OPINION:
The U.S. State Department lists Hamas as a designated foreign terrorist organization and has since 1997.
Now if President Biden would get on board and stop making confusing remarks that go like this: “Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all of the Palestinian people …”
What? Hamas is extreme.
There are no subsections of Hamas that are not.
To say “Hamas” and then to specify “extreme elements of Hamas” in the same breath is to downplay the terrorist nature of Hamas as a whole. It’s like drawing a distinction between child molesters and extreme child molesters. They’re all evil.
Biden made the remark while responding to a question on his opinion of Israel’s retaliation against the terror strike from Hamas and whether a Jewish occupation of Gaza could result.
“Would you support Israeli occupation of Gaza at this point?” Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” asked.
“I think it would be a big mistake,” Biden said, The Daily Caller noted. “Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all of the Palestinian people and I think it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again. But to go in and taking out the extremists — the Hezbollah is up north, but Hamas down south, is a necessary requirement.”
Note to Pelley and Biden: It’s not an occupation if you’re rightfully retaliating against an enemy who’s aggressed into your territory and dragged back civilians and soldiers and women and children to hold as hostages in their territory. That’s called a rescue mission. That’s called a moral military operation.
And note to Biden in particular: Hezbollah, like Hamas, has been designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997. It’s truthful, and quite OK, to call members of Hezbollah terrorists, rather than extremists. Once again, the group itself — all of the group — the group as a whole — is a terror group made up of terrorists; no need to waffle or differentiate between the regular Hezbollah guys and the more extremist Hezbollah radicals. They’re all terrorists.
Why does Biden have such a hard time with calling a spade a spade — a terrorist, a terrorist?
On top of that, he’s wrong about the level of support of Palestinians for terrorists.
“Overall,” The Washington Institute reported this month, “57% of Gazans express at least a somewhat positive opinion of Hamas — along with similar percentages of Palestinians in the West Bank (52%) and East Jerusalem (64%) — though Gazans who express this opinion of Hamas are fewer than the number of Gazans who have a positive view of Fatah (64%).”
Fatah was once upon a time considered a terrorist group — a terrorist member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization — and was actually the first “exile group” to attack Israel. But they’ve supposedly changed their terrorist way — because Hamas rose in power and stole their PLO thunder — and Fatah has instead gone the political route, gaining international regard as a pragmatic player for a two-state solution. That’s not to say Fatah’s pro-Israel — or even “Let Israel Live.”
But Biden’s failure to see the terrorist field go even deeper.
“[I]t is organizations like Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Lion’s Den that receive the most widespread popular support in Gaza,” The Washington Institute went on. “About three-quarters of Gazans express support for both groups. … Moreover, when it comes to Iran … about half of Gazans view Tehran as either a ‘friend of the country’ (29%) or security partner (28%).”
More terror, more terror groups, more terrorists.
“The PIJ is a Sunni Islamist militant group seeking to establish an Islamist Palestinian state that is committed to the destruction of Israel,” DNI.gov wrote.
And this, from Jewish News Syndicate in March: “The Lions Den terrorist group, operating in Nablus and surrounding villages, has rehabilitated itself in recent months, as new members have joined its ranks. It continues its terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians and poses a security challenge to both the Palestinian Authority and Israel.”
Everywhere Israel looks, terror rears its head — terror groups stand ready to attack — terrorists are poised to murder and maim and abduct and torture.
Yet Biden suggests they’re extremists; and his unstated take-away is: Not all are.
Biden suggests extreme elements go wickedly wayward once in a while, but all in all, they don’t represent the good Palestinian people who want simply to have peace, peace, peace with Israel.
This is dangerous rhetoric because a) it tells Israel that America is a friend with conditions — and that those conditions are subject to the political winds, and b) it tells the terrorists that this White House doesn’t really have a strong game plan when it comes to countering terrorism and defending allies like Israel.
Toss in a few million dollars for the freeing of American hostages; toss out a few million dollars worth of abandoned military equipment from a botched withdrawal of Afghanistan; and combined with Biden’s wishy-washy narrative of extremes versus not-extremes followed by his subtle-not-so-subtle sidestep of calling a terrorist a terrorist, what you’ve got is dangerous: a White House that to this day, post-Hamas terror attack on Israel, post-Hamas terrorist seizure of American citizens, post-Hamas-terrorism group murder of women, civilian men and babies — a White House that doesn’t understand the nature of the enemy.
If Biden, his Democrats in leadership and his Cabinet officials and executive officers can’t discern terrorism, and call out terrorists for the evil they advance, then the chance for peace only diminishes. Evil thrives in the face of weakness. So, too, terrorists.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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