Day 150 of the October 7 Gaza War

I find myself irritated with Benny Ganz for making a solo trip to Washington today without Cabinet backing. I am annoyed with Netanyahu for failing to instill unity in his war cabinet. He has long mis-led by example.

I can't say I am disappointed at VP Kamala Harris for using a civil rights backdrop to hold forth about a Hamas-Israel ceasefire. It was a cheap, tendentious gimmick.

I appreciate that wokes, Muslims, and African Americans have lost patience with Joe Biden for standing with Israel. I know they are core constituencies in the Democratic Party, and their empathies lie with the Palestinians, not the Israelis. 

Some Democrats in Congress want to save UNWRA even though it is riddled with Hamas functionaries and has as its mandate to keep Palestinian refugees – refugees in perpetuity. Other Democrats want to save Hamas leaders hunkering down in Rafiah from the IDF. There's a lot of Democratic energy on Capitol Hill and at the White House devoted to rescuing Hamas from its deserved fate.

I well appreciate that Israel, under Netanyahu's botched leadership, has failed to offer a strategic plan for Gaza, created a military and humanitarian vacuum, and done so in an already hostile media and international political environment.

Be that as it may, there is a consensus among ordinary Israelis that Hamas must be defanged, that it can not again be the sovereign in Gaza. Sure, there will always be Palestinian Arab terrorism – after all,  the Palestinian polity rejects a national homeland for the Jewish people in any part of our country and has done so for over 100 years.

That is why the PLO and Hamas do not want a Palestinian state and have blocked one at every juncture.

Tens of thousands of Israelis remain dislocated at our border with Lebanon (which is controlled by Hezbollah) and at our border with Gaza.

The IDF is taking casualties daily. Barely a day goes by without an IDF funeral. Thousands of young men have suffered life-changing war injuries.

Hezbollah and Hamas continue to shoot and launch rockets and weaponized drones.

Hamas cares not a whit for non-combatant Gazans. It uses them as fodder for its propaganda. As sacrifices for its jihad. It never offered the Palestinian masses the protection of its vast tunnel network. And the chic kafiyah wearers who shill for Hamas don't mob Times Square or Trafalgar Square for the war victims in the Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, and Yemen – and we all know why they are so decerning in their humanitarian concerns.

Life in Israel has taken on a new "war normal." Yes, many of us hope for the Netanyahu government's demise, but I have little faith in Benny Ganz. Simply not being Netanyahu is a low bar for leadership. He – and Yair Lapid, too, unfortunately – has been pushing to exchange Israeli captives for dangerous Palestinian terrorists without knowing if any of our hostages are even alive. I find this scandalous—this willingness to gamble the safety of 9 million Israelis for an unknown number of captives or remains. While giving Hamas the respite it craves.

No one on the political horizon inspires confidence, not in Israel and not in America.