Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 10/25/23

Jewish News Syndicate Editor-in-Chief Jonathan S. Tobin

“Useful idiots.” That’s how Jonathan S. Tobin, the New York City born-and-educated (at Columbia University) editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate), views Americans (and others) citing “humanitarian concerns” as they push for a ceasefire and oppose an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza in response to the mass murders and kidnappings committed by Hamas terrorists on 10/7.

JWK: It’s a terrible situation going on right now, of course. What do you think should be done?

Jonathan S. Tobin: It is indeed terrible. I think there is a clear consensus in Israel that the prevailing attitude as to what to do about Hamas in Gaza – which has been sort of an independent Palestinian state ruled by Hamas in all-but name – since 2007. I think it was sort across party/on both sides of the political divide in Israel that nobody wanted to go back into Gaza. It was sort of like a conundrum but, basically, they tried coexistence with Hamas in Gaza with the idea that you stay on your side of the fence (and) we’ll stay on ours. If you shoot over into Israel we will fire back to take out the missile but, basically, you know, stay there.

There was no action to get rid of Hamas in Gaza contemplated but the atrocities of October 7th have proven that policy a terrible failure. It was certainly a complete collapse of the intelligence, military and political establishment, a failure, but I think there is a clear consensus (now) that Hamas cannot be lived with, that it presents a threat to the security of the citizens of the State of Israel that can’t be contemplated. I mean it can’t go on. There’s no compromise with it.

It was one thing to know, in theory, that Hamas’ only purpose was to destroy the State of Israel, to kill as many Jews as possible. I think many people thought “Well, they’re really much more reasonable than that.” October 7th proved that to be false. However it is in the end going to be accomplished – and, certainly, military victory over them is the only path – Hamas can’t be allowed to continue in power in Gaza. That’s the bottom line. There’s no other option…Hamas clearly thought that by taking so many hostages after committing what was in essence a pogrom – the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust – that would give them, basically, immunity – that Israel wouldn’t/couldn’t do anything about them. I think that’s a miscalculation because the leadership of Israel cannot afford to do anything but to get rid of Hamas. I think if Americans – including the United States government – think that any Israeli leader, whether it’s Netanyahu or whoever follows him, will settle for anything less I don’t think they’re reckoning on political reality.

JWK: What do you think of the world reaction to October 7th? It does seem to me that the Jewish state is expected to tolerate terrorism in a way that no other country is expected to  tolerate it.

JST: Yes. Israel is the only country in the world that is not allowed to win a war. I think the international community has sort of fostered this situation over the years by its tolerance of this manifestation of the Palestinian cause which is essentially a war against Zionism. Of all of the disputes that arose in the few years after World War II this is the only one that was never settled because the Palestinian Arabs in the Muslim and Arab world (and) their western cheerleaders or enablers have not been willing to except any compromise. It’s not a territorial dispute. If it were there would have been a Palestinian state agreed decades ago. Such offers have been repeatedly refused by supposedly moderate Palestinian leadership

When you compare (10/7 to) 9/11, the United States went to the other side of the world to take out and wipe out the al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. No one had the temerity to demand of Americans that on September 12th, 2001 they accept a ceasefire with al-Qaeda that would, basically, allow al-Qaeda to emerge intact and profit from its crime – but people do expect that of Israel.

You (ask) what do I think of the international reaction? Well, (that international reaction) is sort of twofold. The crimes that were committed on October 7th were just unspeakable. There was a mass slaughter of over 1400 men, women and children, whole families killed, thousands wounded, over 200 kidnapped and dragged into captivity in Gaza. You also have just sort of the barbaric nature of the evidence of the pogroms in the communities in Southern Israel including rape, torture (and) desecration of bodies. You know, at first there was a degree of horror, a degree of even sympathy among  a great many people in the world – certainly here in the United States – but that quickly changed just as soon as Israel tried to do something about it. Then the script flipped and Israel is the villain. Israel’s efforts to go after the terrorists are treated as morally equivalent to the crimes of the terrorists…The idea that there are demonstrations in cities throughout the world and on college campuses – including the United States – supporting the crimes of October 7th, supporting the slaughter of Jews, I mean I would say that I was astonished but I’ve been covering antisemitism and this sort of ideological hate for Jews and for Israel most of my adult life. So, I can’t say I’m surprised but I think a lot of people are surprised who don’t follow it that closely.  

JWK: Do you think a lot of Jewish people, including Jewish Americans, are surprised?

JST: I think a lot of people are. I think, certainly, a lot of people didn’t understand the logic of this sort of intersectional ideology. It’s connected to other things and ideas that are sort of debated in American politics. The whole question of Critical Race Theory, intersectionality and a way of looking at the world in which everyone is defined not merely by race but by whether their race or group – or however they are classified as – are victims or oppressors.

This is something that some of us have been pointing out for a while. In the view of the hard left, Jews and Israel are white oppressors. This idea that Israeli Jews are colonists in Israel and oppressing the indigenous people of color is sort of a construct to make it seem as if it’s like South Africa or somehow linked the struggle for civil rights in the United States. It’s crazy. The Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel. The majority of Israeli Jews, by the definitions of the American left, are themselves (indigenous people) because they trace their origins to the Middle East or North Africa.

So, none of it makes any sense – but it is a way of looking at the world in which one can dismiss the humanity of the victims of October 7th. You see people going around tearing down posters of the people who are missing because they think that somehow Jews have it coming. I think what’s shocking to many people is that – perhaps for the first time in their lives – they’re being given a little bit of the taste of how the Holocaust happened, how people can be sort of stripped of humanity. When we see these people online, on the one hand cheering the crimes against Israel but on the other hand denying the evidence of it, we see where Holocaust denial comes from. Almost at the same time – like in a single stroke – we’re getting a history lesson. 

JWK: How do you feel about the Biden Administration’s response to what has happened?

JST: Well, it’s kind of a bifurcated response. In one way – it’s not just good – it’s far better than a lot people expected. Biden, in terms of his statements (and) his willingness to go to Israel, gets empathy. That’s one thing he can do. I interviewed him many times when he was in the Senate. He knows the rhetoric of Zionism. He knows how to talk to Jews. He has exhibited this. Some of his speeches have, in many ways, been pitch perfect – which most of his speeches these days are not. He really gets it in many ways – even to the point of saying that he understands that Hamas has to be eliminated.

He did get some details wrong. He sort of continues to speak of Hamas as it it’s an outlier within Palestinian politics. He says most Palestinians have nothing to do with Hamas but that’s not really true. Hamas actually has pretty broad support in Gaza where it’s ruled for 16 years – and it has broad support in the West Bank. Polling shows that it’s not just that they won an election in 2006. The reason why there hasn’t been an election in the West Bank since 2005 is because Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – who is currently serving the 19th year of the four year term to which he was elected at that time – knows he would be defeated by Hamas. So, they actually do have broad support. They speak to this idea within Palestinian politics that valorizes terrorism, valorizes the taking of Jewish blood, because they are unreconciled to Israel’s existence.

(President Biden’s) efforts to sort of hamstring Israel…under the guise of humanitarian concerns for Gaza is just a gift to Hamas. Reports that he is trying to delay Israel’s ground offensive shows…a kind of cognitive dissonance going on there.

JWK: His administration also seems to want to avoid linking Iran to all this. What are your thoughts on that?

JST: Well, that’s part of the problem. For three years the Biden Administration has been all about trying to find a way to appease Iran – just as the Obama Administration was thoroughly dedicated to this idea of a rapprochement with Iran with their dangerous nuclear deal which, frankly, enriched and empowered Iran, just as the ransom payments that Biden (agreed to pay) Iran sent the message that they don’t have to worry about the United States. Iran’s adventurism in the region has grown as a result.

Iran is behind this. Sometimes people say – and it’s true – that Iran wanted to prevent the expansion of the Abraham Accords to prevent Saudi Arabia and Israel from sort of consummating their relationship. It’s true they wanted to do that but Iran, like Hamas, doesn’t need an immediate policy incentive to commit a crime like this. This is what they’re all about. This is what they believe in whether it’s politically advantageous at the moment or not.

So, it’s very important to focus on Iran. It appears the United States is trying to deter Iran from expanding this war (through) its Hezbollah auxiliaries in Lebanon. Talk about colonizing, Iran rules Lebanon through Hezbollah. The trouble is the Iranians don’t really fear the United States. Say what you will about Donald Trump – and he has many, many flaws and a couple of his statements in the last couple of weeks have demonstrated his narcissism more than his grasp of the situation – he was very good sending tough messages that Iran needs to hear right now about American power. He was feared in that respect, like him or not. I would hope this evaluation proves wrong but they don’t fear Biden. The moving of a carrier group to the Eastern Mediterranean and another into the Gulf is a great gesture but if they don’t believe that the United States will use its power to deter them from creating more chaos in the region then it’s worse than not having sent them at all.

JWK: What do you think should be done new regarding the hostages? You say it’s a moral hazard to actually negotiate for them.

JST: Well, it is. Listen, the United States and Israel – the leaders both these countries – repeatedly say they don’t believe in negotiating with terrorists and ransoming hostages but they both do it.

Netanyahu is widely considered a hardliner. People in the United States forget – I don’t think most Israelis forget – that in 2011 he did a deal with Hamas whereby he traded over 1000 imprisoned terrorists – almost all of whom had blood on their hands (and were) responsible for hundreds of deaths of civilians – for one lone Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by Hamas. That move was very popular at the time because, you know, he was a kid who was an army conscript who had been captured and, you know, Israeli parents send their kids to the army and they’re proud of their service but they expect the government to take care of them, protect them and not leave them behind in the clutches of the enemy – but, when you do something like that, there is a price. You embolden the terrorists to take more hostages.

I think many in Israel thought something like we saw happen two weeks ago just could not happen. Indeed it happened because Israelis thought it couldn’t happen. Now that it has – as much as I think everyone is praying for the safe return of all of the hostages – the idea of letting their fate be what Hamas hopes it will be, basically their lifeline, that’s a guaranty of the lack of safety for all of Israel.

I’m sure Israeli Special Forces are hoping to be able to rescue them. Who knows what’s going on behind the scenes in terms of even negotiations but I think it’s pretty clear Israel cannot let the fate of the hostages be the sole determining factor as to what follows next because if at the end of this episode – whenever the end is, whenever the firing stops – Hamas is still standing in Gaza, if they are still in control of Gaza, merely by the act of survival they will be claiming victory and they will be right to claim victory if they have survived. That would be an intolerable defeat for Israel. That’s an existential threat. If Israel cannot deter, stop and punish people who commit these kinds of crimes then Israeli security doesn’t exist. That’s why I don’t believe any Israeli government can let that happen. Even if the United States is pressuring them to stand down…I think Israel is going to come under intolerable pressure…to get Hamas out of Gaza. I don’t see how Israel can do anything other than that.

JWK: With Hezbollah looming to the north, from my vantage point, this whole situation looks like an existential threat to Israel.

JST: It is – and I guess you could say in some ways it isn’t. Do Hamas – or even Hezbollah – with all of their missiles have the ability to overrun Israel in the way that Israel feared in the first decades of its existence. When Egypt and Syria attacked almost exactly 50 years earlier in the surprise attack on Yom Kippur – a lot of parallels, a surprise attack on a Jewish holiday – there was a fear, especially on the Syrian front for at least a few hours, that perhaps the Syrians could overrun the country or overrun part of the country. Hamas and Hezbollah can’t do that but they can make the life of Israel intolerable if they’re allowed to get away this.

I mean the only reason to commit such a crime is to convince the Israelis that they have no future. You know, that’s the thing. Israel is not going away. Eight-million Jews are not fleeing to somewhere else. Israel has built itself up over 75 years into a wealthy, powerful country. It’s been a modern miracle but it can be undermined if its enemies are allowed to commit such crimes with impunity. That is something that no decent person – never mind Israeli, never mind Jew or non-Jew – should support. As angry as I am about people demonstrating in the street showing their sympathy or support for Hamas – and that’s outrageous and enraging – I’m just as angry, maybe more so, about sort of decent liberal opinion that is now pushing for an immediate ceasefire, that is treating Israel’s measures of attempting to get at Hamas as morally equivalent to that of the crimes of Hamas. They are Hamas’ useful idiots. They claim they’re against terrorism. They don’t want Israel destroyed. They’re against Hamas – but they don’t want people hurt. Anybody who’s for stopping the war now and allowing Hamas to survive, they are Hamas’ useful idiots.

JWK: I hear you. Anything you’d like to say as we wrap up?

JST: I know that the vast majority of the American people have deep sympathy for Israel. The voices on the left that trash Israel (and) trash Zionism don’t represent the views of most Americans. Support for Israel and Zionism is baked deep into the political DNA of this country.

John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God.