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Back When Barack Obama Saw Israel Through the Eyes of a Dad (BOOK EXCERPT)
Former US President Barack Obama. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Beyond Proportionality: Israel’s Just War in Gaza, by Thane Rosenbaum (Wicked Son Books, 2025)
Beyond Proportionality examines Israel’s battles against Hamas and Hezbollah under the laws of war and concludes that its wartime conduct was based on military necessity and fought justly. The targets are terrorists, weapons, and tunnels — not civilians.
Israel relies upon verifiable intelligence, deploys precise weapons, and endangers its own soldiers in order to minimize civilian death.
Below is an excerpt from the book:
If you are a parent with an infant at home, what took place in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, must have affected you deeply. Imagine if your neighbor, who had already made it known that he or she denied your existence and wished for your house to be burned down with you and your family in it, broke into your home and slit your baby’s throat.
I will allow that to sink in for a moment. It deserves contemplation.
I fear most people have not given the reality of such barbarism very much thought. But that is precisely the barbarism that those who attended the Nova Music Festival, or who happened to live in small, ransacked kibbutzim on that fateful October 7 morning, experienced.
If you are a father with teenage daughters, there was barbarism for you, as well. Imagine if your similarly monstrous next door-neighbor invaded your home with a rapacious group of his male relatives and friends, and brutally gang raped your daughter — and made you watch. When finished, they mutilated her breasts and genitalia with knives and machine guns. Can you imagine surviving something like that — as in, psychologically survive such an assault on your flesh and blood?
. . .
The next time some pink-haired progressive or anti-American Muslim is shouting “I am Hamas!” or “Globalize the Intifada!” or “Death to America!” please, at the very least, assume a facial expression that signals an appropriate level of disgust.
It is with these vulgarities in mind that the obvious must be stated: The laws of war were fashioned by military strategists who lived in civilized nations, men who believed that even in war there must be rules. There was honor in going to battle to defend a nation, but wars must be fought honorably — especially when facing adversaries committed to following the same set of rules. The laws of war provide a framework for how civilized nations can resolve their disputes, even if it requires going to war.
Non-state actors, however, terrorists — who abide by no rules at all, who have no pretenses about civility, and who believe themselves to be exempt from the laws of war — should expect that the civilized nations they face in battle will set at least some of those rules aside, too. It’s only fair, it is often necessary, and to do anything less is a betrayal of one’s own people.
. . .
When Barack Obama was running for president, he made his first visit to Israel, the summer before the election — a sideways campaign stop. … Obama wanted to burnish his foreign policy credentials, but mostly he needed to reassure American Jews, many of whom are Democrats, that [he] understood the moral purpose and strategic necessity of Israel, a nation created a mere three years after the liberation of Auschwitz.
. . .
Obama was a very young father of two small daughters. Unexpectedly, probably improvising from the scripted campaign materials, he responded to something he saw in Israel as a protective father would and should, and not as a cynical, gladhanding candidate.
. . .
Sderot has been target practice for Hamas and Islamic Jihad since 2007. The people who live there have grown accustomed to hearing sirens that cause them to enter outside bomb shelters and indoor safe rooms, or duck behind concrete barriers dredged along roads built for this very purpose. Obama spoke with Israeli families who told him that Sderot has faced tens of thousands of rockets in the time they have lived there. One such family had a small boy who lost a leg to one of those Qassam rockets.
When the visit was over, Obama held an impromptu press conference. … But it came as a surprise to many who were skeptical of his support for Israel when Obama read these words out loud:
“The first job of any nation state is to protect its citizens. And so, I can assure you that if — I don’t even care if I was a politician. If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”
We know the story from there. The candidate won the presidency, and almost instantly upon entering the Oval Office, forgot all about his visit to Israel. The memory of Sderot, a small city teeming with vulnerability, obviously did not stay with him. During his second term in office, when Israel was at war with Hamas in 2014, Obama repeatedly warned Israel to “show restraint,” “de-escalate the fighting,” and seek avenues for a “ceasefire.”
How soon he forgot.
Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, and the author, most recently, of “Beyond Proportionality: Israel’s Just War in Gaza.”
The post Back When Barack Obama Saw Israel Through the Eyes of a Dad (BOOK EXCERPT) first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Links $1.9 Billion in State Disaster Funds to Israel Boycott Stance
A resident enters a FEMA’s improvised station to attend claims by local residents affected by floods following the passing of Hurricane Helene, in Marion, North Carolina, US, Oct. 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
US states and cities that boycott Israeli companies will be denied federal aid for natural disaster preparedness, the Trump administration has announced, tying routine federal funding to its political stance.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency stated in grant notices posted on Friday that states must follow its “terms and conditions.” Those conditions require they certify they will not sever “commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies” to qualify for funding.
The requirement applies to at least $1.9 billion that states rely on to cover search-and-rescue equipment, emergency manager salaries, and backup power systems among other expenses, according to 11 agency grant notices reviewed by Reuters.
The requirement is the Trump administration’s latest effort to use federal funding to promote its views on Israel.
The Department of Homeland Security, the agency that oversees FEMA, in April said that boycotting Israel is prohibited for states and cities receiving its grant funds.
FEMA separately said in July that US states will be required to spend part of their federal terrorism prevention funds on helping the government arrest migrants, an administration priority.
The Israel requirement takes aim at BDS, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement designed to isolate the world’s lone Jewish state on the international stage as a step toward its eventual elimination.
“DHS will enforce all antidiscrimination laws and policies, including as it relates to the BDS movement, which is expressly grounded in antisemitism,” a spokesperson for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a statement.
The requirement is largely symbolic. At least 34 states already have anti-BDS laws or policies, according to a University of Pennsylvania law journal. The BDS movement did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The American Jewish Committee supports the Trump administration’s policy, said Holly Huffnagle, the group’s director of antisemitism policy. The AJC is an advocacy group that supports Israel.
Under one of the grant notices posted on Friday, FEMA will require major cities to agree to the Israel policy to receive a cut of $553.5 million set aside to prevent terrorism in dense areas.
New York is due to receive $92.2 million from the program, the most of all the recipients. Allocations are based on the agency’s analysis of “relative risk of terrorism,” according to the notice.
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Iran Sets Up New Defense Council in Wake of War With Israel
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a meeting in Ilam, Iran, June 12, 2025. Photo: Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran‘s top security body approved the establishment of a National Defenxe Council on Sunday, according to state media, following a short air war with Israel in June that was Iran‘s most acute military challenge since the 1980s war with Iraq.
“The new defense body will review defense plans and enhance the capabilities of Iran‘s armed forces in a centralized manner,” the Supreme National Security Council‘s Secretariat was quoted as saying by state media.
The defense council will be chaired by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and consists of the heads of the three government branches, senior armed forces commanders, and relevant ministries.
On Sunday, the commander-in-chief of Iran‘s military, Amir Hatami, warned that threats from Israel persist and should not be underestimated.
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Israel to Decide Next Steps in Gaza After Ceasefire Talks Collapse
Smoke rises from Gaza as the sun sets, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet this week to decide on Israel‘s next steps in Gaza following the collapse of indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas, with one senior Israeli source suggesting more force could be an option.
Last Saturday, during a visit to the country, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had said he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that would effectively end the war in Gaza.
But Israeli officials have also floated ideas including expanding the military offensive in Gaza and annexing parts of the shattered enclave.
The failed ceasefire talks in Doha had aimed to clinch agreements on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce, during which aid would be flown into Gaza and half of the hostages Hamas is holding would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
After Netanyahu met Witkoff last Thursday, a senior Israeli official said that “an understanding was emerging between Washington and Israel,” of a need to shift from a truce to a comprehensive deal that would “release all the hostages, disarm Hamas, and demilitarize the Gaza Strip,” – Israel‘s key conditions for ending the war.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday that the envoy’s visit was seen in Israel as “very significant.”
But later on Sunday, the Israeli official signaled that pursuit of a deal would be pointless, threatening more force: “An understanding is emerging that Hamas is not interested in a deal and therefore the prime minister is pushing to release the hostages while pressing for military defeat.”
“STRATEGIC CLARITY”
What a “military defeat” might mean, however, is up for debate within the Israeli leadership. Some Israeli officials have suggested that Israel might declare it was annexing parts of Gaza as a means to pressure the Palestinian terrorist group, which has ruled the enclave for nearly two decades.
Others, like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir want to see Israel impose military rule in Gaza before annexing it and re-establishing the Jewish settlements Israel evicted 20 years ago.
The Israeli military, which has pushed back at such ideas throughout the war, was expected on Tuesday to present alternatives that include extending into areas of Gaza where it has not yet operated, according to two defense officials.
While some in the political leadership are pushing for expanding the offensive, the military is concerned that doing so will endanger the 20 hostages who are still alive, the officials said.
Israeli Army Radio reported on Monday that military chief Eyal Zamir has become increasingly frustrated with what he describes as a lack of strategic clarity by the political leadership, concerned about being dragged into a war of attrition with Hamas terrorists.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment on the report but said that the military has plans in store.
“We have different ways to fight the terror organization, and that’s what the army does,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said.
On Tuesday, Qatar and Egypt endorsed a declaration by France and Saudi Arabia outlining steps toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which included a call on Hamas to hand over its arms to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Hamas has repeatedly said it won’t lay down arms. But it has told mediators it was willing to quit governance in Gaza for a non-partisan ruling body, according to three Hamas officials.
It insists that the post-war Gaza arrangement must be agreed upon among the Palestinians themselves and not dictated by foreign powers.
Israel‘s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar suggested on Monday that the gaps were still too wide to bridge.
“We would like to have all our hostages back. We would like to see the end of this war. We always prefer to get there by diplomatic means, if possible. But of course, the big question is, what will be the conditions for the end of the war?” he told journalists in Jerusalem.