“The Palestinians are beasts on two legs.”

—Former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin

In 2015, under then–Democrat president Obama, the United States danced around Iran’s overt hostility toward Israel and the United States and encouraged Iran to temper its work toward creating a nuclear bomb.  As a result, two months later, Iran entered into a soft agreement with the five members on the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.  This agreement was called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.  In return, against Republican opposition and even some Democrat misgivings, Obama dropped U.S. sanctions on Iran in return for Iran’s purported slow-walking its quest for a nuclear bomb.  Wink, wink. 

Additionally, Obama displayed overt antagonism toward Israel.  He refused to acknowledge an American Embassy in Jerusalem and declared, obnoxiously and illegally, that Jewish children born in Jerusalem were not considered Israeli and could not be issued Israeli passports, as they had not been born on Israeli ground.

When Republican past president Trump was elected, and followed Obama into the White House, in 2018, he yanked the United States out of the JCPOA.  Trump opined that the deal actually facilitated Iran’s nuclear program, concomitantly accelerating Iran’s ability to create chaos against Israel.  Moreover, Trump moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem and declared Jerusalem Israeli territory.

As what was hoped to be a lasting victory toward widening peaceful relations in the region, Trump’s team negotiated and was able to effectuate a series of bilateral treaties between Israel and some Arab countries, collectively known as the Abraham Accords, signed first on September 15, 2020 among Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.  Some months later, the countries of Morocco and Sudan also signed agreements with Israel.

Enter President Biden, Obama’s vice president who, for eight torturous years, worked alongside Obama’s aforementioned spite-filled relations with Israel.  Perhaps not as overt in his Israeli animus, but quietly duplicitous, Biden has now transferred six billion dollars to Iran, which has funded its proxies to heap the horror that has now unfurled on Israel and its innocent citizenry. 

Death is final.  But doctors believe there are good deaths — deaths that are swift and accompanied by scant pain.  Good deaths are contrasted with bad deaths — by a pain-filled long bout with cancer or lung ailments.  And then there are the horror-filled deaths, such as those the world witnessed when jihadists televised beheadings. 

Then there are the horror-filled deaths that have not been televised or even much discussed: the deaths Palestinian terrorists heap on their Israeli and Jewish victims.

Israel takes great lengths to obtain the corpses of Israelis slain by Arabs.  Usually the corpses come back mutilated; besides signs of torture, bodies are returned with eyes gouged and penises in mouths.

Today, the beasts have outdone themselves.  Live and dead female bodies are being paraded through Gaza, pelted and spit on, while the insane and frenzied crowds scream “Allah akbar.”  Hostages as young as four and the elderly, especially disabled elderly, are similarly treated. 

Up in smoke is also any near-term hope of peace with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

What should be Israel’s response?  As harsh as possible without breaking civilized norms. 

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.