Since the day it began, the war between Israel and Hamas has resulted in almost nothing but significant tragedy.
Thousands in Israel and Gaza have become victims of a violent war, and the death toll continues to rise. Additionally, the terrorist group wreaking havoc in the Middle East is not only a threat to Israel, but to any of Israel’s allies. And in a recent development, experts are warning that the Israel-Hamas conflict could trigger a broader war throughout the Middle East.
USA Today highlighted “flashpoints” that have occurred since Oct. 7, such as the Houthis, an Iranian-backed militant group, firing missiles into the Red Sea, American bases in the Middle East under attack, and Lebanon’s Iranian-backed militia, Hezbollah, increasing its attacks on northern Israel. Additionally, with the war in Israel and with America’s southern border wide open, terrorist threats are soaring.
“The war has already reached much of the Middle East,” said Paul Salem of the think tank Middle East Institute. “The risk is that the aperture and intensity of conflict will steadily ratchet up in the coming weeks and months unless there is sharp progress to reverse course.”
But to see the atrocities of war for himself, Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, took a trip to the Gaza border last month.
Brownback, joined by the Family Research Council’s Ken Blackwell and other evangelical Christian leaders, met with hostage families and Israeli military officials. “It’s horrific,” he said on Wednesday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” hosted by FRC President Tony Perkins. Brownback said that he’s been to Israel on at least nine separate occasions, but no visit compared with this most recent one.
“We were at a lunch in Tel Aviv and had a missile attack going on,” he explained. “Now, the Iron Dome stopped it, but everybody had to get up and go to the shelter. During that [same visit, we also] went to the kibbutz that … had been overrun by the terrorists, and people [were] just slaughtered indiscriminately.”
Perkins added that, despite the realities of what the people of Israel have to endure, the Biden administration still insists on a two-state solution. “Isn’t that essentially what we had with Gaza that was self-governed since 2007?” Perkins asked. “And it … doesn’t work.”
Brownback agreed, insisting that no such solution would be tolerated if it were happening in America. Under a two-state solution, he emphasized, “You’ve got terrorist groups that want to literally wipe you out and are willing” to do whatever it takes to do so. Brownback urged that the U.S. “needs to be clear on the moral issue” concerning this war. “Do we want to see another genocide of the Jewish people, like what happened in Hitler’s Germany? I think not, but you’ve got that level of barbarism right there next to [Israel] that wants to destroy them.”
And yet, Perkins noted, the calls for Israel to “back off” continue.
According to Brownback, the Biden administration has made matters worse by allowing Iran, “the center of [the Hamas] terrorist effort,” to receive funding. He asserted, “We have to push back on Iran, and things will not change in that region for Israel until they deal with the terrorists and Iran’s leadership is changed.” Otherwise, the conflict will only worsen in Israel, throughout the Middle East, and potentially across the globe.
As Perkins reiterated, “elections have consequences.”
“We need … voices out there keeping this issue before the American people in the international community,” he said.
Originally published at WashingtonStand.com
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