At 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, Hezbollah planned to launch a significant assault on Israel using rockets, missiles and drones. At 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, however, the Israeli Air Force launched scores of planes to preemptively attack Hezbollah’s launchers. Let’s dive in.

A Failed Attack

As a direct result of Israel’s preemptive action, Hezbollah’s planned attack did not have the impact the terror group was seeking. The lone fatality was Petty Officer First Class David Moshe Ben Shitrit (Z’’L) of the Israeli Navy who was killed when shrapnel from an Iron Dome interceptor fell on the ship upon which he was serving.

Had Hezbollah’s attack been successful, the region would currently be embroiled in all-out war. Jerusalem’s decision to seize the initiative and preemptively strike Hezbollah avoided not only the immediate casualties that would’ve resulted from Hezbollah’s aggression but also the untold death and destruction that a regional war would bring.

As of now, it seems Hezbollah has done what they felt they had to, in order to puff up their chests in front of the Shia sect of Lebanon. But the new reality is now known in Tehran, Beirut, Damascus, and Washington: Every time Iran or its proxies act against Israel, Jerusalem will respond with strength, precision, and determination.

A Failed Policy

Sadly, such attributes have been lacking in the Biden administration’s approach to this conflict, and the result has been ever-increasing bloodshed and peril.

Israel’s actions over the past month have demonstrated the power of a strategy emphasizing the use of meticulous yet overwhelming force. No terrorist leader is immune from justice; no terrorist state is safe from counterattack, and no one who makes common cause with terrorists will be heard.

Historically, American presidents, from both parties have occasionally had a dalliance with policies of isolationism (on the right) or appeasement (on the left). Neither works. Such policies may delay conflict but carry with them the direct and added cost of increasing the scale of inevitable battles.

Why do we say inevitable? Because Israel did not choose to go war on 10/7/2023 any more than the U.S. chose to go to war on 12/07/1941. Democracies are forced into war by evil men. And, as such, evil men decide when war happens – unless, of course, one has the courage, wisdom, and means to strike preemptively.

A Failed Protest

In the above equation, Israel is not lacking in courage or wisdom. Sadly, however, the Biden administration's obsession with appeasing, rather than defeating, adversaries has led to some weapons transfers from the U.S being slowed. U.S. arms shipment delays have complicated some of the Jewish state’s means to defeat the Iran-back terrorists surrounding Israel.

One might be forgiven for expressing incredulity. Certainly, the result of UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s attempt to appease Hitler is known to the foreign policy experts in the White House. Certainly, these same foreign policy experts have come to understand that the 10/7 Massacre was directly enabled – both financially and geo-politically – by President Obama’s failed Iran nuclear accord and President Biden’s subsequent efforts to revive it.

Ignorance of history is not the problem; the problem is putting politics ahead of policy. For weeks now, we’ve heard about the importance of Pennsylvania and Michigan to Vice President Kamala Harris’s electoral chances. And for months we’ve been hearing about how swaths of voters in these states have a strong, negative opinion of the Biden administration’s approach to Israel. Let’s not mince words: These voters would like to see Israel destroyed.

It is true that there are Americans who hold these views. And for weeks, we’ve been hearing that the Democratic National Convention would experience chaos reminiscent of the 1968 convention over the Gaza war. None of that came to pass. A few thousand protestors came to Chicago, some on busses, some because they happened to live in the area, but there were none of the dramatic scenes for which the anti-Israel agitators were hoping.

It’s clear that despite the loud, dramatic, violent and/or illegal efforts of the pro-Hamas lobby, the overwhelming majority of Americans stand with Israel.

In light of this, one might be forgiven for expecting a significant pro-Israel shift in the Biden administration’s policies and the Harris campaign’s rhetoric on the matter.

After all, polling may not be what it once was, but contrasting the protest that wasn’t in Chicago with the nearly 300,000 Americans who came to stand with Israel in Washington last November, it’s clear that on Israel, both morality and politics lead to the same conclusion: stand with Jerusalem as she fights the greatest threat to her existence in at least half a century.

At CUFI and the CUFI Action Fund, that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We look forward to seeing you, our members and readers, right there with us, shoulder-to-shoulder.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund Team