Biden to Israel: Drop Dead

Wittingly or not, the President prepares to abandon an ally

You can count on me…sort of…depending on the vote count in Dearborn

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Joe Biden really, really wants to be reelected. He needs a second term to prevent the Ogre Trump from imposing a fascist regime on America. Every vote counts! Every vote, including the antisemitic vote in places like Michigan and Minnesota. So the President’s ringing statements of support for Israel in the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas pogrom have now become inoperative. Instead, we get ringing denunciations of the Ogre Netanyatu, demands that Israel prosecute its war against Hamas without harming a hair on the head of any Palestinian civilian, hand-wringing over humanitarian aid, and a “red line” drawn to prevent Israel from clinching its victory over a homicidal death cult dedicated to the extermination of every Jew on the planet. In recent days there have even been suggestions from congressional Democrats and anonymous sources inside the Administration that if Israel doesn’t do Biden’s bidding, military aid might be cut off.

There are several observations to be made about these developments.

First, Biden’s about-face validates the founding principle of the Jewish state: that the Jews can depend on no one but themselves. There are of course many non-Jewish Americans who are people of good will, appalled by the explosion of antisemitism that followed October 7, fully supportive of Israel’s just war against a vicious enemy. But there are also Americans like those “anti-Zionist” progressives who champion the cause of genocidal Palestinian nationalism with blather about “settler colonialism” & etc. This is nothing but antisemitism tricked out in postmodern Newspeak. Plenty of such people infest the Biden Administration. Then there’s Biden himself, a callow opportunist whose level of commitment to America’s allies is determined by the political needs of the moment.

How right the founders of the Jewish state were to embrace armed self-reliance.

Second, Biden’s about-face will produce effects the opposite of those intended. The President is attempting to justify his pusillanimous opportunism by demonizing Benjamin Netanyahu, the implication being that the Israeli prime minister is responsible for “going too far” in Gaza. This, of course, is nonsense. If Netanyahu’s government fell tomorrow, the new government would pursue exactly the same strategy—because that’s what Israeli public opinion demands. Israelis want Hamas to be destroyed, and they’re firmly against the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. After what happened on October 7, all this is perfectly understandable. American pressure that goes against these demands has already lowered Biden’s hitherto high approval rating among Israeli Jews. If it continues, Biden’s standing will continue to sink—and Netanyahu’s, notwithstanding his unpopularity, will rise.

That’s how clueless the Biden Administration is regarding the state of affairs in Israel.

Third, the idea that a few thousand Muslim-American votes in Michigan and Minnesota will be an important factor in the upcoming presidential election is idiotic. Scarcely less so is the fear that “anti-Zionist” progressives of the Democratic Party base will abandon Biden, either staying home on Election Day or voting for some third-party candidate. Nonsense. Progressives’ fear and hatred of Trump, whom they regard as the American Hitler, will motivate them to hold their noses and vote for Biden. The President doesn’t really need to placate these people by bashing Israel. But given his general unpopularity, Biden isn’t taking any chances.

That’s how fearful Biden & Co. are that he could lose to Trump.

The Biden Administration painted itself into this corner by trying to have it both ways: Nag and lecture Israel, bash Netanyatu in public; quietly deliver military aid to Israel. Somewhere in the murky depths of the Administration’s collective consciousness lurks the realization that the best outcome from all points of view is a decisive Israeli victory over Hamas. But Biden and his people shrink from the fact that to get there, a final battle is necessary, entailing more civilian casualties. Given the tactics of Hamas—using civilians as human shields—it cannot be otherwise. The only alternative is for Israel to abandon the fight now, leaving Hamas to reconstitute itself in anticipation of another October 7. And Israel isn’t going to do that.

So Biden’s Mideast policy lies in pieces on the floor. Its incoherence is laughable; its hypocrisy is disgraceful. The Administration’s desperation was made evident recently with the lame-brained proposal to use the US armed forces to construct a temporary floating pier to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. Several hundred US troops will thus be inserted into an active war zone. But not to worry! By some magic trick or other, they’ll complete their mission without setting any “boots on the ground”—as if that’s going to prevent them from being targeted by Hamas and other terrorist groups.

None of this will end well. If the United States persists in its two-faced policy, the result will be a crisis in US/Israeli relations, possibly leading to a full rupture. And after abandoning Afghanistan, after botching Ukraine, Joe Biden will have pulled off a hat trick—three diplomatic disasters to dismay America’s allies and delight its enemies.

Could Donald Trump really do worse?