Roughly 80 years after the Holocaust, “once again thuggish killers dressed in black are pulling Jewish elderly, women, and children out of their homes and executing them,” declared historian and professor Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, as he slammed the Hamas “SS murderers,” while accusing the Biden administration of bolstering Hamas, and calling on Americans to demand “not one more American cent” be transferred to the Palestinians.
Amid the shocking news of a concerted and brutal attack on Israelis, world-renowned historian and scholar of classics and military history Dr. Victor Davis Hanson explained why Hamas staged the “long-planned, carefully executed and multifaceted attack on Israeli towns, soldiers, and civilians,” as well as how the terrorists managed to enter Israel with the large numbers necessary to kill hundreds.
A 50th Anniversary War?
Why did Hamas stage a long-planned, carefully executed and multifaceted attack on Israeli towns, soldiers, and civilians—one designed to instill terror by executing noncombatants, taking hostages, and desecrating the bodies of the dead?
And how were the…
— Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) October 7, 2023
According to Hanson, the “gruesome” actions of “radical Palestinians,” which were “designed to instill terror by executing noncombatants, taking hostages, and desecrating the bodies of the dead,” were multi-pronged and meticulously plotted with a broader geopolitical agenda in mind.
“Ostensibly, radical Palestinians wanted to stop any rumored rapprochement between the Gulf monarchies — the traditional source of much of their cash — and Israel, by forcing the issue of Arab solidarity in times of ‘war,’” he asserted, adding that Tehran “likely was the driving force to prompt the war — given its greatest fear is a Sunni Arab-Israeli rapprochement.”
The timing of the attack, he noted, was also of critical significance.
“Arab forces have had only success against Israel through surprise attacks during Israeli holidays,” he explained, drawing a parallel with the Yom Kippur War (which was launched roughly 50 years prior to the day), which elicited historical traumas as the terrorists attempted to sow chaos amidst celebration.
The terrorists, he suggested, may have also perceived a window of opportunity, taking advantage of “recent Israeli turmoil and mass leftist street protests” over proposed reforms of the Israeli Supreme Court that they likely believed had led to “permanent internal divisions and thus a climate of domestic distraction if not an erosion of deterrence.”
In examining the broader geopolitical framework, he slammed the current administration for having “contributed both to the notion that Hamas was a legitimate Middle East player, and to the perception that the U.S. was backing away from its traditional support for Israel — to the delight of Hamas.”
Hanson also pointed to the Biden administration’s funding and financial aid to the Palestinians, including “millions of American dollars” that went into the Hamas-run Gaza, suggesting these “inexplicable” actions emboldened the violent Hamas.
“In February, Secretary of State Blinken had bragged that not only had the Biden administration resumed massive aid to the PLA [Palestine Liberation Army] cancelled by Trump, but cumulatively had transferred $1 billion,” he noted, adding that this was done “even as Palestinian authorities bragged that they would continue to pay bounties to the families of ‘martyrs’ (i.e., those killed while conducting terrorist attacks against Israel).”
In addition, the Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution blasted the current “shameful” and “embarrassing” State Department website news release posted after the attack that suggested a “morally equivalent admonition” to both sides when it wrote, “We urge all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”
“So Israel is the moral equivalent of terrorists executing civilians and brutalizing their corpses? And the IDF then is not supposed to retaliate against these killers?” Hanson asked, arguing that “this Biden State Department insanity cannot stand.”
Hanson then criticized the Biden administration’s recent release of some $6 billion to Tehran, despite its increasing “anti-Israeli rhetoric and boasting,” suggesting it may have even served as the “chief catalyst for this surprise attack.”
Slamming the appointment of particular individuals in key negotiating positions, Hanson highlighted how “[a]lmost immediately, after his inauguration,” Biden appointed the “anti-Israeli bigot, pro-Iranian journalist Robert Malley as America’s chief negotiator,” as he “mobilized to resume the bankrupt Iran deal.”
“[T]here was a general Hamas and Iranian perception that the Biden administration had resumed the discredited Obama madness of empowering Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas,” he stated, indicating that this perceived shift in U.S. alignment might have played a role in the timings and dynamics of the recent attacks.
“This discredited agenda was to ‘balance’ the power of Israel and the moderate Arab Gulf governments to achieve ‘creative tension’, exacerbated by Biden’s loathing of the government of Benjamín Netanyahu (who has been snubbed by Biden and never invited for an official visit),” he added.
Considering whether a pattern is present, Hanson noted that the Biden administration “siphoned off key weapons and munitions from stockpiles inside Israel to transfer them to Ukraine.”
“The so-called ‘War Reserve Ammunition — Israel’ is all but depleted of just the sorts of weapons needed in the present crisis,” he said.
He also highlighted the cascade of international crises following Biden’s ascension “and his woke military agendas,” including “the complete humiliation of the U.S. in Kabul…; followed by Vladimir Putin’s opportunistic invasion of Ukraine; followed by China’s new belligerence and escalating threats to Taiwan; followed by Turkey’s new de facto alliance with Russia…; followed by the Hamas/Iranian inspired attack on Israel—with more to come unfortunately.”
“And will Biden finally get the message from the attacks on the Ukraine and Israeli borders, that borders matter and we too are being invaded, with the encouragement of the Mexican government and to the advantage of the cartels whose fentanyl exports kills 100,000 Americans a year?” he asked.
Hanson predicted that Israel could expect “the usual Hamas/terrorist selling and/or execution of Israeli hostages, the use of Israeli hostages as ‘human shields’ in Gaza, the bargaining/sale of the remains of Israeli dead, [and] occasional killings of Jews inside Israel by Arabs who falsely believe there will be a winning Middle East-wide existential war against Israel.”
“And finally, a devastating Israeli counter-response that will eventually earn a U.S. rebuke,” he added.
According to Hanson, the U.S. should take a decisive and firm approach and “quit talking to Iran and restore full sanctions against it.”
The U.S. should “cut off all aid immediately to all the Palestinians,” he argued, and “undertake a 1973-like massive arms lift of key munitions to Israel and warn Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and others in the Middle East not to intervene or else, given that Israel will need several weeks to deal with Hamas and Gaza.”
“And if it shows any hesitation or weakness, other terrorist groups will opportunistically jump in,” he added.
Hanson also likened the attacks by Hamas terrorists to the horrors experienced by Jews at the hands of Nazi murderers several decades ago.
“Here we are 78 years after the end of the Holocaust and once again thuggish killers dressed in black are pulling Jewish elderly, women, and children out of their homes and executing them, and then throwing their bodies into the street,” he wrote.
However, he noted, then, in 1945, “we were fighting the SS murderers, [whereas] now we are sending millions in subsidies to their modern Hamas killer squad counterparts.”
“We the American people should demand not one more American cent to these Gestapo and SS killers,” he concluded.
Here we are 78 years after the end of the Holocaust and once agains thuggish killers dressed in black are pulling Jewish elderly, women, and children out of their homes and executing them, and then throwing their bodies into the street. But in 1945 we were fighting the SS…
— Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) October 7, 2023
The matter comes after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launched an unprecedented terror attack on Israel on Saturday, which included the firing of thousands of rockets into Israel and the infiltration of Israeli territory by land, air, and sea.
Thus far, the attacks in Israel have reportedly left over 700 Israelis dead and over 2,200 wounded.
BREAKING:
Israel confirms that the bodies of 260 civilians were found at the site of the music festival near the Gaza border fence.
The authorities announce that search and rescue operation is over. pic.twitter.com/rWWVsfqmhy
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
Hamas claims it has captured Israel Defense Force soldiers and civilians during its assault on Israeli border towns outside Gaza.
Meanwhile dozens of disturbing video clips depicting Israeli civilians — men, women, and children — being abused, kidnapped or executed have flooded social media outlets.
Holocaust survivor in wheelchair among those abducted by Hamas and taken to Gaza. https://t.co/2UvqkbVBxy pic.twitter.com/6WeoZpp180
— Dr. Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) October 8, 2023
In 2021, President Joe Biden’s massive $6 trillion budget proposal for the 2022 fiscal year included hundreds of millions of dollars in restored aid to the Palestinians, much of which President Donald Trump had suspended over concerns about Palestinian support for terror.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.