Since the start of the Iran War, the leftist media has followed the Democrat script, intensifying their scrutiny of Israel, including one sided reporting on allegations that the U.S. was dragged into the war by the Jewish state, and retaliatory strikes by Israel against Hezbollah in Lebanon. On Monday, 30 House Democrats, including all Squad members, signed a letter demanding that we find out more about Israel's nuclear capabilities, something that CNN's Abby Phillip came out in full support of early Wednesday on NewsNight.
Philip began, "Everybody knows that Israel has nukes. We don't know how many. Is it time for there to be more transparency around that?" After providing a lengthy lesson on Israel's nuclear history, Presidential historian Tim Naftali seemed to say, yes it was time, to make an exception when it comes to Israel.
NAFTALI: It has never been our policy as a government to tell people about our allies nuclear arsenals, if they don't say it themselves. And we're stuck in this policy because of the cold war, it's a problem.
PHILLIP: But now that there's a hot war in the Middle East, does that change the calculus?
CNN's senior political commentator Van Jones came to Israel's defense, big time, calling out his own party, and this issue, for what it is.
JONES: What is the point? We already know that they have nukes. If the United States forces them to cough up the furball, how is that in the interest of the United States? I just don't know what the point is....
It seems to me it's just another attempt on the left wing of my party, to throw a rock at Israel. And it just seems like a whole bunch of people in my party, just like throwing rocks at Israel, and this is the latest rock. I try to be fair about this stuff. How does it advance the interest of the United States to force Israel to cough up this furball when everybody already knows it anyway? What's the point?
Then Naftali seemed to reveal what the left is really looking to accomplish.
NAFTALI: But one of the things that has fallen away is our leverage. We've never had a lot of leverage over the state of Israel when it comes to its decisions on national security. They're an independent country. Our national interests and their national interests do overlap, but not completely.... Israel does what Israel wants to do.
And one of the things we haven't done as much of as we could, we haven't used our leverage to say to Israel, sometimes, you know, the war you've launched against Hamas, Hamas deserves it, but the way you're fighting it, it's not good for the international system and it's not good for us....It's a good debate to have, not on the nuclear issue, but how can the United States use its leverage to make the Middle East more peaceful?
Isn't that what they thought Team Biden was doing? How did that work out? Then Jones stepped in again with another dose of common sense.
JONES: I'm asking an honest question. Why? I mean, I is has there been some rumor that says that Israel is going to nuke Iran? I don't think there has been.PHILLIP: There's only one power in the Middle East that has a nuke and it's Israel. And so the question is, what are the circumstances? What are the boundaries? Are there any boundaries? They don't acknowledge that they have them. People know that they that they do. But are there any boundaries? And I think that seems like a fair question.
Really? Should Israel reveal this information to the world, or just to to members of the Squad, and others who can easily leak it? Naftali took it a step further: "The issue here is whether it should go public."
Phillip continued her strong push against Israel's stance, "Why shouldn't they (Israel) behave the way other nuclear states that are good actors do when they have those nuclear weapons, they have a certain degree of transparency.... There's no reason for them not to acknowledge it."
Interestingly, Scott Jennings was on the panel, but he did not weigh in at all on this issue. It's obvious Phillip goes beyond the what the Democrat letter demands, which is for Congress to be informed. She wants every one of Israel's enemies to know all that they can about Israel's capabilities, which should come as no surprise from the woman, who on Wednesday redefined the meaning of the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish chant of From the River To The Sea.
