Gaza has become the albatross around Biden’s neck. It is his war, not just Benjamin Netanyahu’s. It will be part of his legacy, an element of his obituary, a blot on his campaign — and it could get worse if Gaza cascades into a full-blown famine or violent anarchy, or if a wider war breaks out involving Iran or Lebanon. An apparent Israeli strike on a military base in central Iran early Friday underscored the danger of a bigger and more damaging conflict that could draw in the United States.
Consider just one example of America’s fingerprints on this war under Biden’s leadership. In January, the Israeli military dropped a bomb on a compound in Gaza used by the International Rescue Committee, a much-respected American aid organization that is supported in part by American tax dollars. The International Rescue Committee says that the near-fatal strike was caused by a 1,000-pound American-made bomb, dropped from an American-made F-16 fighter jet. And when an American-made aircraft drops an American-made bomb on an American aid group in an American-supported war, how can that not come back to Biden?
Biden had many crucial decisions to make in the weeks after the Oct. 7 attack, but perhaps none were more consequential than this: how to manage his relationship with Netanyahu as the war in Gaza got underway.
How much should he defer to Netanyahu, how much should he embrace him, how much should he impose consequences when Netanyahu ignored his suggestions of restraint? Biden had choices, and as Indyk correctly observed, Biden thought that the best way to move Netanyahu was with an arm on his shoulder.
Perhaps Biden overestimates his ability to win over Netanyahu, as he sometimes seems to put too much faith in his ability to charm Republican members of Congress.
Diplomacy is a mix of carrots and sticks, but until recently Biden seemed to offer Netanyahu nothing but armloads of carrots.
Biden might listen in particular to one close adviser who is apparently in anguish over Gaza — for she is right.
“Stop it,” Jill Biden reportedly told her husband. “Stop it now, Joe.”
@Lobby1stBatDemocrat2wks2W
President Biden has been doing an excellent job. NATO is stronger in his resistance to Russian aggression. With our help, Israel is close to bringing the oppression of Hamas to an end and I ran is finally facing resistance. Taiwan May yet survive China’s imperial reach. Coalition of democratic nations the United States, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia has been created. For the first time in many years, it appears that the democracies are pushing back more successfully against the forces, totalitarian and terrorist regimes and groups.
The problem as I see it is that the "Washington consensus" view on Israel policy is stuck in the 1970's, a time when Israel could reasonably portray itself as an embattled tiny nation under attack from all of the surrounding countries simultaneously.
That hasn't been true for decades, though: They made a difficult peace with Egypt at Camp David, and made peace with Jordan in the 1990's. And since Yitzak Rabin's assassination, Israel's driving policy goal has been to expand their territory into the occupied West Bank and turn both Gaza and a few areas of the… Read more
Since 1967, Israel has been a moral and geopolitical albatross around America's neck. Support for Israel has always required the most egregious special pleading by politicians of both parties; atrocities which would receive full-throated condemnation if perpetrated by any other nation, are excused and even extolled by otherwise decent men like Joe Biden. This has cost our country immeasurably in treasure and moral authority.
@PoliticSheepDemocrat2wks2W
I think the last six months expose Biden as not having the intellectual capacity or perspective to deal with the situation. Biden is a politician. He's not a statesman or military strategist. He counts votes and dollars, not lives.
@P4rtisanGaryGreen2wks2W
President Biden is making a grave mistake in Gaza, and in addition to the humanitarian disaster, it's bad politics. He could lose the election because of it.
I couldn't agree more. It is a massive stain on Biden's tenure. The new aid bill includes $26,4 billion for Israel's defences and a piddling $9 billion (by comparison) for Palestinian aid. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. Biden should not be aiding the Israelis at this point. If they want to make war, war rather than jaw, jaw to paraphrase Winston Churchill then let them pay for it! The Ukrainian situation is completely different, to my eyes. They are fighting tooth and nail simply to survive. The Israelis are not in that situation and I would argue they are now exacerbating their security problems by continuing with this brutal war. Netanyahu is guilty of total neglect in the first instance and now seems to be over-reaching to compensate for his failures and should NOT be further aided and encouraged.
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
The historical activity of users engaging with this general discussion.
Loading data...
Loading chart...
Loading the political themes of users that engaged with this discussion
Loading data...
