{"id":1500661,"date":"2024-02-15T06:55:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T06:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=313540"},"modified":"2024-02-15T06:55:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T06:55:29","slug":"if-biden-is-to-keep-from-losing-the-election-he-needs-to-stop-the-middle-east-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/15\/if-biden-is-to-keep-from-losing-the-election-he-needs-to-stop-the-middle-east-war\/","title":{"rendered":"If Biden is to Keep From Losing the Election He Needs to\u00a0Stop the Middle East War"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
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Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair<\/p><\/div>\n

Democrats must realize that despite keeping our troops out of Gaza, the longer the Israeli-Hamas War continues, the more the public will see the Israeli-Hamas War as President Joe Biden\u2019s War. Even though the U.S. is only one of ten governments that support Israel<\/a>\u00a0in the war against Hamas, we are by far the most significant foreign funder of Israel\u2019s military.<\/div>\n

Under President Barack Obama, we established a ten-year commitment to provide $3.8 billion annually for Israel\u2019s military and missile defense systems. Both Democrats and Republicans immediately wanted to send additional billions more to Israel after October 7.<\/p>\n

Biden requested\u00a0at least $14.3 billion\u00a0in further military assistance to Israel.\u00a0House Republicans countered by wanting to provide Israel with $17 billion without any funds allocated to Ukraine. Both bills failed to pass the House.<\/p>\n

Not only did both parties quickly jump to support Israel, but an October 11th poll showed two-thirds of Americans also supported\u00a0Israel.<\/p>\n

Still, support for\u00a0Israel started splintering.\u00a0According to data collected by an academic project, the Crowd Counting Consortium, within ten days of October 7, there were 180,000 demonstrators, with roughly 270 events in solidarity with Israel and 200 in support of Palestine.<\/p>\n

As Israel started bombing civilian housing and hospitals in Gaza to flush out Hamas fighters,\u00a0the United Nations reported that 1.9 million Gazans had been internally displaced, with more than 1 million of them lacking a safe and secure home.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the polls saw younger voters between 18 and 34, who are generally Democratic voters, disapproving of Biden’s handling of the war by an estimated 70%.
\nWith Biden still refusing to call for an immediate cease-fire in the war, angry protestors started showing up at his campaign rallies.<\/p>\n

In January, anti-war protestors interrupted more than a dozen times while Biden tried to address democratic voters in Virginia. The next day, he was repeatedly interrupted again at his endorsement rally held by the\u00a0United Auto Workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Worse yet for Biden, he began to feel the squeeze from both sides of the political spectrum. The left was attacking Biden for not cutting military aid to Israel as their army was creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The right was demanding that he directly retaliate against Iran\u2019s proxy paramilitary groups. They were attacking U.S. troops in the Middle East to punish America for not calling a halt to Israel\u2019s Gaza invasion.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s troubles began when he abandoned his usually cautious diplomatic approach to conducting foreign affairs and gave a pass to Israel to bombard and then invade Gaza. Biden called Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu on October 7,saying his support for Israel is \u201crock solid\u201d\u00a0and America stood \u201cready\u00a0to offer all appropriate means of support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, he criticized\u00a0Netanyahu, who leads the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. Believing that Netanyahu was trying to gut Israel\u2019s independent judiciary to favor Israel\u2019s fundamentalist factions, Biden had dodged meeting with Netanyahu for months.<\/p>\n

More importantly,\u00a0Biden\u2019s administration warned Netanyahu<\/a>\u00a0that their plans to expand their settlements in the West Bank by 13,000 new housing units undermined the viability of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Then he
\nblamed the right-wing members of Netanyahu\u2019s cabinet for justifying Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian citizens in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu ignored these comments and announced that his government opposed any two-state solution that Biden and most past administrations had endorsed.<\/p>\n

With Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing party in complete control of Israel\u2019s war plans, Biden has disappointed many American liberals, youth, and minorities. They see him as enabling Israel\u2019s invasion and subsequent destruction of Gaza\u2019s infrastructure and the deaths of\u00a0over 10,000 children.<\/p>\n

Offering Netanyahu\u2019s administration unqualified support has checked his ability or willingness to restrain Israel\u2019s massive military response. Netanyahu ignores any restraint or concerns about civilian casualties voiced by Biden.<\/p>\n

Unable to influence Israel, Biden has appeared as an ineffective and weak leader to his supporters, the American public, and world leaders. And one that he is too old to continue as president.\u00a0\u00a0A characterization that conforms perfectly to Trump\u2019s campaign message.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Netanyahu\u2019s National Security Minister, Ben Gvir, leader of\u00a0Jewish Power, a far-right political party, belittles Biden.\u00a0In a Wall Street Journal interview,\u00a0Gvir accused the Biden administration<\/a>\u00a0of benefitting Hamas more than Israel.<\/p>\n

Gvir said, \u201cInstead of giving us his full backing, [President Joe] Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel, which goes to Hamas; if Trump were in power, the US conduct would be completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu seems to share Gvir\u2019s view when he says,\u00a0\u201cAs a sovereign state fighting for its existence and future, we will make our decisions by ourselves.\u201d Note that Netanyahu\u2019s administration would fall without Jewish Power\u2019s support as a coalition member in the government.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu is counting on Republicans to push Biden to hit Iran and the military groups it funds, referred to as Iran\u2019s Axis of Resistance, which\u00a0surround Israel. Israel expects that the U.S. attacking these groups should diminish their ability to harm Israel directly.<\/p>\n

Iran claims that they don\u2019t control their proxy militaries, and\u00a0Middle East analysts acknowledge that Iran does not necessarily have complete control over their actions. However, Iran helped create some, like Hezbollah, and provides arms to all of them. In addition, some are closely linked to Iran \u2018s Revolutionary Guards, which have an estimated 125,000-strong military,\u00a0making it the Middle East\u2019s largest Muslim army.<\/p>\n

What began as Biden supporting Israel\u2019s self-defense is transforming into a regional warfare between the U.S. and Iran-backed\u00a0hardline fundamentalist armed groups. Looming on the horizon is a direct exchange of firepower between Iran and the U.S.<\/p>\n

Iran and its allied para-military groups not only oppose Israel\u2019s existence but, more immediately, the current stationing of our 30,000 troops in this Muslim-controlled region. After October 7, Iran\u2019s proxies moved from scattered confrontations to direct attacks on our troops and warships.<\/p>\n

In early January, Yemen’s Houthi militants fired several powerful Russian anti-ship missiles at U.S. destroyers in the Red Sea. Fortunately, they were destroyed before hitting the ships. Given that since Oct. 7, there have been 160 drone attacks against American soldiers and allies in the Middle East, American soldier fatalities would seem to be inevitable.<\/p>\n

As a result, a paramilitary group attacked a remote U.S. military outpost on January 28 in\u00a0northeastern Jordan,\u00a0killing three army reservists and injuring at least 34 others.<\/p>\n

The media widely and wrongly declared that these three deaths marked the first time U.S. soldiers have died as a direct result of an armed attack by an Iran-backed paramilitary group.<\/p>\n

Republican leaders demanded retribution. Senator Lindsey Graham said, \u201cI am calling on the Biden Administration to strike targets of significance inside Iran.\u201d Graham told Fox News that the Biden should blow up their oil fields and Revolutionary Guard headquarters in Iran to deter its future aggression toward our troops.<\/p>\n

The most senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee,\u00a0Roger Wicker, said:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWe must respond to these repeated attacks by Iran and its proxies by striking directly against Iranian targets and its leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partisanship made Graham and Wicker forget that during President Ronald Reagan\u2019s Administration, 241 American soldiers were killed in Lebanon in October 1983\u00a0by Hezbollah,\u00a0founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.<\/p>\n

At that time, Republicans refrained from advising Reagan to take the provocative actions that Senators Graham and Wicker now want Biden to embrace. Nevertheless, Biden is blamed for skirting military reprisals as cuddling Iran, ignoring that a direct attack on Iran would likely lead our current ground troops into combat.<\/p>\n

Trump recognizes that Biden has only a narrow path to exert a peaceful solution. Like Richard Nixon, who campaigned and won against Hubert Humphry in 1968, Trump can present himself as the only candidate who can end the war favorably for the US and Israel.<\/p>\n

Using Nixon as a role model, he also will not present a plan because he doesn\u2019t need one. He need only accuse Biden of making mistakes and boast that he would not make them as a president.<\/p>\n

Biden faces an uphill battle to win a second term. He must get Democrats to accept that he is being fair to both the Israelis and the Palestinians. And convince independents that he can keep our nation out of war.<\/p>\n

To win back fallen-away Democrats to win the presidency, he needs to seriously pressure Netanyahu\u2019s administration to abandon their unrealistic goal of permanently eliminating Hamas.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s strategy of eradicating fundamentalist militant groups failed miserably when Israel invaded Lebanon in October 1982 to destroy the PLO. The year after PLO was kicked out of the country, Hezbollah took control over southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Israel killing thousands of innocent Gaza residents is only going to lead to future wars with the survivors of this war. And it could drag the U.S. deeper into the Middle East quagmire of fighting on multiple fronts in a guerilla type of warfare.<\/p>\n

Biden can\u00a0learn from the past presidents<\/a>\u00a0who have supported Israel as a nation-state in the Middle East but who had a firm and fair hand in avoiding an unlimited commitment to actions that do not directly serve our interests.<\/p>\n

President Harry S. Truman conferred recognition on the State of Israel after it declared independence in May 1948, but he didn\u2019t provide military assistance to Israel. A situation now that is unthinkable by both Democrats and Republican Parties.<\/p>\n

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was able to force Israel to return the Sinai to Egypt after Israel captured it in a war between them due to Egypt blockading a key Israel seaport.<\/p>\n

In November 1966, when the Israelis attacked the West Bank, President Lyndon B. Johnson had the U.S. vote for a United Nations Resolution condemning Israel\u2019s action. He then sent an emergency airlift of military equipment to Jordan. The message to Israel was that the U.S. was not going to let Israel determine our foreign policy.<\/p>\n

President Jimmy Carter brokered the 1978 Camp David Accords after he sequestered Egypt\u2019s President and Israel\u2019s Prime Minister at Camp David for two weeks to reach an agreement ending three decades of intermittent war between them.
\nPresident Ronald Reagan approved Israel invading Lebanon in 1982 to destroy the PLO for attacking northern Israel.\u00a0Reagan\u2019s pyrrhic victory<\/a>\u00a0cost between 17,000 and 40,000 Palestinian and Lebanese lives. The day after Iran\u2019s proxy group\u00a0Hezbollah killed over two hundred U.S.\u00a0Marines, Reagan said that our soldiers\u00a0\u201cmust stay there until the situation is under control.\u201d
\nIn February 1983, he said, \u201cIf we\u2019re to be secure in our homes and in the world, we must stand together against those who threaten us.\u201d Just three days later, Reagan ordered Marines to pull out of Lebanon, with a complete withdrawal achieved in three weeks. Israel continues to exist, along with\u00a0Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite Reagan removing all U.S. military from that country.
\nPast presidents had to make hard decisions on what was best for the U.S. over that of any ally, including Israel. Successful experiences show they can\u00a0support a secure Israel rather than an aggressive one.\u00a0That is a lesson that Biden must learn from former presidents.<\/p>\n

Biden belatedly took a small step by sanctioning non-American West Bank Israeli settlers from terrorizing their Palestinian neighbors. However, it was a gesture lost in the massive media coverage of thousands of innocent children killed by Israel bombing their homes in search of Hamas.<\/p>\n

Biden can achieve his goal of America defending Israel\u2019s right to exist and working with Palestinians to create a democratic, self-ruled state. To do so, he should take advice from\u00a0Netanyahu:\u00a0make decisions that are best for your nation and not just for your allies.<\/p>\n

As a democratic society, we benefit by promoting the welfare of other societies and not contributing to their destruction, which will generate more violent conflicts for future generations. Biden should articulate that principle in his campaign and with his actions as president. Thus, he can force Trump to say how he intends to end the Israeli\u2013Hamas war and not perpetuate U.S. involvement in Middle East wars.<\/p>\n

The post If Biden is to Keep From Losing the Election He Needs to\u00a0Stop the Middle East War<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats must realize that despite keeping our troops out of Gaza, the longer the Israeli-Hamas War continues, the more the public will see the Israeli-Hamas War as President Joe Biden\u2019s War. Even though the U.S. is only one of ten governments that support Israel\u00a0in the war against Hamas, we are by far the most significant More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post If Biden is to Keep From Losing the Election He Needs to\u00a0Stop the Middle East War<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1500661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1500662,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500661\/revisions\/1500662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1500661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1500661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1500661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}