I'm John Batch with my colleague Mary Kessel at the Hudson Institute.

She is an executive vice president Stephen's incorporated as well.

She has several hats, former senior advisor to the Secretary of State.

The hot war in Israel right now is dealing with the remains of Hezbollah's leadership,

also the threats from other parts of the Middle East.

Iran is the least of it. There's also Yemen and the Houthis. And Hamas is not solved,

although it's taken a backseat to the Hezbollah threat.

There's reason to believe that Israel has crossed the border and is conducting

commando as special operations, all fog of war. So I just want to speak to what we were before

Israel defending itself and where is the United States in this Mary? Because Israel clearly has been attacked and yet for weeks now there's

been language that suggests that the US doesn't support Israel defending itself.

The word ceased fire comes up all the time.

Well, the Biden administration has tried to please two camps.

The first, and I'm speaking of their domestic political constituencies constituencies but I'll tie it to what's going on overseas in a moment.

The first is of course American Jews who historically have voted largely for the Democratic Party in national elections.

And the second is a growing Palestinian community in swing states like Michigan that do not support the continuation of the

state of Israel who are sympathetic to Hamas and who are growing in

number and who again live in a very important state.

So the Biden team has tried to have it both ways.

It's initially voiced support for Israel

after the horrific terrorist attack into southern Israel by Hamas last year.

But at the same time, calling for a ceasefire as if Israel is wont Hanley killing Palestinian civilians for fun, which of course it isn't.

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