Israel remains in crisis more than nine months after the terrorist group Hamas broke a ceasefire and undertook an orgy of murder, rape, and kidnapping across southern Israel. Hamas terrorists, Palestinian civilians, journalists working for Western outlets, and even United Nations employees facilitated kidnappings and abused hostages. As Israel continues its operations against Hamas terrorists, Hezbollah (armed with the latest Iranian drones and missiles despite U.N. monitoring) increasingly attacks northern Israel, driving tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes.
Neither the United States nor Europe would expect any other country to tolerate such attacks against its own borders, but the Biden administration approaches Israel through the cynical lens of its own electoral politics. For Biden, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and his deputy Jon Finer, winning the Islamist vote in Dearborn, Michigan, or Minneapolis trumps any principled defense of the Jewish state. European officials, meanwhile, approach Israel with moral equivalence, somehow conflating perpetrator and victim, and approach the Palestinians with racist condescension, denying their agency and shielding them from the consequences of their own decisions.
When Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur in 1973, the Nixon administration launched Operation Nickel Grass to ensure the world’s only Jewish state had what it needed to defend itself. Contrast this with the Biden team and its European partners. Both are slow-rolling, if not informally boycotting, shipments of much-needed ammunition and resupply to a country under fire.
Biden and European leaders may look at Israel in isolation, but Israel is the canary in the coal mine in the fight against broader tyrannical forces that would normalize genocide and state erasure. Make no mistake: Other democracies under existential threat observe how the West treats Israel. Wavering on Ukraine, on full display with former President Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate, reinforces such concern.
Biden and European leaders may look at Israel in isolation, but Israel is the canary in the coal mine in the fight against broader tyrannical forces that would normalize genocide and state erasure.
Taiwanese officials realize that should they face Chinese conquest, the West might posture, but it likely would not act. Every Taiwanese person who values his freedom should understand now that if China invades, Taiwan can only rely on itself as Washington would likely betray its commitments or simply lose interest. Beijing orchestrates a 100-year marathon, while Washington tags out at 100 days.
When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, President Harry S. Truman responded militarily, even though South Korea fell outside America’s “defensive perimeter.” Should North Korea repeat its actions 75 years later, it is not clear how much effort the U.S. would make to keep North Korean communists and cultists from overrunning their southern neighbor. Japan, meanwhile, could face threats from both China and North Korea.
The slow, unstated military boycott of Israel gives these countries one lesson: If Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan truly want to guarantee their security, they cannot rely on the U.S. Rather, they must develop their own nuclear deterrent. It may seem like a radical solution, but signaling to aggressors that they will no longer couple themselves to Washington’s whims is the best deterrent.
Of course, Israel has its own nuclear deterrent, though it would likely not use it unless it was in danger of terrorist forces overrunning it. But that only underscores the point. Diplomats may look at the decades-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime as a pillar of international security for more than 65 years, but it is on life support, transformed into an empty shell of itself by the cynicism of diplomats who prioritize image over substance and favor short-term Band-Aids over long-term solutions. Today, the liberal order depends on proliferating nuclear deterrence.
