On Saturday, August 31, six hostages, including American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who were taken by Hamas on October 7, were found executed by Hamas as IDF soldiers were closing in. I attempted to write an official statement at that time, but no statement I could conceive of put that act of unspeakable barbarity in the appropriate context of overall systemic barbarity on the part of Hamas and its patron Iran – the head of the snake – and the series of harmful actions and inaction by the United States generally, and the Biden administration specifically, which led to these six hostages being murdered. To attempt to isolate and mourn this event in isolation is to ignore the continuum of events that led to the murder of these six innocents, and I can no longer mourn victims in a vacuum. Every such episode is an opportunity to demand a change for what got us here.
Mourning is no longer enough. It was never enough, but since October 7, it has been easier than facing and attempting to give voice to some hard truths that few seem to want talk about.
In my opinion, the October 7 attack never should have occurred. But Hamas and Iran had the exact right read on the pathetically weak and feckless Biden administration, which I believe Hamas expected would do exactly nothing in the aftermath of a Hamas invasion of Israel, even if American lives were lost and/or taken hostage. In fact, I suspect Hamas believed that the US would give Israel a harder time than it would give to Hamas, and the US would undermine Israel at every turn in the aftermath of any Hamas attack on Israel, which is exactly what has happened, with the exception of some US aid to Israel in the form of weapons, which was certainly expected by Hamas.
I suspect Hamas thought that the Biden administration – instead of exacting serious and immediate and commensurate retaliation against Hamas/Iran for killing American citizens – would trip all over itself in a pathetic and cowardly attempt to create a “balanced” approach between Israel and Hamas, and to pander to the Hamas-supporting, Israel-hating segment of the Biden administration’s voter base. I believe Hamas expected that the Biden administration would respond to Hamas by “attacking” it with unflattering yet meaningless word-pictures while criticizing PM Netanyahu, as well, and thereby creating for Hamas that which Hamas cannot do for itself – a moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas. Such a US-forged moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas is priceless to Hamas in the world of public opinion. Hamas thereby tasked itself with the attack on Israel to accomplish its stated mission of killing Jews, while hoping and expecting that the Biden administration would create for the world the moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas. As we have seen, this is precisely how things played out.
That is a Hamas “win-win,” courtesy of the Biden administration, which, only weeks before the October 7 attack, gave Iran $6 billion to sweeten a prisoner exchange, which I have no doubt helped Iran fund the October 7 attack and the extended Hamas war against Israel. Add to that the Biden administration’s lifting of economic sanctions on Iran when Biden took office, allowing Iran to become awash in oil revenues. So, the Biden administration, in my opinion, funded the October 7 attack with its policies vis-à-vis Iran, which likely helped Hamas gain immeasurably by invading Israel.
This is why Hamas has rejected every ceasefire offer from Israel since November. It has no incentive to accept a ceasefire – Hamas is winning based on what is important to Hamas. Under the Biden administration, gone are the days when the death of more than 40 Americans would have led to the US bombing of Iran and the destruction of, say, Iran’s oil fields, and the promise of more destruction if all American hostages were not released immediately. Such a response would save US lives and deter Iranian aggression; but the Biden administration, as I see it, was more concerned with its political concerns than saving American lives and standing up for Israel in its existential struggle. How weak; how pathetic; how un-American. And how much has Biden said in the last year about the loss of more than 40 American lives at the hands of Hamas/Iran on October 7? What has this administration done about Americans still being held hostage by Hamas, or about Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered days ago? Exactly. This is an administration that has clearly lost its moral compass, if it ever had one.
So let me end where I began, in mourning the six hostages who were executed as the IDF was coming to save them. And I also mourn preemptively for further Israeli and American loss of life in the complete absence of the Biden administration projecting American strength and resolve in the face of Iranian terror against Israel and abroad. The entirety of the Biden administration is at fault. And with President Biden’s current cognitive abilities so badly compromised, the chain of command directly subordinate to the President are even more responsible for this administration’s weak posture vis-à-vis Iran, its antagonistic posture towards Israel, and its appeasement of Hamas-supporting Members of Congress and Hamas-supporting voting blocks.
By Councilmember James F. Gennaro NYC Council, District 24
