(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . ICYMI: Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin’s Perfect Comment about Israel [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-10 Last week Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made what I think was the perfect comment criticizing the policy the Israeli government is carrying out in Gaza. It was not in any way anti-Semitic, as some would immediately charge when making the slightest criticism of Israel. In fact, one could say that while critical of the Israel government, it was actually a pro-Israel statement in terms of the goal of a long-term peace for the Israeli people. If you have not already heard it, here it is: "In this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat," Besides being historically true on so many levels, it is a bold statement coming from a high ranking U.S. official. It sums up what we have all probably heard from various media pundits (eg. Ayman). That the Netanyahu government’s killing of thousands and thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza in its war with HAMAS, and it’s allowing settlers in the West Bank to harass and kill innocent Palestinians there, may lead to a defeat of the HAMAS terrorist regime, but in the long run will only serve to breed another terrorist group or groups, by a different name(s), among angry Palestinians which will only continue the killing of both Israelis and Palestinians for decades. However, Austin, to the best of my knowledge, is the first high ranking U.S. official to make such a necessary statement. It was the perfect statement separating the current Israeli government, that is already very unpopular within Israel, from the Israeli people. Let me say that Austin prefaced this remark by unequivocally stating that the U.S. has and will always support the Israeli people and their right to a State of their own. He also followed up his statement with support of a Two State solution as the only way to bring lasting peace to the region. To this point, I am sure Biden has been and continues to say things to Netanyahu and his government officials behind the scenes to get Israel to agree to a ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Although it has had some success in getting some of the hostages out, now it appears that it has having no effect on Netanyahu who appears to be giving Biden the middle finger. To the Biden administration’s credit, I have not heard any of them come out and criticize Austin for his statement or say that they disagree with it. But it’s time for Biden to publicly come out and make such a statement himself. He needs to take the good will he has built up among the Israeli people after helping to negotiate the release of hostages, and use it to explain to the them why what their government is currently doing is not in their long term self interest. Will it work to end/pause the slaughter of innocent civilians? Who knows? But whatever Biden is doing behind the scenes doesn’t appear to be working. It boils down to this. HAMAS wants to either kill or drive all the Jews out of Palestine, so they have to go. In turn, the current hard right Israeli government wants to drive all the Palestinians out of Palestine, so they have to go. Each needs to be replaced by people who want peace and are willing to accept a Two State solution. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/10/2210818/-ICYMI-Sec-of-Defense-Lloyd-Austin-s-Perfect-Comment-about-Israel?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/