By Steve BermanRepublicans in the House of Representatives had to adjourn because they couldn’t get behind Rep. Steve Scalise as the nominee for Speaker. They narrowly nominated him but can’t elect him because some childish members of his party won’t go along. These include Reps. “Handsy” Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, Max Miller, and George Santos—all of whom collectively would lose a debate with a kindergarten class.
Sadly, Rep. Chip Roy, a good man, refused on different grounds: “The House GOP should NOT have called a vote at 300pm after finishing the vote at 130pm in Conference. That is unacceptable & purposeful,” he posted on X/Twitter. Rep. Thomas “No” Massie said he’s “still very reluctant,” and Rep. Mike Turner wants more details on how Scalise will run the House.
If all we had to worry about is passing a new budget short term continuing resolution to increase the national debt in the next 30 or so days—a serious thing in itself—then I’d be inclined to let the GOP twist in the wind. Most of the time, a Congress that does nothing is the most effective political body we can have. But this is not most of the time, and is not the most important thing we have to worry about right now.
Two nations are fighting for their survival. One of these, without our help, will almost certainly lose. The other, we have stripped to aid the first. Let me explain that. After the 1973 Yom Kippur war, the U.S. established an ammunition stockpile in the Middle East, meaning in Israel. But in January, the New York Times reported that 150,000 of 300,000 artillery rounds were shipped to Ukraine, and the rest would follow. At the time, few were too concerned. But now, it looks like Israel might need those artillery rounds, and they don’t have them.
There’s nothing Congress can do here because Congress is doing nothing until Republicans can elect a Speaker. Democrats will vote en bloc for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as they’ve always done. Many of the GOP holdouts are MAGAs who want Jim Jordan as Speaker because they believe they can reliably manipulate him (they’re wrong—Jordan is into saving his own skin).
Meanwhile, the Trumpist Orange Demigod has spouted some pretty anti-Israel stuff. It’s fine that Trump stabbed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the back, telling Brian Kilmeade on Fox News, “He has been hurt very badly,” and “ He was not prepared.” Most Israelis would agree with that assessment, which is why Israel now has an emergency coalition government including Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s opposition rival. The alternative would be that Netanyahu simply step down now, but that day will come after the war.
But Trump went further. “You know, [Hizbollah] is very smart,” Trump said. “They’re all very smart.” Telling the world, as a former U.S. president, and candidate for that office again, that the enemy of our great ally is “very smart” is pretty stupid, unless Trump is dog-whistling for the anti-Semitic wing of his supporters.
Hizbollah is directly supported by, and integrated with the Iranian Republican Guard Corps (IRGC). It possesses somewhere around 150,000 rockets, many of them high-precision, buried near the Lebanon-Israel border. Hizbollah has begun using some of those rockets, and also squadrons of advanced drones to disable some of Israel’s intelligence and communications assets. Drones are also what Hamas used to take out Israel’s eyes, cellular communications, and automated machine gun posts as they stormed the fences and overwhelmed checkpoints to enter Israel.
Israel’s tech advantage is still very great, but as the Ukraine war has shown, warfare, especially unconventional, partisan-style warfare, has changed. Formal, planned military systems that haven’t been hardened against drone swarms, cyber attacks, and rocket saturation attacks are vulnerable. Israel’s military is famously adaptable, but it’s likely they’ll need help in this latest existential threat.
Israeli citizens have been told to stockpile three days worth of food and water this weekend, as Hamas has called for Friday, October 13 to be a day of “general mobilization for ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ operations.” They’ve called for all Palestinians to rise up in the streets to slaughter Jews. The Israeli government is taking this seriously, and the threat from the West Bank is real, if the PLO goes along. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken flew into Tel-Aviv Thursday and will meet with PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan.
Perhaps Blinken will pull off a diplomatic end-run, and Abbas will act like a grown-up and tell his people to stand fast for nonviolence.
President Joe Biden and his cabinet have acted like adults and done the right thing regarding both Ukraine and Israel. Biden even quietly began doing the right thing in resuming border wall construction to stem the giant flood of illegal immigration from Mexico.
It’s so-called conservatives who are sitting around shooting themselves in the foot over and over again. It’s time to grow up, elect a Speaker who isn’t a MAGA stooge, and help our allies. History will judge poorly the grown-up children who sat by and did nothing but play political footsie while evil is allowed to run rampant all over the world.
*** On another note: One thing the U.S. can do to help Israel is to send some special operations troops into the posh villa in Doha where Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh lives in luxury, and bring this man to the Jerusalem. You’d see how fast the hostages in Gaza would be released. We have 11,000 U.S. military members on a giant base in Qatar. Qatar supports terrorism while maintaining a friendly face toward western democracies. I’d trade that base in Doha for bringing the head of Hamas to justice.
Follow Steve on Twitter @stevengberman.
The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at ideas@thefirsttv.com.
