It’s Time for Democrats to Break With Biden’s Addled Gaza Policy
It’s Time for Democrats to Break With Biden’s Addled Gaza Policy
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.
Harris has taken over $5m from AIPAC. They are gonna expect results for their
bribecontributionYou mean giving Bombs and Money to Israel while saying "Israel is iffy" wasn't a Good Policy?
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.
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus?ind=Q05
Remember how everyone was making a big deal over Harris raising $81 million in 24 hours?
Imagine that success being $19 million underwater because of AIPAC dollars:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/03/aipac-israel-spending-democratic-primaries-00144552
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.
The best time to fix this was last year. The next best time is now.
I made a search for "Trump" in that article.
Zero mentions.
I thought some of you may find that relevant.
“progressive””leftists” to the dance floor
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.
