As protests and attempts to quell them spread from New York to Los Angeles and many states in between, President Joe Biden finds himself caught in a series of political and diplomatic crosscurrents without an easy solution.
He can keep supporting Israel and lose the support of the younger voters he so desperately needs.
OR:
He can reverse course, let Bibi twist in the wind, causing him to lose all support from the pro-Israel lobby, and be met with "yeah, but you didn't do it soon enough" from the younger voters.
They aren't though. See the complaints about the economy. The youth vote is very vocal, but they don't have the money to make up for lost donations from the Pro-Israel PAC.
I just want to point out the latter has been a narrative for decades and "younger voters" just keep getting older with it. It's also completely hypothetical because listening to anyone younger than Boomers hasn't been tried.
I'm in my 40s, I vote reliably, I voted for Biden in 2020 to give him a chance. As long as Biden is continuing to ship weapons to Israel I won't be voting for him again.
Jesus tapdancing christ there’s a TRIVIAL fucking solution right the fuck in front of us. Stop giving explodey shit to the people committing genocide, and also stop giving them any diplomatic cover whatsoever.
You can demonize the current president over one issue that is overseas, or you can not vote or vote for the other guy who will not accomplish anything but Israel support and worse.
Weigh what has been accomplished vs your issue vs the alternatives and vote accordingly.
Not only that, he said recently that these protests wouldn't be happening if he was in the White House. His positions on Palestine and left-leaning protests have not exactly been subtle.
So that’s American tax dollars that could go to funding things that actually impact Americans directly.
Maintaining peace in the Middle East is important- and the one of the most egregious arguments before all this happened is to provide leverage to keep Israel…. From doing … this.
The reality is that argument is a lie. The war in gaza has set back the goal of peace in the Middle East by decades. Maybe even centuries, while bringing us inexorably closer to WW3.
If Biden reverse course now… he has a chance. If he stays the angry old Zionist, though… he’s going to lose in November.
Sounds like people should be protesting for electoral reform so they can vote for the candidate that represents them best, while still counting their vote against the republicans.
There are easy solutions, just depends on what you're trying to solve for. If the student protests are the problem, do nothing and wait like 2 weeks until exams and the end of the semester and they will peter out on their own.
If he has to solve Israel/Palestine peace...yeah that's famously a sticky wicket and there was never going to be an easy solution.