We have your back
As Brutus and his allies plunged their knives into Julius Caesar, they all declared, “We have your back.”
Michael Kuttner
How apt and appropriate this cynical declaration of false support seems these days as so-called friends and allies of Israel sharpen their own knives.
Joe Biden has assured Israel that he has its back.
Israelis can only shake their head in wonderment while watching as Iran races to the nuclear finishing line and the Palestinian Arab Authority is promised a prize for its support of Hamas and 7 October.
In the immediate aftermath of the 7 October Hamas pogrom, the outpouring of shocked sympathy by friends was taken as a positive sign that finally political sanity was dawning. Alas, this reaction was just a fleeting phenomenon soon to be replaced by the old traditional condemnations. It has taken just a generation for the genocidal deeds of the Germans and their willing accomplices to be forgotten, marginalised and misappropriated. After the October massacre, it only took a few weeks for the blame to be transferred to the victims.
This time around, the sight of Israelis actually fighting back and making sure that the perpetrators and all their willing supporters faced retribution proved too much to stomach. With expressions of hypocritical outrage emanating from the White House, such as “over the top”, the stage was set for an avalanche of denunciations. Add in the urgent necessity to appease and abase oneself before the voters go to the polls in the USA and you have a perfect recipe for plunging in the knives.
The State Department, the Europeans and fair-weather friends from further afield needed no encouragement to issue ringing endorsements of warnings, admonitions and unsolicited advice. It is instructive to note that not one of them demanded the release of the kidnapped hostages as a prerequisite for any sort of pause in hostilities and facilitations of aid. One would think that the first and most urgent priority should be their unconditional release before any talk of ceasefires. It now transpires that the medicines belatedly allowed into Gaza only reached some of the hostages and the rest were most likely stolen by Hamas in the same way that international aid is hijacked.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has once again demonstrated its total lack of interest in looking after the welfare of Jews. Their total lack of concern is, of course, merely a repetition of their abysmal performance during the Shoah years.
The reactions of so-called friends and allies in the face of UNRWA deceptions and Palestinian Authority charades are indicative of the sorry and sad state of affairs we face these days.
The UN stands fully exposed as the repository of international double standards and corrupt practices. While criminal gangs flourish, rogue regimes get away with murder, UN members threaten the elimination of fellow nations and despotic countries flourish, Israel is hauled in front of the ICJ for having the chutzpah to protect its citizens.
The refusal of the so-called democracies to fight back against this tsunami of hate and incitement is merely putting the final nails into the UN and its associated bodies.
Defenders of the Biden/Blinken team assert that their staunch supposed support of Israel at the UN and in providing vital weapons proves that they have “our back.” President Herzog has even lauded Biden as “following in the steps of giants” If he was trying to compare him to Harry Truman, it seems to be a rather pathetic comparison.
The plain fact is that if one closely analyses the rhetoric and gestures emanating from Washington one can discern an unmistakable trend emerging.
A combination of several factors makes the sound of knives being sharpened very obvious.
This year is a crucial election period, and the Democrats need all the progressive votes they can muster. That means more pandering to the woke anti-Israel groups of all ethnicities. It gives the historically anti-Israel State Department more scope to indulge in their traditional biased policies. Administration officials have already travelled to Michigan to apologize for overzealous support of Israel, and appropriate breast-beating by Democratic Party court Jews has been the order of the day. Well-placed “leaks” have hinted at possible impending slowdowns in weapons transfers, and heavy-handed hints of Israel’s alleged breaches of international law have surfaced.
The loudest and most obvious indication of which way the foul winds are blowing has been the not-so-subtle suggestion that an independent State of Palestine could be recognised. This would occur before terror has been subdued and eradicated and without any sort of agreement or consultation with Israel. Euphoric noises about a “revitalised” Palestinian authority only add to the sense of unreality and hallucinatory visions concocted in a White House where the incumbent thinks that El-Sisi is the President of Mexico.
The cumulative effects of all these heavy-handed hints from our alleged buddies in Washington are paroxysms of delight in Tehran, Moscow, and terror groups cheered on by their surrogates in South Africa, North Korea and other such champions of democracy and human rights. It also energises knee jerk measures from the likes of the EU, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
It is no wonder, therefore, that the World Court is currently spending a week deliberating whether Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem are illegally occupied by Israel. Historical and legal facts are irrelevant in a situation where the big lies have already been swallowed as the accepted truth.
Those supporting fictitious narratives are emboldened by the spectacle of Israel’s supposedly sincere friends preparing to literally “have our back” with all that implies. Drooling on the sidelines and impatient to “help” in any way possible are the corrupt terror inciters and facilitators in Ramallah. With the big prize dangling in front of them and suffering no consequences for their unsubtle desire to consummate a marriage with Hamas and other terror offspring what can possibly go wrong?
Erupting to the surface are lethal libels recycled from the past as well as agendas tailored for current consumption by those anointed as “peace partners.”
In the Middle Ages and beyond, the Jews of Europe were accused of deicide, blood libels and poisoning wells. The mutated versions of these lies have now resurfaced as anti-Israel mobs regurgitate them on every continent. The UN Human Rights Council, true to form, has now accused the IDF of “raping Palestinian Arab women and children while in detention.” Without any shred of evidence or veracity, this modern-day libel will, thanks to social media, go viral. The idea, of course, is to deflect any attention away from what Hamas and Palestinian Arabs did to the 7 October victims and abductees.
Qatar is portrayed as an honest broker. This fraudulent claim has been swallowed by the gullible, who prefer to ignore the fact that it hosts Hamas leaders and funds their activities. The Qataris have complained that the release of hostages should not be a condition for a ceasefire. That claim reveals their true agenda.
The Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister let the cat out of the bag when he stated that recognition of Palestine was not the only requirement to normalisation of relations with Israel. Can anyone hear the knives sharpening as Biden & Blinken push for this “deal of the millennium?”
The best clue as to why a “revitalised” PA is nothing more than science fiction and a mirage is revealed in the recent declaration by the unelected PA Prime Minister speaking on behalf of his master’s voice (Abbas). This so-called apostle of peace complained bitterly that too many people were focusing on the events of 7 October. He made it clear that the world needs to forget about it and concentrate instead on handing over Israel’s heartland and Capital.
In case the message was not plain enough he emphasised that it is not about PA reforms. In fact, it’s all about merging with the perpetrators of the pogrom. Moscow is hosting a meeting of all the Islamic terror groups with the aim of persuading them to unite with the PLO/Fatah movement and thus present a united front of terror against Israel. The veil of deceit and deception has thus been torn away from the PA which speaks out of both sides of its mouth in international forums.
Currently putting on an Oscar-winning performance at The Hague, the representatives of the PA are trying to convince the world that the evil Israelis are engaged in heinous crimes. Concurrently the corrupt PA and its unelected gangsters are working to amalgamate with the perpetrators of the worst massacre of Jews since the Shoah.
Israel’s message to the rest of the world must be articulated loudly and clearly.
Having our back means defeating terror and not rewarding murderers. It is as simple as that.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.
