Support for ground war in Gaza is given

The go-ahead for a ground invasion of Gaza that Joe Biden reportedly gave Benjamin Netanyahu during the US President’s seven hours on the ground in Israel on Wednesday could not be more important. Like the highly significant deployment to the eastern Mediterranean of two powerful US battle groups led by aircraft carriers Gerald R. Ford and Dwight D. Eisenhower, it provides unequivocal confirmation of America’s “rock solid” solidarity with Israel amid the mindless hysteria of the usual suspects that has followed the tragic destruction of Gaza City’s Al-Ahli hospital. It should also leave Iran’s malevolent mullahs in no doubt about Washington’s determination to ensure that Israel has whatever it needs to deal with the existential threat posed by Tehran’s Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah terrorist proxies.

Our own Greens and those who share their bizarre concerns about Israel’s right to retaliation following Hamas’s October 7 slaughter of 1400 Jews will doubtless be appalled by Mr Biden’s go-ahead for an invasion and assurance of total support. But he was right to give his full backing to Mr Netanyahu, just as he was right, while in Israel, to so effectively kybosh the claims – made first by the dodgy, Hamas-controlled Palestine Health Ministry – that Israel was responsible for the horrifying blast that destroyed the Al-Ahli hospital, causing hundreds of casualties. Mr Biden made it clear the US will keep Israel’s vital Iron Dome air defence system “fully supplied” to shoot down rocket attacks and ask the US congress for an unprecedented support package. “The world will know that Israel is stronger than ever,” Mr Biden said in a statement that could not be more important to the Jewish state as it confronts the gravest existential threat it has faced since its foundation. The Middle East’s only democracy deserves no less. The aftermath of the hospital blast left no doubt about what Israel is up against, not just in terms of its physical security but also amid the vicious propaganda war being waged to destroy it. With the BBC rushing to blame Israel for the hospital’s destruction and tragic loss of life, telling its many millions of listeners and viewers “it’s hard to see what else this could be, really, given the size of the explosion, other than an Israeli air strike, or several air strikes”, it is no surprise that there was global outrage. The consequences of the blast, which occurred just before Mr Biden landed in Tel Aviv, were that Arab leaders snubbed him. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah, who receives more than $US1bn a year in US handouts, refused to meet him.

In Gaza, across the Middle East and elsewhere, enraged mobs took to the streets. Yet within hours, Israel presented clear evidence it had nothing to do with the blast. Communication intercepts of Hamas members talking to each other confirmed the shrapnel from the rocket showed it was fired by Islamic Jihad. Israel deserves better than the nonsensical gullibility of international media outlets such as the BBC and politicians such as our own Greens.

According to The Times of London, Mr Biden, in approving Mr Netanyahu’s plans to crush Hamas, urged restraint in the actual assault. He also won a promise that Israel would allow humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Both are major developments in the war that deserves the support of all countries concerned by the grotesque terrorism being perpetrated by Iran through its loathsome Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah proxies.