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.
It’s also time to start realizing that Israel is its own country and the US can’t control everything it does. They have their own democracy.
You mean giving Bombs and Money to Israel while saying “Israel is iffy” wasn’t a Good Policy?
The entire last week:
Nature is healing.
Nature ain’t fully healed yet. A big pile of Christian nationalists and people conned by billionaires are going to rollout hard for Trump in Nov.
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.
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.
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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.
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?
Wow, what an argument. Look the other way and prop up the genocidal apartheid state because otherwise we might have to use blood in addition to treasure to defend imperial interests in the Middle East. Just…wow.
It’s the same reason why the embargo of Cuba still exists.
What reason is that exactly?
I mean, yea. You think the world is some happy go lucky place where people don’t fight each other?
The US dropped two nuclear bombs on civilians in Japan to end a war quickly, and despite the backlash they’d kill civilians again in a heartbeat if it was beneficial to America. The number of civilians that died from the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 shows that very clearly. The current Palestinian death toll is less than 10% of that 20 year conflict, and it was done by Americans directly.
Cuba is being used as a pawn by other countries to threaten the US, the same as it was during the cold war. Russia and China didn’t write off $40 billion dollars for free over the last decade.
I mean, yea. You think the world is some happy go lucky place where people don’t fight each other?
Umm…lol no. I think the world is run by military forces and their obedient governments.
The US dropped two nuclear bombs on civilians in Japan to end a war quickly
Vaporize civilians for peace!
they’d kill civilians again in a heartbeat if it was beneficial to America
If by America you mean imperial warmaking and profits then yes, “they” have, would, and will continue.
The number of civilians that died from the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 shows that very clearly. The current Palestinian death toll is less than 10% of that 20 year conflict, and it was done by Americans directly
This point is really confusing but…yay America?
Cuba is being used as a pawn by other countries to threaten the US
Wow what a take. Other countries support Cuba, so the USA gets to perpetuate invasions, assassination attempts, terrorism and eternal economic warfare. The Cubans have no autonomy but also they brought this on themselves.
Vaporize civilians for peace!
What happened the next day?
There would certainly be peace the day after a nuclear apocalypse too
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.
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.
Since severing ties with Israel would only lead to more chaos in the region
Oh I’m sold. Do as much genocide as you want, as long as you are an implement of United States’ resource extraction policy.
We would certainly prefer you didn’t do the genocide, but loss of hegemony is what is truly unacceptable, that’s a red line we won’t cross.
The choice is more like permitting the current ongoing tragedy or allow an even greater genocide (the eradication of Israel).
Definitely a false choice, right off the bat.
The USA could impose a no-fly zone based on the 1949 borders.
The settlers could be rightly expelled from the West Bank.
Palestine could be recognized as an independent state.
None of that requires any cooperation from the right-wing death cult currently controlling the occupiers.
None of that requires a genocide, just the long overdue abandonment of illegal settlements.
just the long overdue abandonment of illegal settlements
‘Just’. Green Line didn’t work in 1949. Why would it work now? You really think anything but Israel ceasing to exist would stop this nonsense?
Was there a no-fly zone and recognition of an independent state in 1949? Why are you treating right-wing genocidists as though they are a force of nature?
Seems like quick work for the armored bulldozers so beloved by the occupiers, if karma is a real thing…
Oh! A no-fly zone! Of course! THAT is what would have solved it all. My bad.
The solution is not enabling the settlers and ultra-orthodox.
Another option is destroying / blockading the last functioning Zionist port, I expect that will get results real quick. They have decided to build their civilization inspired by the worst excesses of the West, so it will quickly collapse in the absence of endless imports.
Once you turn the grim logic of destroying houses and resource starvation back on the occupiers, you don’t have to keep pretending that they are mysterious, incomprehensible, and immovable.
