{"id":1502579,"date":"2024-02-16T06:55:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T06:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=313619"},"modified":"2024-02-16T06:55:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T06:55:35","slug":"dodging-bidens-moral-collapse-is-no-way-to-defeat-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/16\/dodging-bidens-moral-collapse-is-no-way-to-defeat-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodging Biden\u2019s Moral Collapse Is No Way to Defeat Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
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Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain<\/p><\/div>\n

For more than four months, President Biden has been the main enabler for Israel\u2019s mass murder of Palestinian people in Gaza. Every day, hundreds of civilians are killed by U.S. weaponry and, increasingly, by\u00a0hunger and disease<\/a>. The cruelty and magnitude of the slaughter are repugnant to anyone who isn\u2019t somehow numb to the human agony.<\/p>\n

Such numbing is widespread in the United States. Some factors include ethnocentric, racial and religious biases against Arabs and Muslims. The steep\u00a0pro-Israel tilt<\/a>\u00a0of news media runs parallel to the slant of U.S. government officials, with language that\u00a0routinely<\/a>\u00a0conveys\u00a0much lower regard<\/a>\u00a0for Palestinian lives than Israeli lives.<\/p>\n

And while the credibility of the Israeli government has tumbled, the brawny arms of the Israel lobby — notably AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel — still exert enormous leverage over the vast majority of Congress. Few legislators are willing to vote against massive military aid that makes the carnage in Gaza possible.<\/p>\n

A chilling example is Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. On Monday night, he took to the Senate floor and condemned Israel in no uncertain terms. \u201cKids in Gaza are now dying from the deliberate withholding of food,\u201d he\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cIn addition to the horror of that news, one other thing is true. That is a war crime. It is a textbook war crime. And that makes those who orchestrate it war criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0from Van Hollen\u2019s impassioned speech, you might assume that he would vote against sending $14 billion in further military aid to those \u201cwar criminals.\u201d But hours later, he did just the opposite. As journalist Ryan Grim\u00a0noted<\/a>, \u201cthe senator\u2019s speech pulsed with moral clarity — until it petered out into a stumbling rationale for his forthcoming yes vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, three senators in the Democratic caucus — Jeff Merkley, Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders —\u00a0voted no<\/a>. Sanders delivered a\u00a0powerful speech<\/a>\u00a0calling for decency instead of further moral collapse from the top of the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

While the Senate deliberated, the White House again\u00a0made clear<\/a>\u00a0that it wasn\u2019t serious about getting in the way of Israel\u2019s planned assault on the city of Rafah. That\u2019s where most of Gaza\u2019s 2.2 million surviving residents have taken unsafe refuge from the Orwellian-named Israel Defense Forces.<\/p>\n

An exchange<\/a>\u00a0at a White House news conference on Monday underscored that Biden is determined to keep enabling Israel\u2019s continuous war crimes in Gaza:<\/p>\n

Reporter: \u201cHas the president ever threatened to strip military assistance from Israel if they move ahead with a Rafah operation that does not take into consequence what happens with civilians?\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokesman John Kirby: \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to support Israel. They have a right to defend themselves against Hamas and we\u2019re going to continue to make sure they have the tools and the capabilities to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later this week,\u00a0Politico<\/i>\u00a0summed up<\/a>: \u201cThe Biden administration is not planning to punish Israel if it launches a military campaign in Rafah without ensuring civilian safety.\u201d Citing interviews with three U.S. officials, the article reported that \u201cno reprimand plans are in the works, meaning Israeli forces could enter the city and harm civilians without facing American consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden continues to serve as an accomplice while mouthing platitudes of concern about the lives of civilians in Gaza. Month after month, he\u00a0has done all he can<\/a>\u00a0to supply the Israeli military to the max.<\/p>\n

Under an apt headline — \u201cBiden Is Mad at Netanyahu? Spare Me.<\/a>\u201d —\u00a0The Nation<\/i>\u00a0senior editor Jack Mirkinson wrote this week: \u201cIn the real world, Biden and his legislative partners have continued to arm Israel; the Democratic leadership in the Senate actually brought people in on Super Bowl Sunday to take a vote on a bill that would, along with rearming Ukraine, send Israel another $14.1 billion for what is euphemistically dubbed \u2018security assistance.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ever since October, inspiring protests and activism in the United States have challenged U.S. support for Israel\u2019s military assault on Gaza. However, boosted by revulsion at the atrocities that Hamas committed against Israeli civilians on October 7, the usual rationales for supporting Israel\u2019s violence against Palestinians have been hard at work.<\/p>\n

In this election year, an additional factor looms large. With just eight months until the voting starts that could propel Donald Trump back into the presidency, the prospect of his return to power is all too real. And with Biden set to be the Democratic Party\u2019s nominee, countless individuals and groups are careful to avoid saying much that\u2019s critical of the president they want to see re-elected.<\/p>\n

Instead of candor, the routine choices have been euphemisms and silence. But — morally and politically — that\u2019s a big mistake.<\/p>\n

The electoral base that Biden is going to need for re-election is heavily against his support for Israel\u2019s war on Gaza. Polling shows that young people in particular are overwhelmingly opposed. Most have seen through the thin veneer of his weak pleas for Israel to not kill so many civilians.<\/p>\n

No amount of evasions, silences or doubletalk can make Biden\u2019s policies morally acceptable. But — while the administration\u00a0combines<\/a>\u00a0its\u00a0PR\u00a0hand-wringing with military arms-supplying — Biden apologists go on and on with evasion and verbal gymnastics to defend the indefensible.<\/p>\n

A far better course of action would be actual candor about current realities: Joe Biden\u2019s moral collapse is enabling the Israeli government to continue, with impunity, its large-scale massacre of Palestinian people. In the process, Biden is increasing the chances that the Republican Party, led by fascistic Donald Trump, will gain control of the White House in January.<\/p>\n

The post Dodging Biden\u2019s Moral Collapse Is No Way to Defeat Trump<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

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

For more than four months, President Biden has been the main enabler for Israel\u2019s mass murder of Palestinian people in Gaza. Every day, hundreds of civilians are killed by U.S. weaponry and, increasingly, by\u00a0hunger and disease. The cruelty and magnitude of the slaughter are repugnant to anyone who isn\u2019t somehow numb to the human agony. More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Dodging Biden\u2019s Moral Collapse Is No Way to Defeat Trump<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"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\/1502579"}],"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\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1502580,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502579\/revisions\/1502580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}