(Dobbs) A Lot Of Bargaining Chips, A Lot Of Human Shields
The U.S. is helping Israel, but it can't help the Israeli hostages.
I’m proud of the United States. I’m proud of President Biden. Like Israel’s perpetually clashing political parties, which in the fire of Hamas’s ferocity are talking with Prime Minister Netanyahu about putting aside their differences to form a unity government, Biden has put aside his differences with the right wing prime minister to place the U.S. physically at the very edge of the war zone. This isn’t about Netanyahu, it’s about Israel.
Yesterday, at the president’s direction, the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group was ordered to the eastern Mediterranean.
The USS Ford is the newest, biggest, most advanced aircraft carrier on earth. On top of that, the Air Force is sending squadrons of F-35s, F-16s, and F-15s to friendly bases near the war zone. With their electronics, their maneuverability, and their range, these are the most advanced fighter jets in the Air Force arsenal.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said these forces are being sent “to bolster regional deterrence efforts.” Personally, having seen the aircraft carrier Eisenhower and the battleship New Jersey off the coast of Beirut 40 years ago during the civil war there, I know that a strike group like this is an intimidating tool, a powerful reminder to adversaries that U.S. force may be used. Hamas and Hezbollah both can’t help but notice. The worst thing for Israel would be for Hezbollah to open a second front on the northern border of the Jewish state and, since it’s not inconceivable, for radicalized Palestinians on the West Bank to open a third. It would dangerously dilute Israel’s resources as it tries to crush the terrorists of Hamas.
But the U.S. show of force is more than just a deterrent. It’s a message, not only to those terror groups but to their benefactor, Iran. The message is, you mess with Israel, you’re messing with us. As in any war where we get involved at any level, there is risk. But the greater risk is that the war widens and Israel, in the long term, is weakened, which could damage American interests throughout the Middle East, and weaken us.
There is a parallel with this open-ended American assistance to the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Just as Israel was surprised Saturday by the first strike from Hamas, it was surprised fifty years ago by coordinated attacks from Egypt and Syria.
For several days, especially on the Egyptian front, Israel was on the ropes. Prime Minister Golda Meir pleaded with Washington to send reinforcements, but it was a delicate dilemma for President Nixon. Egypt was a Soviet ally, but the United States was trying to get its foot in the door there. Helping Israel might dash all hope that Egypt would shift its alliances. What’s more, the Saudis might stop selling us oil if we helped rescue Israel.
But Nixon understood that if Israel were to fall, the Soviet Union would be stronger than ever in the Middle East. History has recorded that he vowed, “We will not let Israel go down the tube.” He told the Department of Defense to provide everything Israel needed to turn the war around, and instructed the DOD, “Send everything that can fly.”
It turned the tide of the conflict. Israel came out the winner.
In an inescapable case of deja vü, we are rushing arms in again. And although tomorrow the U.S. House of Representatives begins its wrenching debate about its next leader, the president’s decisions have bi-partisan backing. The two Republicans in the race for Speaker yesterday both pledged their support of Israel. Congressman Steve Scalise wrote on social media, “Make no mistake: The United States will always stand with Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East. They must defend themselves as their citizens are slaughtered by Hamas terrorists.” Jim Jordan said on Fox News, “I want to give them what they need to win.” The Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries also endorsed more appropriations to help Israel. “Congress should certainly be prepared to do that,” he said on CNN, “sooner, rather than later.”
We are all in.
This time though, what we can’t give them is effective help with the unnerving challenge of rescuing their hostages.
In Beirut, my friend the late Tom Sutherland was held hostage by terrorists for 2,354 days. In all that time in captivity, he never, never even once, saw the sun. We used to drive around the city wondering whether he was behind the walls we were passing, literally hidden in plain sight. Today, the Israeli hostages could be anywhere. Hamas holds men and women, elderly Israelis and children, and has said that they are scattered throughout the almost 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip. They could be held in basements, in tunnels, in storm pipes. Or like Sutherland, they could be caged in the middle of an angry population. An Israeli military official told The New York Times that the conclusion from a preliminary assessment is, there could be 150 of them. That’s a lot of bargaining chips for Hamas. And a lot of human shields.
The Washington Post last night characterized Saturday’s attack on Israel as “the bloodiest single day in modern Israel’s tumultuous history.” There are more days to come, more blood to be shed.
Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 37-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.
Greg - with the attack by Hamas on Israel this weekend, I would like your opinion and insight on the topic of Hamas’ motivation. It seems as though the US-led negotiations between Israel and the Arab countries, and especially Saudi Arabia, triggered Iran to push Hamas to attack. Iran does not want to be sidelined, and if Israel really goes after Hamas, which it surely will, the Arab world will have no option but to condemn Israel and move away from treaties with them. To me, this shows the complete and total disregard for human life and suffering that Iran has. Hamas is just Iran’s proxy, after all.
Israel really should be careful about not completely alienating the Arab world. But that is a very, Rey delicate tightrope. Iran should be the scapegoat here - not Israel.
Your thought?
Great piece. Thanks Greg