WSJ: Israel obeying Biden’s demands endangers IDF soldiers

‘Israel has no good choices here, but America does. The President can focus on supporting a U.S. ally in vanquishing a genocidal enemy.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Although the Biden Administration shares Israel’s goal of eliminating Hamas, a Wall Street Journal editorial argues its demands on how Israel is conducting the war put IDF soldiers in harm’s way.

Biden, who is under intense pressure from the far left of the Democratic Party for a ceasefire, tries to compromise by urging Israel to stop “indiscriminate bombing,” which isn’t even occurring, as the editorial points out.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned Israel that what “we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south.”

However, it hasn’t been, but the way the ground troops have been deployed without first clearing the area may be directly causing the steep increase in IDF casualties recently.

The WSJ editorial points out that IDF infantry officers laid the blame for increasing numbers of fallen soldiers in Gaza by asking, “How can it be that an area isn’t cleared from the air before allowing our soldiers to enter?”

The question posed was answered by soldiers, “Our firepower is being restrained because our leaders may have started prioritizing the enemy’s lives over the lives of our soldiers.”

The editorial criticized the Biden Administration for laying the blame for the deaths of Gazan civilians squarely on Israel and not even mentioning that Hamas placed its network of terror tunnels are armories around schools, hospitals, mosques, and other areas that would pose a risk to civilians.

Also, noted is the hypocrisy of the accusation, since the United States also wasn’t entirely in control over civilian deaths in its war against ISIS in Mosul, Iraq.

In addition, the article criticized the Biden Administration’s demand that the Palestinian Authority rule Gaza after the war.

“It isn’t Mr. Biden’s place to pick Israel’s leaders,” the article says, “Instead, he could try listening to Israelis about the risks of empowering a Palestinian Authority (PA) that has refused to condemn the Hamas massacre.”

The article continues, “He could listen to Palestinians, 72% of whom believe Hamas was right to launch its Oct. 7 attack, according to a new poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.”

“That figure rises to 82% among West Bank Palestinians, who are ruled by the PA, not Hamas.”

The editorial concluded, “Israel has no good choices here, but America does. The President can focus on supporting a U.S. ally in vanquishing a genocidal enemy.”