{"id":90848,"date":"2021-03-24T08:57:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T08:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=134240"},"modified":"2021-03-24T08:57:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T08:57:06","slug":"bidens-heartfelt-illogic-about-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/24\/bidens-heartfelt-illogic-about-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s Heartfelt Illogic About Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photograph Source: U.S. Department of State – Public Domain<\/p><\/div>\n

Stale Foreign Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost everyone in the West who is not a fan of Donald Trump\u2014and if they are a fan, their sanity is to be doubted\u2014 assumes that U.S. President Joe Biden is now helping to save both the United States and the world. In some categories such as climate change, environmental regulation, economic reform favoring the poor and middle class, equal rights and, of course, combating the Covid-19 virus, they might have a point.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, it really saddens me to say that, at least in this author\u2019s opinion, President Biden is not \u201cthe sharpest tack in the box.\u201d That is, he is not the smartest guy in Washington, D.C. On the other hand, Joe has a strong point. He has the good fortune to have drawn together some very strong and progressive advisers on the domestic side of the political equation. It would also seem that, unlike his predecessor, Biden has the capability to actually listen to these people. He also has accommodated himself to the pressure put forth by true progressives such as Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n

The one exception to this wealth of good advice is on the other half of the job, in the area of foreign policy, in particular foreign policy toward the Middle East, and specifically policy toward the country of Israel. Here is where Joe has difficulty thinking straight and is out of luck with his chosen advisers.<\/p>\n

To wit Andrew Bacevich of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft:<\/p>\n

\u201cBeneath a veneer of gender and racial diversity, the Biden national security team consists of seasoned operatives who earned their spurs in Washington long before Donald Trump showed up to spoil the party. So, if you\u2019re looking for fresh faces at the departments of state or defense, the National Security Council or the various intelligence agencies, you\u2019ll have to search pretty hard. Ditto, if you\u2019re looking for fresh insights. In Washington, members of the foreign policy establishment recite stale bromides, even as they divert attention from a dead past to which they remain devoted.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Analytical Shortcomings Nos. 1 and 1A: Policy Formulation toward Israel and the Palestinians<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the field of U.S.-Israeli relations, there are two areas where President Biden\u2019s analytical shortcomings show themselves.<\/p>\n

(1) The inability to formulate foreign policy that takes into account the behavior of the object of that policy.<\/p>\n

President Biden says \u201cmy commitment to Israel is completely unshakable. As president, I\u2019m going to continue our security assistance \u2026 and maintain Israel\u2019s qualitative military edge. I\u2019m not going to place conditions for the security assistance.\u201d Essentially, this position abdicates U.S. national interests in favor of Israeli interests.<\/p>\n

Here is a metaphor for such blind commitment. Think of how one adjusts attitudes toward friendships held over time. If you had a friend (we will refer to this friend as male) who, for whatever reason, evolved into a robber, would you give him a gun every year on his birthday? Would you do that because you remember he was a battered child and you think the arsenal you provide will make him feel secure and, hopefully, lead him to give up his criminal behavior? Or maybe you think he needs the gun because he lives in a bad neighborhood?<\/p>\n

Biden believes that \u201cIsraelis wake up every morning facing an existential threat. That\u2019s why we always have to be adamant that Israel must be able to defend itself.\u201d\u00a0But this is just a long-obsolete rationalization for spoiling your friend, who turns out to be head of the strongest gang on the block.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Biden points fingers at his predecessor for adopting exactly the same stance toward the Saudi Kingdom. Biden complained that \u201cDonald Trump has given the government of Saudi Arabia a blank check to pursue a disastrous set of policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

(1A) The reverse side of this coin entails Joe Biden\u2019s uninformed attitude toward the Palestinians. These are people who allegedly pose an \u201cexistential\u201d threat to Israeli lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palestinians need to end incitement in the West Bank and rocket attacks in Gaza. \u2026 No matter what legitimate disagreement they may have with Israel, it\u2019s never a justification for terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The truth is that it is the Palestinians who are under the \u201cexistential threat\u201d and it is the Israelis who exercise massive violence against them, more often than not of a terroristic nature. When Palestinians resist Israeli oppression they are labeled terrorists, they are killed and their infrastructure is destroyed. When they do not resist, more and more of their land is taken. Volunteers must come from Europe to the West Bank so that farmers can harvest their olives without getting shot by Israeli settlers.\u00a0 Gaza is under blockade, not able to obtain basic supplies or vaccines.\u00a0It should come as no surprise that “the death tolls in the Israel-Palestine conflict are lopsided, with Palestinians\u00a0far more likely to be killed than Israelis. According to the Israeli human rights organization B\u2019Tselem, which has compiled month-to-month fatality records, looking at the figures since 2005, 23 out of every 24 conflict deaths have been Palestinian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden also insists that the Palestinian Authority should \u201cacknowledge, flat-out, Israel\u2019s right to exist\u2014period\u2013-as an independent Jewish state and guarantee the borders.\u201d Actually, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) did so in 1993. The Palestinian Authority suspended recognition in 2018 due to incessant theft of Palestinian land by Israel.<\/p>\n

It appears that Joe Biden takes none of these facts into consideration. Is it because he does not know them? Such ignorance is certainly possible, though for a U.S. president it would be inexcusable. More likely, he has heard the Palestinian side, but cannot interpret it objectively because he is ideologically committed to the Israeli worldview.<\/p>\n

President Biden has declared that \u201cI am a Zionist. You don\u2019t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.\u201d Commitment to Zionism is commitment to an ideology. Seeing the world on the basis of an ideology\u2014any ideology\u2014must distort your understanding. Thus, Biden\u2019s view of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict becomes as lopsided as the conflict\u2019s death toll.<\/p>\n

Analytical Shortcoming No. 2: The BDS Movement<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Biden\u2019s personal refusal to adjust U.S. policy to confront even those aspects of Israeli behavior he says he opposes\u2014settlement activity and threats of annexation\u2014carries over into his personal opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel, active both in the U.S. and Europe. Just as his reasoning is often faulty when refusing to match policy to Israeli behavior, it is also faulty as to his opposition to BDS.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, \u201cJoe Biden will protect the constitutional right of our citizens to free speech.\u201d On the other, the president \u201chas been unequivocal in condemning calls in the United States to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel.\u201d In other words, Americans can say it, but in this case, Joe ain\u2019t listening.<\/p>\n

According to the president, \u201cthe BDS movement singles out Israel\u2014home to millions of Jews\u2014in a way that is inconsistent with the treatment of other nations, and it too often veers into anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is obvious that in the case of the BDS campaign, Israel is \u201csingled out.\u201d However, this is not unusual or \u201cinconsistent with the treatment of other nations.\u201d It is quite consistent. Cuban Americans single out Cuba. Other groups single out China, or Russia, or Myanmar and the like. Does the president dismiss these defenders of human rights because of their single-country focus? Of course not. Thus, he is being a hypocrite when singling out BDS.<\/p>\n

In the case of Israel, those involved in BDS are mostly victims of Israeli oppression (Palestinians) or Jews who are utterly disgusted with what the Zionists are doing in their name. Israeli actions, particularly in the Occupied Territories, are in clear violation of international law and human rights declarations, and this gives the BDS a solid legal grounding. So what is Biden complaining about? Nothing that he has seriously thought through. And, when pushed on this, he falls back on the charge of anti-Semitism. Yet, the suggestion that the BDS movement is anti-Semitic is just a red herring.<\/p>\n

Here is another quite legitimate justification for Americans, and others in the West, to \u201csingle out\u201d Israel for attention by supporting BDS. Israel is indeed unique in that through its agents\u2014Zionist lobbies\u2014it is powerful enough to divert the debate over the aims of foreign policy in relation to much of the Middle East. That is, these agents of a foreign power divert the debate away from what is in the best interests of the U.S. or this or that Western nation, toward the question what is in the best interest of Zionist Israel. As a result, billions of dollars, pounds, euros and other resources have been diverted into making Israel a supremely powerful apartheid state.<\/p>\n

Can President Biden understand these arguments? No more than any other self-proclaimed Zionist. As a Zionist he must, if he is to stay ideologically consistent, let Israel off the hook for its crimes. Sometimes this blinkered way of thinking creates embarrassingly contorted positions.<\/p>\n

Consider this emotional proclamation made by then Senator Joe Biden at the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs\u00a0Committee) Policy Conference, on\u00a0March 20, 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cSingling out Israel, [either at the UN or by BDS] is wrong! It\u2019s wrong! I know it\u2019s not popular to say, but it\u2019s wrong, because as the Jewish people know better than any other people, any action that marginalizes one ethnic and religious group imperils us all. It\u2019s incumbent upon us, all of us, that we stand up against those who traffic in pernicious stereotypes, who seek to scare and divide us for political gain, because the future belongs to the bridge builders, not the wall builders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s unpack this declaration. We start with the sentence \u201cthe Jewish people know better than any other people, any action that marginalizes one ethnic and religious group imperils us all.\u201d It is correct that, given their history, many Jews should recognize Biden\u2019s statement as true. But all those who are Zionists will make an exception for Israel. They must do so in order to avoid outright contradiction. Why so? Because Israel has posited both its identity and its security on the \u201cmarginalization of one ethnic and religious group,\u201d namely, Palestinians. Maybe President Biden senses that there is some inconsistency here, but being a Zionist he dismisses it as justified. Addressing an AIPAC audience, of course, meant no one challenged him.<\/p>\n

We move on to the next sentence. \u201cIt is incumbent that all of us to stand up against those who traffic in pernicious stereotypes.\u201d When Israeli leaders and Zionists such as Joe Biden constantly refer to Palestinians who resist Israeli oppression as \u201cterrorists,\u201d they too are \u201ctrafficking in pernicious stereotypes.\u201d It is a safe guess that Biden does not realize this.<\/p>\n

Next sentence, \u201cIt is incumbent that all of us that stand up against those who \u2026 seek to scare and divide us for political gain.\u201d I cannot think of a more apt description of what the Zionist\/Israeli aim is here in the United States and the West in general\u2014to scare us away from the defense of Palestinian rights and divide us when it comes to legitimate criticism of Israeli behavior, all done for political gain in the form of maintaining an extraordinary level of financial and military support of an apartheid state.<\/p>\n

Finally, the last statement, \u201cbecause the future belongs to the bridge builders, not the wall builders.\u201d It is amazing that, given his immediate audience, Biden made this statement with a straight face. For he was addressing those infamous for building a wall that divides and isolates.<\/p>\n

Essentially, this entire declaration by Joe Biden attributes to BDS all the negative characteristics that Israel in fact displays. As a self-declared, true-believer Zionist, he does this without any recognition of the deep irony his declaration contains.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

How much history does Joe Biden, or his foreign policy advisers, know? For instance, do they know the history of Lyndon Johnson\u2019s presidency? Lyndon Johnson could have gone down in U.S. history as a remarkably successful and progressive leader. He could have done this on the basis of his championing civil rights. But he was destroyed by the Vietnam War\u2014a war fought by the U.S. because of ideological imperatives.<\/p>\n

President Biden may well be faced with the same choices. He probably could go down in U.S. history as the 21st century\u2019s first truly great president for all those reasons listed at the beginning of this essay. But these achievements may be diminished by adherence to obsolete and dangerous foreign policies in the Middle East. If he follows his current trajectory, he will bury the 2015 Iran agreement\u2014one of the most promising diplomatic achievements of the 21st century. He may linger on in that \u201cforever war\u201d in Afghanistan. He will let both the Israelis and the Saudis off the hook for their past and future abominations. And he will sustain Israeli dominance in the region even as that country confirms itself as a rightist, racist threat to human rights and international law. Through all of this Joe Biden may lose his moment in history.<\/p>\n

The post Biden\u2019s Heartfelt Illogic About Israel<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

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

Stale Foreign Policy Almost everyone in the West who is not a fan of Donald Trump\u2014and if they are a fan, their sanity is to be doubted\u2014 assumes that U.S. President Joe Biden is now helping to save both the United States and the world. In some categories such as climate change, environmental regulation, economic More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Biden\u2019s Heartfelt Illogic About Israel<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"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\/90848"}],"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\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90849,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90848\/revisions\/90849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}