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Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
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Opinion

US should support Israel at home and abroad

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Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
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The fighting between Israel and Hamas threatens to escalate quickly into a full-blown regional war unless the conflict can be proactively resolved. President Joe Biden is now scheduled to make an emergency visit to Israel in light of that risk, aiming to support Israel and deter the conflict from spiraling into a larger war.

Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten encourages the United States to adopt a hardline, pro-Israel position and outlines what exactly that position looks like in terms of both foreign and domestic U.S. policy.

So, what does America’s national interest demand with respect to the war forced on Israel and taken to us?

I propose three things. First, defend Americans and secure the homeland. That starts with exerting maximum pressure on Iran and its proxies, including Qatar, where Hamas leadership lives in luxury, to ensure that every American hostage is returned immediately.

It also means sealing our borders. If Israel, a country that is hypervigilant by necessity, with legitimate walls, bolstered by cutting-edge technology, and with a highly reputed intelligence apparatus — in short, a country that actually cares about and defends its sovereignty — can suffer such a cataclysmic attack, imagine what could happen in America, where our borders have been wide open for years.

Defending Americans and securing the homeland also means ensuring that not a single person with Islamic supremacist leanings can enter the homeland by legal means, and it means hardening our military and diplomatic facilities globally, which could come under threat.

Even if we did all that, there’s still the daunting problem of dealing with the Islamic supremacists already here.

When the Iran backed jihadist group Hamas attacked Israel, it’s savage Nazis butchering Jews in numbers equivalent to 10s of 1000s of Americans, raping them and taking them hostage. They declared war on the Jewish state, and sparked a potential massive multi front conflict. counterintuitively, I believe, absent a dramatic, decisive and crippling response by murdering and taking Americans hostage as Iran and its proxies have been doing since the very start of the mullahs theocratic takeover. Hamas also took this fight to us that our greatest ally most pivotal military intelligence and economic partner, and first line of defense in a bellicose and often barbarous region, marked by anti American Animus is under existential threat, and that the threat has come for our people compels an American response. By the same token, many are rightly skeptical about involving ourselves in any foreign conflict, let alone one in the Middle East. We’re over the last quarter century, Americans have sacrificed so much only to see our power erode, and threats persist. We’re a divided country thinly stretched and war weary. So what is America’s national interest demand with respect to the war forced on Israel and taken to us, I propose three things. First, defend Americans and secure the homeland. That starts with exerting maximum pressure on Iran and its proxies, including Qatar, where Hamas has leadership lives in luxury to ensure that every American hostage is returned immediately. It also means sealing our borders. If Israel a country that is hyper vigilant by necessity, with legitimate walls, bolstered by cutting edge technology, and with a highly reputed intelligence apparatus. In short, a country that actually cares about and defends its sovereignty can suffer such a cataclysmic attack. Imagine what could happen in America where our borders have been wide open for years. Defending Americans and securing the homeland also means ensuring that not a single person with Islamic supremacist leanings can enter the homeland by legal means, and it means hardening our military and diplomatic facilities globally, which could come under threat. Even if we did all that there’s still the daunting problem of dealing with the Islamic supremacist already here. Setting aside the very thorny civil liberty issues involved. Even if we had a counterterrorism apparatus that was laser focused on targeting jihadist rather than conservatives as equivalent to jihadist the 1000s of special interest aliens. Those from countries with significant Islamic supremacist populations have been caught trying to cross just the southern border over the last two years. While there have been one and a half million got aways during the Biden administration, is an indicator of how likely compromised we are. This is on top of two decades of mass emigration from Islamic countries, yielding 2.3 million people and roughly 150,000 student visas per year handed out to individuals from those same countries. Without any evidence the population was sufficiently vetted. If a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of that cohort wishes to inflict harm on America, we’re in major trouble. And we know that there have been hundreds of Jihadist prosecutions across the country in recent years. Second, America must do no harm. By that, I mean, we must seize all aid and comfort of any kind to Iran. Its proxies, those regimes and forums, including international ones that aid abet and enable them. We should terminate any and all government support for American institutions that have shown themselves to be sympathetic to Hamas, and prevent any funds from flowing to institutions who receive large s from jihadist friendly regimes, generally, entities or individuals associated with those regimes. I’m thinking primarily here of American schools and think tanks. But the principle should extend far beyond that, including even into the business world, defunding and disengaging from terrorist supporting institutions. Institutions who stand with those who have murdered and taken hostage Americans should be the bare minimum we’d expect from our leaders. Third, the US should let Israel defend itself. In defending its own interest, it will not only stabilize the region, but deter and potentially destroy America’s adversaries, further adapting to our national interests. Beyond that, the US should provide Israel with intelligence sell it the weapons it needs and support it in world forums, as support quickly erodes into its status quo posture of condemning the Jewish state and holding it to a standard like no other nation. Israel’s enemies the enemies of Judeo Christian Western civilization, threatened a multi front of war spanning from Hamas in Gaza, to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and other Iranian proxies from Syria and Yemen to Iraq and Iran itself, posing an existential threat to the New Jersey sized nation. The strongest form of aid we can provide Israel faced with this problem set is giving it the freedom it needs to crush whatever enemies it deems necessary to achieve real peace. The foregoing policy flies in the face of a Biden administration that I have argued contributed directly to the attack on Israel and American citizens, given it was based entirely on promoting Iran to the strong course in the region while putting the screws to Israel, to the Biden administration’s first instinct. Warford State Department multiple times to call for Israel to stand down via ceasefire, thereby rewarding the jihadist attackers, then it continues to defend the $6 billion, the administration rewarded the MLOK cracy. For its hostage taking, and most importantly of all, that it twists itself in knots to dealing with the attack from Iran, while claiming it firmly has Israel’s back are all indicators to me. The Biden administration plans a suffocating bear hug for Israel over the plan I’ve laid out. Nevertheless, Americans should demand these policies of the administration and pressure the representatives to hold its feet to the fire in defense of our national interest.

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