The narrative that President Biden is too old to be president isn’t holding up all that well, taking more than a few hits in recent months. Biden’s arduous secret trip to Kiev to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine while it fends off Vladimir Putin’s barbarism didn’t exactly advance the narrative. His visit to Israel while it is besieged by thousands of Hamas rockets, landing on Air Force One at an airport easily reached by the Iranian proxy’s missiles, set the narrative back even further. If this is what it means to be too old to lead the free world, one wonders whether there is anything a younger president could do to make Americans prouder.

Biden’s personal courage was accompanied by wisdom, all displayed with the knowledge that his immediate, resolute commitment to Israel would unleash rage from the predictable quarters. The leaders of Arab countries that American taxpayers help sustain nonetheless refused to meet with Biden on his Mideast trip, fearful of being toppled by the spillover of raw Jew-hatred on the Arab street. This is not Biden’s first rodeo: he tipped his cap to these leaders and stayed diplomatically mum.

Meanwhile, in order to warn the Iranian mullahs who fund and control both Hamas and Hezbollah that we had Israel’s back more than nominally, Biden moved promptly to bolster Israel’s military capacity, and sent two warplane-packed aircraft carriers to Israel’s coast. Thus far Biden’s move has restrained Iran from directing Hezbollah to unleash its 130,000 rockets from Lebanon into Israel.

Here at home, Biden has remained unbowed by his party’s hard left wing, which adjudges itself “progressive” while whitewashing Hamas’ murder and maiming of 5,000 Israelis and while condemning Israel for having the nerve to try to prevent the slaughter, decapitation, burning alive, raping and abduction from happening yet again. From the moment news emerged on Oct. 7 of the mini-Holocaust perpetrated by the ISIS emulators who brutally rule Gaza, the president has been a forceful, unapologetic voice of moral clarity, denouncing the massacres as the massive crimes against humanity that anyone with decency can see they are. By asserting over and over that the United States stands with Israel, he purposefully informed America and the rest of the world that one either backed Israel on this or stood for nothing.

Europe, host of the Nazis’ extermination of 6 million Jews, followed Biden’s lead, one hopes without too much moral difficulty. In America, Republicans and the vast majority of Democrats comprehended the obvious: if Israel cannot stop Hamas from slaughtering Israelis, then Hamas will continue to slaughter Israelis. Pretty simple.

Some in the president’s party either do not grasp the obvious or are not excessively bothered by it, any more than they have been excessively bothered by the smaller bore versions of the same thing that have been happening for the last 20 years preceding this month’s murder spree: tens of thousands of rockets fired by Hamas while hiding behind Palestinian innocents in order to kill Israeli innocents. The so-called Squad, Democratic Socialists of America and comfortable faculty and students on America’s most fashionable campuses have been perfectly down with this for years, and nothing about this latest massacre moves the moral needle for them a centimeter.

The embrace by some of Hamas’ Slaughter Incorporated isn’t merely tough to dislodge. It is impossible. When Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired a rocket from Gaza intended to kill Israelis but which instead killed Palestinians in a Gaza hospital, Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar and others bitterly denounced Israel for “targeting” the hospital. No matter that every intelligence service and independent analyst evaluating this concluded that Israel was innocent and Palestinian Jihad to blame. As always, facts present no obstacle: Tlaib, Omar and the usual sources in Hamas’ corner continue a thoroughly dishonest refrain and, to boot, condemn Biden for declining to buy the hogwash they enthusiastically buy – and peddle.

To the president’s great credit, he is not buying. And he is not pretending to do so.

Jeff Robbins is a Boston lawyer and former U.S. delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

DERRY, N.H. — While former President Donald Trump was in Concord filing his nomination paperwork with the New Hampshire Secretary of State, thousands of his supporters began to line up at the New England Sports Center to await his arrival.

The room where Trump would speak, a gymnasium covered in folding chairs, filled to capacity with “MAGA” bedecked voters well before the 45th president took the stage around 3 p.m. on Monday. Some chanted and danced in the aisles as they waited for the former president.

“Vote for Trump and solve your problems,” Trump told an audience of more than 2,500.

The former president seemed full of energy as he delivered a wide-ranging, nearly two-hour address that brought the crowd to its feet on several occasions. Trump more than once took specific aim at President Biden, who Trump said was left with a roaring economy that the current president has not maintained.

“I will end Joe Biden’s inflation disaster and we will quickly rebuild the greatest economy in the history of the world,” he said.

According to the former reality TV star, the war Israel is waging against Hamas and the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military could have both been avoided, had Trump been elected to a second term in 2020.

The Associated Press reports more than 1,400 Israeli citizens were killed when Hamas launched a surprise attack against the U.S. ally on October 7. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza claims over 4,300 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Defense Force’s response, though those numbers have not been independently verified.

Russia has been waging a stalled war in Ukraine for more than 18 months.

Both conflicts would end swiftly if he returned to the White House, Trump told the Granite State crowd.

“I make this promise to you: as president, I will restore peace through strength,” he said. “Crooked Joe is not feared, he’s not respected, and he’s regarded by our enemies as a joke.”

Trump is by far and away the leading contender for the Republican nomination. According to recent polling he leads the closest contender, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by about 50 points.

The 45th President officially added his name to the New Hampshire ballot on Monday, joining the likes of DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

The State’s Democratic leadership responded to Trump’s visit, the third to the first-in-the-nation primary state in as many weeks, with a morning press call in which they decried his brand of politics as at odds with voters in New Hampshire.

“At a time when our country confronts significant problems at home and around the world, and when our global leadership is as indispensable as ever, we need to be united. But Trump is incapable of bringing us together,” U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan said. “We are the Live Free or Die State: we have no use for a man who would overturn our elections or praise dictators. I know that as Granite Staters and Americans, we will reject Trump and we will win next November.”

Supporters cheer before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally Monday in Derry, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A woman who was caught on camera ripping down posters of Israeli hostages at a Chestnut Hill shopping center has been fired from a local dental office.

The video of the Boston-area dentist went viral over the weekend after she was seen at The Street shopping area taking down posters of Israelis, who have been kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.

After the organization StopAntisemitism identified the woman as a local endodontist, the group reached out to her employer and she was fired soon after.

“It’s appalling. It’s cold-hearted. It’s evil,” StopAntisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez told the Herald on Monday.

“I’m not sure what sort of depraved human being would look at posters of kidnapped babies and think the appropriate course of action would be to tear them down,” Rez added. “Tearing down any attempt to bring awareness to that campaign is very frightening.”

The Herald reached out to the Boston-area dentist, but she could not be immediately reached for comment.

Since Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, groups have been putting up posters of the hundreds of Israelis who were kidnapped to Gaza.

Many people across the U.S. have been caught on camera removing the posters.

In the video of the woman in Chestnut Hill, a person can be heard saying, “Why is she taking the pictures off?”

“That is so sad. That is so sad,” the person in the video adds.

After the video went viral over the weekend, the woman was fired from Nevins Dental Center.

“Acts of terror against the State of Israel and innocent people must be condemned,” owner Marc Nevins said in a statement. “Acts of antisemitism, racism, and bigotry that assault members of our community based on their heritage or beliefs cannot be tolerated and must equally be condemned. No healthcare service institution or clinical practice should permit activities that by word or deed create the deep hurt that threatens our community and our healing.

“It has come to our attention that a clinician working as an adjunct member of our clinical practice has been accused of taking actions that are contrary to our community standards and to the basic values of my clinical practice,” Nevins added. “After having reviewed the facts and circumstances, the individual no longer works with our practice effective October 21, 2023.”

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The woman’s LinkedIn page was down on Monday, and past Facebook posts connecting her to Nevins Dental Center had been removed.

“These are profoundly troubling times causing neighbors to question neighbors and impacted communities to scream for justice,” Nevins said. “Our health care center will not employ anyone who has been found to further hate or discrimination. Our utmost concern is for the protection of our patients, our community and our employees.”

The woman in the past had been connected with Central Dental Associates in Norwood. She’s no longer affiliated with that practice, a representative for Central Dental Associates told the Herald.