Biden’s approach to Gaza isn’t just immoral, it’s incoherent. A new candidate could break with his confused course for good.
Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee in November’s presidential election, thankfully. He is not withdrawing because he’s being held responsible for enabling war crimes against the Palestinian people (though a recent poll does have nearly 40 percent of Americans saying they’re less likely to vote for him thanks to his handling of the war). Yet it’s impossible to extricate the collapse in public faith in the Biden campaign from the “uncommitted” movement for Gaza. They were the first people to refuse him their votes, and defections from within the president’s base hollowed out his support well in advance of the debate.
The Democrats and their presumptive nominee Kamala Harris are faced with a choice: On the one hand, they can continue Biden’s monstrous support for Netanyahu, the brutal IDF, and Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. That would help allow the party to cover for Biden and put a positive spin on a smooth handoff, even though we all know this would mainly benefit the embittered president himself and his small coterie of loyalists. Such a choice would confirm that the institutional rot that allowed the current situation to develop still characterizes the party.
At this point it's very clear it's not Biden's policy that is holding things up. It's very clearly Netanyahu and his cabinet. This isn't even a question anymore as Benny Gantz straight said so when he resigned, and then Netanyahu dissolved his war cabinet, so he's basically acting in direct control of Israeli forces it seems.
Biden and team had a ceasefire agreement, Israel said they agreed, Palestine said they agreed, yet Israel refuses to sign or stop military assault. As far as the "undecided" voters go, they aren't going to get their way. The US as a nation is not going to jeopardize ties with Israel as a proxy military force and ground position in the Middle East for a small percentage of voters. It is what it is, but put the blame where it belongs in the here and now.
The United States would be throwing its own strategic interests under a bus.
I know this may come as a shock, but the US government is well aware what is happening over there, and knows considerably more that the average person. They aren't doing nothing because of lack of evidence, or death, or allegations (both proven and otherwise). They do nothing because its in their interests to do so.
I use the example of "no blood for oil". They only said that because they still had oil - start losing access to key parts of your strategic access and absolutely we would be crying for war.
Ronald Reagan made one phone call and the Israelis immediately stopped bombarding Lebanon. The vassal state has to do whatever the fuck the US president wants. It's a complete joke to think otherwise. Joe Biden could go on TV right now and publicly withdraw support for the occupiers and their government and military would collapse overnight.
Oh, awesome. Let's time travel back then and act like it's now, OH WAIT.
The Israeli state of 40 years only existed due to the US and it's money. That's not necessarily the same situation now. They can buy their own toys, and not be a puppet of the US if they didn't want to now.
I want to agree with you. I'd be with you if you'd at least mentioned the impact this has on actual American citizens.
My understanding is plenty of people have been silenced for expressing their support for Palestine. I mean, hasn't Congress literally proposed/passed bills saying they can't even talk about the number of people dying?
It's fascinating how people are so eager to sweep it all under the rug Americans themselves are ignored just to protect Israel, and more importantly, to protect American politicians that refuse to even learn about the situation. That's not even mentioning the absolute infuriating trash that passes as corporate news nowadays (including anything pushed to the masses by large social media publishers). It's like in order to protect Israel... err I mean, stop caring about this issue because it makes us uncomfortable, we're entirely willing to allow news organizations to be straight-up propaganda, feeding blatant misinformation. It's weird how we have zero criticism for them because that might invite someone to mention Gaza
And do you know how many American lives are being saved by letting Israel fight Iran as a proxy rather than letting it fall and having to deal with the headache afterwards?
Israel is a strategic asset in a larger war, and a lot of people are clearly missing that concept because they don't think the US and Iran are actually at war with each other. It's the same reason why the embargo of Cuba still exists.
Geopolitics is complicated, and most of it is not out in the open for the public to see.
I mean, yeah, that’s largely true with regard to who’s holding progress on peace talks up, but I want to see any and all military aid that’s not purely defensive that we’re sending to Israel cut off, like, yesterday. There is zero reason why we should be selling and delivering new F-35s and JDAMs to the IDF when they’re just using them to flatten the Gaza Strip.
While at the same time pursuing policies and choices that will actually stand some chance of benefiting the Palestinian people -- among them, being vocal with congress, doing direct demonstrations, doing things like the "uncommitted" vote to make it clear to those in power that the minority that wants decent treatment for the Palestinians is also not a trivial constituency, oh and also:
MAKE SURE HARRIS WINS IN NOVEMBER SO THAT THE IDF DOESN'T START GETTING UNEQUIVOCAL US SUPPORT AND AMP UP THEIR WAR CRIMES TENFOLD
The others are optional; the last one is critical.
Biden's problem is that he has no "Gaza policy". He has an "Israel policy" and as long as Israeli interests are major political donators, that's not going to change.
Since severing ties with Israel would only lead to more chaos in the region, what I'm really hoping for is Kamala 2025, followed by a change in Israeli leadership to mirror the recent US, UK, and French elections that have seen a broadly decimated right wing, and a strengthening of the centre left view of an international rules-based order. We could potentially see Bibi's regime tried for war crimes, China dissuaded from its designs on Taiwan, and Russia faced with stiffer international resolve in Ukraine and beyond.
I'm not prepared to defend any of that as immensely realistic, but writing it was the little taste of hope I needed in the moment.
I was just imagining a slightly better world, as a treat. Of course I'd prefer an even better outcome like peace and willing reparations, but I wasn't in the mood for an entirely counterfactual daydream. The current reality is an actual nightmare.
followed by a change in Israeli leadership to mirror the recent US, UK, and French elections that have seen a broadly decimated right wing and a strengthening of the centre left view of an international rules-based order.
new labor mp's in the uk have decided to support the genocide and threatened the icc from ruling against isreal, as the tories promised, and macron is intriguing with the far right to run france, saying that nobody won the election. so yes, their voters wanted center left; but their leaders are ignoring it and forcing the status quo.
the us election is still over 3 months away. kamala isn't much different than biden in ways that matter and all indications suggests that she's going to continue supporting the genocide as well despite publicly advocating against it the entire time it's been a thing.
You saw someone write a thing that they openly admitted was unrealistic and purely to indulge in a crumb of hope, and you felt this comment was necessary. Are you okay?
Far more worried about the "Democrats" who were trying to force a Trump presidency by insisting we nominate Biden. They need to be ostracized and held accountable. Scratch a Blue MAGA and you find genocide supporting zionist under the cheap tin foil of abwd. They just about cost us the entire game.
Who ever they are, where ever they are, the need to be named, shamed, and ignored.
Kamala can make a strong move on this with her VP pick. Its not even a "nice to have", its a need to have. Biden had cost the Democrats MI, WI, and turned MN into a swing state; this was 100% due to his ABSOLUTE bumbling of Gaza. Those voters are now "available" again.
There are plenty of progressives like Jamie Raskin she could pick, but it doesn't really matter. She NEEDS all three of those states for an EC victory, and she doesn't get them with the current policies. Either she can anchor and the VP can move, or the VP can anchor and Kamala moves. Either way, its pretty obvious what she needs to do, because there is no path to the WH without these states.
There's nothing pro Palestinian about repeating Israeli propaganda uncritically, blaming the Palestinians for everything, and being the primary supplier of weapons and ammunition for the genocide.
It's kinda like whiplash to read someone who combines obvious contempt for the President and a willingness to indulge in wild conspiratorial speculation coming from the left. I was surprised again when the last paragraph frames Harris' possible Israel policy as a question. By that point, I expected the author to explain to me what was going to happen.
Anyway, I suppose Harris to be chillier toward Israel, but doubt she'll usher in a sea change. Especially before November.