Earlier this week, when the casket was opened, the Israelis all too quickly realized their promised (dead) hostage, Shiri Bibas – mother of two red-headed cherubs, a dead infant and a dead toddler – was not there with her babies.  In defiance of the ceasefire agreement, an unidentified corpse took her place. 

This shamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a justifiably proud man. What few realize is that this shame goes all the way back to the first Gulf War in 1991-2.  

Following Iraq’s seizure of Kuwait, during the coalition war fought to restore Kuwait, Saddam began raining SCUD strategic ballistic missiles down on Israel, even though the Jewish homeland state wasn’t part of the coalition. 

However, all the important Arab states were coalition partners.  Several, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and several other “Emirates,” formed a vital part of the coalition. Not because they were going to send massive military support to battle – except for Saudi Arabia, they didn’t have the military forces to make a difference – but because America needed an adjacent nation in which to “park” her soldiers and tanks and combat aircraft prior to the assault.  

However, if Israel responded to Saddam’s strategic missile assault, those key Arab nations would automatically pull out of the coalition.  If this happened, Saddam’s blatantly fraudulent claim that this was another “crusade” against Muslim states would suddenly appear to be true.

To prevent this, Bush the Elder went to Netanyahu – then as now, Israel’s wartime Prime Minister – essentially begging him to not attack Saddam in return.  Netanyahu, under pressure from his own nation, agreed – but only so long as America did all it could to prevent further SCUD attacks. 

As a surprise to Bush, all we could do was not enough.  Finding camouflaged missiles on flatbed trucks in trackless desert proved all but impossible  

However, America sent an ample supply of new Patriot anti-aircraft/anti-missile point-defense weapon batteries.  This allowed Israel to defend itself.  Built by the Soviet Union, these poor-man’s copies of unguided Hitler’s V-2 vengeance weapons, they were hypersonic but easily destroyed.

Bush knew it – Israel must stay out of the war.  If Netanyahu attacked Saddam, the coalition would shatter.  To keep the coalition together, Bush would promise Netanyahu almost anything – what he delivered was enough.  But that secret agreement created an ongoing obligation – America became responsible for protecting Israel, to avoid shattering the post Gulf-War alliance of Arab states with America – first against Saddam, and Iran’s terror organizations, Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

A generation later, Iron Dome represented the latest example of America’s ongoing commitment. This mobile anti-missile system was created by a coalition of Israeli and American weapons developers and manufactured in the U.S.  

Fast forward to Oct. 7, 2023, the day that Israeli’s defense failed them for the first time since the Yom Kippur War.  But the U.S. also failed Israel – and Benjamin Netanyahu.  

In the Yom Kippur War, America stepped forward, providing – real-time – replacement aircraft to rebuild the Israeli Air Force, just as Egypt ran out of the Soviet-made MANPAD – Man-Portable Air Defense missiles that had decimated the IAF.

In China, when you save a man’s life, you are responsible for him.  In the Gulf War, America saved Israel while saving the Coalition.  Going forward, we assumed responsibility for Israel’s survival.  

Fast forward to Oct. 7, 2023.  As far as Israel knew, that agreement – then manifested in the Iron Dome cooperation – remained in force.  While Israel has HUMINT – Human Intelligence – forces second to none, the U.S. maintains a low-earth-orbit satellite (ELINT, Electronic Intelligence) second to none. 

Whether he knew it on a conscious level or not, Netanyahu depended on that to warn the Israeli Defense Forces – IDF – of any impending attack by Hamas or Hezbollah. 

However, this meant counting on Joe Biden, not Donald Trump.  Few people who depended on Biden came out ahead of the game.

While there is blame enough to go around – the surprise attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 civilians and took 250 civilian hostages – was a huge embarrassment to Prime Minister Netanyahu.  However, before he could deal with that, he had a war to win against Hamas in Gaza.  He knew that only by eradicating Hamas root-and-branch could he win that war.  Initially, Biden said what Israel wanted – and expected – to hear.  The U.S. would support whatever Israel needed to do to destroy Hamas.  

However, Netanyahu didn’t know that this promise would last maybe a week before being “abridged” by a feckless Biden. 

This put the Israeli PM in a horrific position.  Soon, military supplies were being slow-walked, as Biden’s fecklessness metastasized, enforcing his demands that Israel embrace cease-fires rather than eradication.  

Then came this latest humiliation.  Instead of a promised (dead) hostage, Hamas sent along a “ringer,” yet another “in your face” from Hamas.  And while Trump has been working at “warp speed” to undo all the damage Biden created in all aspects of governance and security, at least when Trump – reacting to this blatant breach of the cease-fire forced on Israel by Biden – promised Israel our full support, Netanyahu has reason to believe it.

Whatever happens next, Netanyahu knows that Trump won’t put up with this any more than will Israel. 

Clearly, the only way to stop Hamas is to, as I said, eradicate it “root and branch.”

Ned Barnett, the author of 40 published books with several more in the pipeline, is a military historian focusing on the 20th and early 21st Century.  The on-camera historian and host of nine History Channel programs such as D-Day Tech and World War One Tech, he remains networked into the strong subculture of newsletters and websites that keeps track of all tech-advancements not strictly protected by classification.  

As an author, Ned also works with other writers – including one client who signed on after reading an earlier American Thinker article.  He can be reached at nedbarnett51@gmail.com or 702-561-1167.

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