The Patriot Post® · More Blood on the Hands of Team Biden/Harris
“If there was something we could have done to save you, and we didn’t think of it, I beg your forgiveness,” said a desperately grieving Rachel Goldberg at Monday’s funeral for her 23-year-old Israeli-American son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin. “We tried so very hard, so deeply and desperately. I’m sorry.”
I’m reminded of the words of King Theoden in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when he visited the grave of his only son: “No parent should have to bury their child.”
Tragically, in this broken world, as in J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythical Middle Earth, parents do sometimes have to bury their children. Worse, they have to do so because of the actions of evil men.
Goldberg-Polin was one of more than 250 hostages taken by Hamas terrorists during their brutal October 7 assault on Israel. Born in Berkeley, California, he moved to Israel in 2008. He lost part of his left arm in a grenade explosion during the attack. Hamas jihadis killed more than 1,200 Israelis (including 45 Americans), and many of the 250 hostages have since died or were murdered in captivity. In recent days, Hersh and five others were executed — shot in the back of the head — and their bodies were found over the weekend in a tunnel beneath Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.
The other five victims were Eden Yerushalmi (24), Ori Danino (25), Almog Sarusi (27), Alexander Lobanov (33), and Carmel Gat (40). Roughly 100 hostages remain in Gaza, and it’s not certain they’re all alive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered heartfelt condolences, saying to the families, “I am asking for your forgiveness that we didn’t manage to bring them back alive. We were very close, but we couldn’t make it.” Grief and sorrow weren’t all he offered, though. “Israel is not going to ignore this massacre,” he added. “Hamas will pay a heavy price for this — a very heavy price.”
As if inhabiting an alternate fantasy universe, however, American leftists inexplicably blame Netanyahu for the terrorism of Hamas — a proxy of Iran, which Democrats seem bent on appeasing. In fact, after news of the hostage deaths broke, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris yet again urged Israel to show restraint.
Biden did break from vacation early to issue a statement saying he was “devastated and outraged” and that “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.” But he also said he’s “still optimistic” about a ceasefire that can only be had by offering big concessions to those same Hamas leaders.
Moreover, it was Team Biden/Harris that demanded a delay in Israel’s entry into Rafah. Biden called it a “red line” and even withheld weapons to enforce the point. “I have studied the maps,” proclaimed an obviously incompetent Harris at the time. “There’s nowhere for [Palestinian civilians] to go,” and if Israel went in, she added, there might be “consequences.” The resulting three-month delay clearly benefited only Hamas. Israel managed to evacuate a million Gazans, though the six dead hostages had nowhere to go.
Now, Harris is trying to sound tough. “Hamas cannot control Gaza,” she said. Yet Biden on Monday accused Netanyahu of not doing enough to reach a hostage deal with Hamas. The mixed messages have been disastrous, and Netanyahu correctly said it sends a message to Hamas: “Kill more hostages.”
Indeed, Iran-backed Hamas felt emboldened in the first place because of the Biden/Harris surrender and retreat from Afghanistan. A weak and feckless American administration has deadly consequences around the world, and, in that regard, Harris is the incumbent.