Biden, a supposed foreign policy pragmatist, doesn’t seem bothered that the US is one of the few states that continues to wholeheartedly sustain Israel’s war on Gaza. In fact, Biden has staked his political future on his support for Netanyahu and Israel – and Biden is losing. In this year’s presidential election, where he will most likely face Donald Trump once again, Biden has already lost support among young progressives, Black and Arab American voters, who are all rightfully angry at his refusal to restrain Israel.
Biden allies are raising the alarm that he could lose Michigan, a swing state with substantial Black, Arab and Muslim American voting blocs, because of his Middle East policies. Congressman Ro Khanna, a Biden supporter and progressive Democrat from California who has tried to mediate between Biden’s campaign and Michigan Democrats, warned his team this week: “We cannot win Michigan with status quo policy.”
The Biden administration has consistently underplayed the leverage it has over Israel and Netanyahu. “I think that sometimes people pretend that the United States of America has a magic wand that it can wave to make any situation in the world roll out in exactly the way that we would want it to and that is never the case,” Matthew Miller, the state department spokesperson, said at a press conference on 12 February.
Miller’s flippant comment raises an important question: if Biden can’t use billions of dollars in military aid – and the ability to literally cut off Israel’s supply of bombs – to force Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire, what could Biden do with a magic wand?
Yeah. See.
That’s exactly the rhetoric that doesn’t work.
no. really. It’s not persuasive. particularly when it turns hostile. Something needs to change. There’s a few things that can- Biden can drop out (it really isn’t too late, particularly if he then started campaigning for another candidate; mitigating 90% of the loss of incumbency.); Biden can reverse course on key policies… Gaza, immigration. flak harder on important policies. And ineffectually, messaging to promote the stuff Biden has done. (which IMO is largely… trying to fight a flood with a mop. but there are some rare gems.)
He absolutely needs to change his actions on Israel- and address why it took so long in a way that mitigates the damage already done in messaging.
If facing the facts doesn’t work for you, nothing else was going to. I’ll keep talking about reality, thanks.
A permanent ceasefire would do it for us.
Why won’t Biden do the one thing that would guarantee victory?