Civil War lore has it that after General Ulysses S. Grant turned the Union’s lackluster war performance around, his critics complained to President Abraham Lincoln about Grant’s heavy drinking. “I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks,” Lincoln replied. “I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”

The story comes to mind after a week in which a furor about Joe Biden’s supposed lack of fitness to be president has swept the nation. An 81-year-old with an arthritic spine (the stiffness walking), gastroesophageal reflux (the frequent clearing of his throat) and the residual effects of a childhood stutter have America wondering whether he can serve. The mania deepened on Friday night, when Biden said “Mexico” rather than “Egypt” while obviously describing his discussions with the leader of the latter about trying to bring about the release of the 100-plus Israelis languishing, if not already murdered, in Hamas’ tunnels in Gaza.

Biden’s use of the wrong word caused a certain hyperventilation about his cognition. Never mind that his opponent, former President Trump, is patently in a state of cognitive collapse, an utter mental free-fall that is evident virtually every time he takes the microphone these days, and with every posting on Truth Social.

The fly in the Biden-is-unfit-to-serve ointment, of course, is that he has been a historically successful president by objective measure after objective measure. This is the more impressive given the implacably obstructionist political opposition he has faced, notably featuring  a non-functioning House of Representatives. Given Biden’s results, we might well hope that every president henceforth be in their eighties, walk gingerly, clear his throat a lot and occasionally stammer.

That’s not to say the president’s standing is strong right now. It isn’t. And the pro-Hamas lobby, with an assist from those just not thinking clearly, is doing its best to exploit his political weakness.

It may be working. TikTok garbage has helped galvanize a vocal and sometimes unhinged hard left that prefers we all just forget about Hamas’ invasion on Oct. 7 and its slaughter of 1200 Israelis – the proportional equivalent of about 50,000 Americas – in a matter of hours. Damage has been done to common sense, and Biden’s advisors are attuned to it.

An “Abandon Biden” movement initiated by certain Arab-Americans has exacerbated fears of losing Michigan’s critical electoral votes. Biden’s emissaries have fanned out on bended knee to apologize for his support for Israel. Proving that politics can make reprehensible bedfellows, the White House kisses the ring of none other than Representative Rashida Tlaib (D. Mich.), properly censured by her House colleagues for her determined mendacity, who has accused Biden of complicity with “genocide” for supporting Israel’s effort to defend its civilians from truly genocidal killers, to wit, Hamas.

Biden’s advisors have settled on a strategy of letting it be known once daily that there are “growing divides” with Israel, about which the New York Times duly and enthusiastically reports thrice daily. This is supposed to placate the anti-Israeli left. It may, but signaling a divide bolsters Hamas’ resolve, thereby prolonging the war rather than shortening it.

Even Bernie Sanders, Lord help us, acknowledges that there can’t be a ceasefire with Hamas, which seeks Israel’s annihilation. What, then, is Israel supposed to do, exactly? Its critics have no answer.  One may dislike or even despise Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and wish him gone for many excellent reasons – but still not scoff when he observes that Hamas must be removed from Gaza if there’s ever going to be peace.

He’s absolutely right about this. Indeed, every Western leader has publicly stated the same, and most Arab leaders say so privately.

So let us be spared the robotic inanity about a “cease-fire,” as though the solution to the horror show caused by Hamas is in Israel’s hands, rather than Hamas’. Israel didn’t wish for this war. In order for it to end, Hamas has to end it. Or Israel has to end it by ending Hamas.

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

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march during a visit by President Joe Biden in Warren, Mich., earlier this month. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)