OPINION:
Just when you thought the world’s greatest circus could not get any more ridiculous, in walks a bearded lady dressed as a rabbi.
President Biden was campaigning this week in Minneapolis when he got interrupted by a heckler who identified herself as “Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg” and who, confusingly, wore a dress but had a beard. Or, to be more precise, a scruffy goatee.
“Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people — as a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire right now,” the protester shouted, referring to the Israeli ground offensive into Gaza to rescue more than 200 hostages held by Hamas terrorists.
As the audience jeered and shouted down the protester, Mr. Biden adroitly reversed his administration’s policy in order to appease the bearded lady rabbi.
After weeks of claiming to support Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign country, Mr. Biden publicly rejected Israel’s right to defend itself from a terrorist attack and rescue hostages.
“I think we need a pause,” he said. “A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.”
After the bearded lady rabbi was hauled out by security, Mr. Biden claimed he was for a cease-fire even before the bearded lady rabbi walked in.
“I’m the guy that convinced Bibi to call for a cease-fire to let the prisoners out,” he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr. Biden’s sudden new policy is in sharp contrast to the one his administration has claimed to support for weeks.
“Any cease-fire would give Hamas the ability to rest, to refit, and to get ready to continue launching terrorist attacks against Israel,” a State Department spokesman said earlier.
The Biden administration’s policy against terrorism could not be more confusing if it walked around wearing a beard and a dress and claimed to be a pro-Hamas rabbi. Perhaps this is the natural result of a president who claims to oppose terrorism while handing billions of dollars in cash and military equipment to the world’s most famous actual terrorists.
Well, the whole situation over there in the Middle East is confusing and always has been, pro-Hamas Democrats say. The terrorist invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 did not happen in a vacuum. There was a long history that led up to it.
Fair enough.
Israel’s decision to build a wall around Gaza also did not happen in a vacuum. That decision came after decades of bombings and indiscriminate murders of innocent civilians by Hamas terrorists operating in Gaza.
We could go on forever like this. The history is old over there.
And certainly, there is endless debate to be had over the best strategies for rescuing the hostages held in Gaza and eliminating every last terrorist threatening the borders of Israel.
But if Israel is a sovereign nation that has a right to exist and govern itself, those debates are a matter of domestic policy. That is the meaning of sovereignty.
As outside observers, the United States has two options: support Israel or not. If we have learned nothing else from the past two decades fighting the “global war on terror,” it’s that we have no business running other countries from abroad.
Still, the outlines of right and wrong are obvious here.
Hamas terrorists, hellbent on killing Jews and eliminating Israel, invade the country’s sovereign borders to target and slaughter innocent civilians.
Israel builds a wall to keep them out. Terrorists break through the wall and target more innocent Israeli civilians to kill.
Israel vows to eliminate Hamas using targeted missile strikes and warns civilians in Gaza to leave those targeted areas. Hamas responds by forcing civilians into the areas of Gaza targeted by Israeli missiles.
To be sure, it is all horrifying. But there is no question who is right and who is wrong — who is good and who is evil.
That should be clear, even to a bearded lady who claims to be a rabbi heckling on behalf of Hamas.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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