite U.S. economic sanctions.
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The U.S. should weaken Iran’s ability to fund terrorists by dramatically increasing our own oil and natural gas production, as former President Trump advocates, to reduce the market for Iranian fossil fuels. Unfortunately, President Biden and some state governments are helping Iran by barring oil and gas drilling in growing areas of the U.S.
America should also pressure Iran by making it clear that Israel and our Arab allies have our full support. This would deter attacks by Iran and its terrorist puppets. The U.S, Britain, France and some of our Arab allies worked together to help Israel shoot down about 300 drones and missiles that Iran launched against Israel in April in an unprecedented attack. That is the way things should work to keep our Middle East allies safe and secure.
But this positive step was negated by Biden’s appalling decision last week to delay delivery of 3,500 heavy bombs, along with artillery shells, to Israel. Biden said this could save civilian lives by getting Israel to refrain from a full-scale attack in Rafah, Hamas’ last Gaza stronghold.
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Israel is nevertheless planning to step up its attacks on Hamas in Gaza, understanding that failing to destroy the terrorist group would be disastrous. Hamas could regain control of Gaza once Israel withdraws and fulfill its oft-repeated promise to mount new Oct. 7-style massacres.
Doing more than any nation to prevent civilian casualties during a war, Israel has told many Rafah residents to evacuate to safer areas. About 450,000 have done so. But Hamas terrorists firing rockets into Israel hide in and under schools, mosques, hospitals and apartment buildings to maximize Palestinian casualties in order to make Israel look bad around the world.
Iran shares the goal of increasing suffering and deaths of Gazans. This immoral and bloodthirsty propaganda strategy is succeeding, because anti-Israel protests on U.S. college campuses and in cities around the world – as well as condemnations by the United Nations – overwhelmingly target Israel instead of Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah. Many protesters foolishly laud Hamas and its partners in terrorism, and spew Jew-hating bile.
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Biden’s suspension of some munitions deliveries to Israel encourages Iran and Hamas to keep the war against Israel going, and encourages Hezbollah to join in striking Israel. Hamas responded to Biden’s announcement by firing rockets from Rafah into southern Israel, while Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, with the goal of killing as many Israelis as possible.
As a strong supporter of Israel, I was among seven U.S. individuals and five companies sanctioned by Iran on May 2. I consider it an honor. I’m sure I also earned Iran’s disfavor by serving as President Trump’s Middle East special envoy and being one of a group of people who helped create, under his leadership, the historic Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Iran opposes the creation of ties between Israel and Arab nations. One reason why Iran backed the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel was to derail progress in establishing Israeli relations with more Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia.
Replacing Iranian fossil fuel exports with American oil and natural gas, ending Biden’s partial arms embargo against Israel, and allowing Israel to destroy Hamas are the best ways to reduce Islamist terrorism worldwide and weaken the Iranian regime.
Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel is responsible for suffering by Gazans. The quickest way to stop the nightmare is to pressure the Iranian puppet master to cause Hamas to free all Israeli hostages and cede power over a demilitarized Gaza (with security oversight by Israel) to Palestinians willing to acknowledge that the only way forward is to live in peace with the Jewish state of Israel, even if a peace agreement between the two sides is now further away than ever. This should be U.S. policy.
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Jason D. Greenblatt served as White House Middle East special envoy during the Trump administration. He is the author of "In the Path of Abraham: How Donald Trump Made Peace in the Middle East — and How to Stop Joe Biden from Unmaking It." Follow him on X: @GreenblattJD and Instagram @Jason.Greenblatt.
