Neville Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler, and World War II resulted. By trying to appease the Ayatollahs in Iran, Joe Biden may have started us down a path to World War III. On the day Biden became president, Iranian-built missiles began to rain down on Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East and the only democracy in that troubled region.

These missiles, aimed at Israeli civilians, were launched from Gaza by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps provides both terror organizations with funding and arms. Their missile launches from Gaza between January and early May were a test of the Biden administration’s mettle.

Accurately perceiving Chamberlain-like weakness in the Biden, the Iranians urged Hamas and Islamic Jihad to launch more than 600 missiles between May 10 and 11 against Israeli civilians in Sderot, Askelon, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. By Jan. 16, the Palestinian terror organizations had launched more than 3,000 missiles and incendiary weapons against Israeli civilians.

Nearly 90% of these deadly warheads, aimed at towns and cities, are being intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, but dozens of Israeli civilians have been killed and wounded. Every volley of missiles from Gaza prompts Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire against terror targets — where Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields.

In our previous column, we warned how Biden’s weakness in foreign policy puts the United States and its allies in peril by emboldening Iran’s IRGC and the terrorist groups they support. We cautioned Biden’s offer to reopen talks with Tehran on JCPOA (the Iran nuclear deal) would be perceived by friends and allies as a lack of resolve.

These alerts have fallen on deaf ears. Continuous Iranian-provoked rocket attacks on Israeli civilians should tell the Biden administration their goal of “sustainable calm” is a phony solution. It is, in fact, an open door to Iranian aggression against Israel that could well ignite a worldwide conflagration.

The Biden administration’s public acknowledgment, “Israel has a right to defend itself,” is certainly valid. But the privately issued demand to “de-escalate now” from Blinken to Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi tells the truth about Biden’s anti-Israel foreign policy.

Demanding unilateral de-escalation by Israel is tantamount to insisting Israel forego defending itself. This is an impossible choice for the Jewish nation. Weakness and appeasement invite further aggression by Iranian proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Conflict between Israel and Hamas is not new. They have fought three wars since 2007 when Hamas took control of Gaza. Each successive conflict has escalated beyond the scope of previous conflicts, but the attacks since May 10 dwarf previous assaults. Fortunately, Prime Minister Netanyahu is made of sterner stuff than Biden. He has promised Hamas will pay dearly for its attacks on Israel, a promise he is already keeping. He has also quietly made it clear to the Biden administration their demands for Israeli de-escalation are unacceptable.

The Israeli Defense Forces are defending their country. The extent to which this conflict escalates is in the hands of Biden, not Netanyahu. If Biden wants to prevent a wider war against our democratic ally, he ought to make clear the United States condemns all attacks on Israel from any quarter, and withhold any further “economic aid” to Palestinian entities.

And just to make sure this message is received where it matters most, he should announce the U.S. is withdrawing from the so-called talks in Vienna on a new Iran nuclear weapons deal, and reinstate all economic sanctions on the Ayatollahs in Tehran. Doing so will most assuredly ensure the current aggression will abate. Failure to do these things will allow Iranian aggression to escalate, and history teaches where that could lead.

COPYRIGHT 2021 OLIVER L. NORTH AND DAVID L. GOETSCH