Sunday, March 31, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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At a time when clarity is essential in the Middle East and in America — existentially essential, I should say — it still surprises me that the hypocrites among us still keep swinging away. And this is at a time in our lives when nothing, ever again, should surprise us.
Yet, here we are.
As much as I have tried to refrain from commenting on the opinions of the other newspaper in Las Vegas (that would be the Review-Journal) and the family that directs the editorial board, I find it impossible to stay silent. There is just too much at stake.
By that I mean the relationship between the state of Israel and the United States which, in my opinion, determines the relationship between Israel and the broader world. In short, America has always had Israel’s back even when everyone else would have rather, and often did, turn away.
Last week, following the U.S. abstention on a United Nations vote calling for a temporary cease-fire in Gaza, the R-J couldn’t wait to publish an editorial questioning President Joe Biden’s deep and heartfelt commitment to Israel, the Israeli people and their security.
It is not hard to understand why they did it. After all, with one exception because of a business dispute the family saw as disloyalty, the R-J’s owners have been fully committed to the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and his steadfast objection to anything that resembles a two-state solution for the Palestinians.
A two-state solution — Israelis and Palestinians one day living side by side in peace — was the hope and promise of the Oslo Accords 30 years ago. That hope was shattered by the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the hands of a hard-right religious Israeli zealot. You know, the same folks who are running Bibi’s government in Israel today.
In its continuing effort to diminish Biden in the eyes of Nevadans who both believe in Israel and the justness of its cause to eradicate the terrorist butchers of Hamas, that other newspaper’s editorial accused Biden of aiding and abetting Hamas because America abstained from a U.N. vote. A vote, I might add, that in the end is virtually meaningless except as a continuing public relations effort to turn the world against Israel. Any sane observer would look at the vote and ask, “So what’s new?”
But, I have already spent too much space on the oh-so-harmful aspirations of the Adelson family in its efforts to hurt Biden and help Donald Trump in the November elections. This space would be better spent explaining what that U.N. resolution actually said rather than the distortions the R-J would like its readers to believe.
First, it called for a temporary cease-fire for the duration of Ramadan that should then lead to a lasting and sustainable cease-fire. Should lead. Those words are a far cry from a call for “an immediate truce,” as the R-J told its readers.
Diplomacy is about words, and words do matter. A newspaper’s words matter too, because readers want to trust them. Heck, in today’s world, people need to trust something, so the R-J shouldn’t be so quick to abuse that need.
The next part of the U.N. resolution, after it called for a temporary cease-fire during the Muslim religious holiday, demanded “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs.”
That sounds very much like it could have come from Israel itself. And every other American who supports Israel’s right to defend itself as well as the absolute necessity of returning the hostages forthwith.
What the resolution did not do is call out the terrorists by their name — Hamas. That was wrong and that is why the United States abstained. America was not going to vote for a resolution that did not place the blame squarely on Hamas.
As a result of the abstention, Netanyahu — who probably cannot win a new election from either and all sides of Israeli politics because he violated the first rule of prime ministership, which is to keep Israelis safe — pulled a Trump-like hissy fit. He recalled a delegation on its way to the United States to discuss the important next steps in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Of course, that trip has been quietly rescheduled now that an ephemeral public relations benefit has accrued to Bibi, who wants to show how tough he is by standing up to the United States, specifically Biden.
To Biden’s great credit, he has ignored the childlike temper tantrum and instead continued to act in America’s best interest — which is and always has included a full-throated support for the safety and security of the Jewish state of Israel.
What else has the U.S. president done while Bibi continues to be Bibi?
In the face of worldwide criticism of Israel’s defensible actions to rid the world of Hamas and get its hostages back in Israel where they belong, Biden has continued to provide Israel with military assistance without conditions.
It is also well-known that Biden has made sure the United States has vetoed one-sided U.N. resolutions that essentially have blamed Israel for all that has transpired. The U.S. continues to defend Israel in the International Court of Justice against illegal occupation charges in the West Bank. And America has suspended all funding for UNRWA because of Israeli charges against the U.N. agency for its complicity in the Oct. 7 massacre and its coziness with Hamas.
Then there is the deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers to the region to dissuade Iran from involving itself — beyond its puppet master role with Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah.
And the list of America’s efforts to help Israel continues unabated.
All of that is because of Biden, the same man the Review-Journal’s owners want its readers to believe is not on Israel’s side.
This is the time, I believe, that that question should be asked of the R-J and its owners.
You are not on the side of truth. You are not on the side of peace. You are not on the side of the vast majority of Israelis and Americans who want those hostages returned and Hamas defeated. And you are not on the side of the president of the United States who has done and is doing more for Israel in its time of extreme need and extreme isolation from the rest of the world than any president in recent memory.
It’s a fair question to ask, don’t you think? Hey, R-J, whose side are you on?
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.
