“An Inflection Point in History”

Was the President’s phraseology overly dramatic? Sometimes sales pitches need them, acknowledges Danie DePetis in The Spectator, “even if the underlying case is a bit flawed. “

President Joe Biden’s speech last night was nothing but a sales pitch, “nothing more, nothing less.”

Having flown back to Washington from Israel the previous day, he is obviously deeply impacted by the carnage that occurred on October 7, the worst day in the nation’s history in half a century.

Given the gruesome videos and photos of Hamas’s hours-long assault, not to mention the ongoing saga over the fate of the roughly 200 people who were taken back to the Gaza Strip as captives, it’s almost unfathomable anybody could feel anything other than dread and sadness.

Palestinian civilians are suffering enormous hardships as well; Gaza, known colloquially as the world’s largest open-air prison due to the border restrictions imposed by Israel and Egypt, is now awash in rubble, rebar, tears, desperation and hopelessness. Combine this awful situation with Israel’s upcoming ground invasion, as well as Hamas’s propensity to use civilians as human shields, and the overall picture will get even uglier as the days and weeks go on.

Hamas might dream of wiping Israel off the map, but (it doesn’t) have the capacity to do it — and if Israel’s military response over the last twelve days is a hint of what’s to come, Hamas could be a shell of its former self by the time its war with Israel is over.

What Americans need to know: who is funding Hamas?