‘Moral Bankruptcy’: ALL ISRAEL NEWS Editor Rosenberg scorches former CIA chief for accusing Israel of ‘terrorism’ in exploding pager op against Hezbollah
ALL ISRAEL NEWS Editor-in-Chief Joel Rosenberg spoke with American Family Radio’s Jenna Ellis following Israel’s chain of successful military operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah, including the assassination of its top leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.
Rosenberg slammed senior leaders within the U.S. Democratic Party for demonstrating “moral bankruptcy” over recent events unfolding on Israel’s northern and southern war fronts.
In particular, he spoke about former CIA director, Leon Panetta, who labeled Israel’s destruction of Hezbollah’s communication devices as a form of “terrorism.”
“I don’t think there’s any question that it’s a form of terrorism,” Panetta said on “CBS News Sunday morning.”
“The ability to be able to place an explosive in technology that is very prevalent these days, and turn it into a war of terror, really, a war of terror – this is something new,” he claimed.
Rosenberg reminded Ellis that Panetta was former U.S. President Barack Obama’s defense secretary, who had advised him to send U.S. special forces into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden.
“It was then Vice President Joe Biden who opposed sending U.S. forces to go kill the top terrorist in the world. Panetta was for it,” he said.
“For Leon Panetta to accuse Israel of terrorism by having this ingenious strategy to kill or wound thousands of Hezbollah terrorists all in one moment by putting small explosive devices in both walkie-talkies and pagers for almost the entire senior Hezbollah leadership and the mid-range terrorists – it's moral bankruptcy,” Rosenberg continued.
“It shows how much key Democrats have decided that Israel is the problem. That killing terrorists is not the objective anymore. And I just look at this and I say this is a mistake,” Rosenberg added.
The lack of moral clarity that he described is also reflected in the White House's response to recent events.
While Biden called the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah a “measure of justice for his many victims,” he did not make it easy for Israel to finish the job.
A few days before Nasrallah's death, Biden kept pushing for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon that would provide “space for diplomacy.” Along with other key allies and G7 members, Biden issued a joint statement that left out one key word: Hezbollah.
At a press conference on Monday, the president was asked if he was aware of Israel's plan to launch a limited ground operation into Lebanon.”
Biden replied: "I am more aware than you might know and I'm comfortable with them stopping."
He repeated calls for a ceasefire on the day the Israeli military announced it had eliminated Fateh Sherif – the head of the Lebanon Branch of the Hamas terrorist organization – and three leaders of the Lebanon Branch of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).
“President Biden should be celebrating the fact that the United States government has an ally that will do for the American people what the American government itself did not do or could not do or refused to do for 40 years,” Rosenberg said,
During his conversation with Ellis, Rosenberg discussed Israel’s targeted elimination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut in late July.
Shukr was the mastermind behind the 1983 attack at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. Hezbollah sent two suicide bombers to detonate trucks loaded with explosives at buildings housing a multinational military peacekeeping force during the Lebanese Civil War. The attack resulted in the murder of 241 U.S. military personnel, 58 French military personnel and six civilians.
“Fuad Shukr was never hunted down, never arrested, never killed, never brought to justice by the American government for more than 40 years,” Rosenberg noted. “Israel brought to justice a man who killed more Americans in one moment than any other person besides Osama bin laden. And yet Biden and Harris are not celebrating our ally. They're constantly pressuring Israel to stand down, not to escalate.”
“Not escalate?” he questioned. “What in the world is [are] President Biden and Vice President Harris talking about? Israel is not escalating. Israel is responding to almost 10,000 missiles that have been fired at Israel by Hezbollah in Lebanon. We are responding. We are not escalating.”
Rosenberg told Ellis that this fort of abandonment by an ally has terrible consequences for America and the world.
“When you mistreat Israel, the Taiwanese are watching, the South Koreans are watching, the Japanese are watching when it comes to the China threat or to the North Korean threat. Obviously, Ukraine is watching. All of Europe is watching,” He explained. “The entire world is watching that Biden and Harris don't know how to stand with an ally that's under missile attack from seven different directions.”
“I worry that God may be getting close to being done with the United States. We're not there yet, but this is very, very dangerous when you take all of our other national mistakes and sins, and you add increasing abandonment of Israel to it.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.