On one level, we understand their hesitance. No one wants to see the Right aiding and abetting, say, a US move to attack Iran, which would easily spiral into World War III, no doubt to the delight of the Nikki Haleys and Liz Cheneys of the world. However, supporting Israel’s efforts to defend itself need not extend this far, and no movement that claims to defend civilization should ever oppose crushing vile, barbaric terrorists, particularly not when those terrorists' entire ideology is nothing but the leftover detritus of Soviet influence campaigns.
Fortunately, there is a way to not only thread the needle, but to actually strengthen the America First agenda, as practiced by President Trump in his first term. As President Trump himself recognized when he brokered the Abraham Accords, “America First” need not mean “America Only.” It would be better for America, and for the world, for a lasting peace to be brokered in the Middle East, which ideally would place Israel in a commanding position while isolating committed enemies both of Israel and the US such as Iran.
Make no mistake, Israel’s counterstrikes can help to achieve this in one very specific way: they can take out Hamas.
Let’s be clear: even relative to the admittedly bitterly anti-Israel Palestinian population, Hamas is a radical outlier. A literal terrorist group patronized by Iran, and by Lebanon’s equally noxious Hezbollah, Hamas is a radical Muslim Brotherhood cell with openly genocidal intentions. They also, not coincidentally, are the rulers of Gaza – the territory which Israel originally abandoned in 2005, but whose self-government they are now revoking, and which they are blockading and hammering with airstrikes as we speak.
Because Hamas is so extreme, and so uncompromising even relative to other Palestinian political entities, it would be wrong to conceive of them as rational political actors. Rather, they are more like rabid dogs that their patrons selectively allow off their chains at opportune times. This attack, for example, was clearly encouraged by Iran in order to scuttle Israel’s ongoing talks of normalizing relations with other Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia. That they were able to manage this is a failure that can be laid entirely at President Biden’s feet; as James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation argued in the pages of this publication, giving Iran $6 billion in a prisoner exchange, with no strings attached, was premium grade fuel for their terror machine.
Nevertheless, the Hamas attack did its work; peace talks between Israel and other Mideast states are now on indefinite hold, and many of those states have issued statements publicly supportive of the Palestinians. To be fair, they likely had no choice, given that they govern majority-Arab countries, and the Palestinians are, themselves, ethnic Arabs. That they still felt the need to do this, even given the international outcry over the barbarism of these attacks, tells us that so long as Hamas is allowed to operate in Israel, no peace deal can be brokered among Middle Eastern nations that leaves Israel intact. Hamas can and will sabotage any such deal, with the aid of Iran and their other patrons.
Which means, if President Trump’s ultimate vision for the Abraham Accords is to ever become reality, Hamas must be wiped out. Not all Palestinians. Not even all Gazans. Hamas, specifically. In fact, if Israel succeeds in doing this, then whatever their public positions, the other Arab states are likely to breathe sighs of relief. They may not like Israel, but they fear Iran, and if Israel can purge a vicious Iranian cutout within their own borders, then they can offer aid to other nations – like Lebanon – dealing with the same hostile terror cells. The US would be asleep at the wheel if it did not offer help in this endeavor, particularly considering that our porous southern border offers plentiful opportunities for terrorists of the same stripe to sneak into our country and commit similar atrocities. Again, just ask President Trump.
In short, so long as Israel’s response to this weekend’s atrocities remains the disciplined and ruthless campaign to root out terrorist barbarians that it already is, then it not only is not contrary to the America First agenda, but it quite literally makes it possible on the global stage. So yes, America First patriots ought to be cheering for Israel, as they wipe out the monsters within their borders completely and without mercy. With apologies to President Trump, Hamas is bringing death, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and none, we assume, are good people.
