Netanyahu began his press conference by reading from a note he had received from the mother of a paratrooper who had died in Gaza: “So that we will know they did not fall in vain, destroy the evil,” she implored him. Joel B. Pollak
Surrender: Blinken Tells Netanyahu Israel Can't Defeat Hamas (breitbart.com) . . ."Netanyahu reportedly rejected the idea.
"NBC News reported Wednesday that Blinken, and Biden, are therefore trying to work around Netanyahu — the democratically-elected leader of Israel — in a departure from the Biden administration’s posture as the supposed defender of democratic ideals:. . ."
Biden Administration's 'Pathway' to a Palestinian Terror State :: Gatestone Institute "By continuing to obsessively stick to the creation of a Palestinian state, the Biden administration is actually sending a message to Iran and its terror proxies that terrorism pays - that if they inflict more pain and casualties on Israel, the Americans will reward them with a state of their own next to Israel to facilitate their mission of continuing their Jihadist murder spree against Jews and finally obliterate Israel.
"The poll further showed that if presidential elections were held today, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would receive 78% of the vote, as opposed to only 16% for Abbas.
The poll found that 64% of the Palestinians oppose the idea of a two-state solution, while 53% support a return to the "armed struggle" against Israel." . . .
"Without naming Blinken specifically, Netanyahu criticized those who, he said wanted to tie Israel’s hands and said that Israel could not win.
"On Wednesday, reports emerged that Blinken had told Netanyahu last week that Israel would not succeed in destroying Hamas’s military capabilities — an assertion at odds with Israel’s ongoing military success, and strong Israeli public support for the war. Blinken and the Biden administration also want Israel to accept a Palestinian state as a condition of peace.
"At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blinken told New York Times columnist Tom Friedman — a rabidly anti-Netanyahu opinion writer — that Israeli society, not the Arab nations, was the current obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
"The reaction from the prime minister’s office was defiant."
Grading Biden's Israel-Hamas War Response (foreignpolicy.com) . . ."U.S. President Joe Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war, especially his seemingly preternatural support for Israel, has been criticized across much of the U.S. political spectrum. An NBC News poll published Nov. 19 found that just 34 percent of registered voters approve of how Biden is handling the war. Many younger voters in particular are angry; and some Arab and Muslim Americans are telling pollsters they won’t vote for Biden in 2024 because of his stance." . . .
An Israeli preemptive strike against Hezbollah was averted early in the Gaza war, top official says . . ."A month ago, The Wall Street Journal, reporting on the dramatic events of Oct. 11, said intervention by President Joe Biden was key to averting the strike. Israeli warplanes were in the air, awaiting orders, when Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him to stand down, the report said, citing people familiar with the call.
"Eisenkot said loud objections raised by him and others during the Cabinet session were key to calling off the strike. At the time, he and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, both opposition lawmakers, had just joined Netanyahu to help lead the war. Asked if their presence prevented a bad decision, he said: “Unequivocally.' ” . . .
UPDATE: The West's lethal error in the war against Israel - Melanie Phillips (jewishworldreview.com) "In the current war in the Middle East, it’s a given that a distinction must be drawn between Hamas and the "ordinary" Palestinian Arab residents of Gaza.
"This distinction, however, is largely spurious.
"An article in The Washington Free Beacon that drew upon interviews given to Israeli TV by freed hostages has confirmed that ordinary Gazans were deeply involved in the Oct. 7 pogrom and subjected the hostages to cruelty, abuse and starvation.
"Nili Margalit recounted how Gazan "civilians, regular people" took her hostage at knifepoint in the Oct. 7 attack. Margalit said a "boy … 17, maybe 18 years old" and an "older man with the knife" broke down the door of her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and forced her, barefoot and in pajamas, into a stolen golf cart.
"Margalit said she saw a "mob, thousands of people," including "women and children," pouring across Israel’s breached border with Gaza less than two miles away." . . .
We must remember God says Israel is the "apple of his eye".