Khansaheeb
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- Dec 14, 2008
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At least they have one realist soldier.
Last edited:
Gaza-Israel Conflict | 2023-2024
- Thread starter Ali_Baba
- Start date
Musings
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- Jun 23, 2011
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@Antonius123
Do you think this is acceptable? Is this a war crime or genocide? The IDF keep referring to Hamas as the boogeyman and the badness but they themselves have reach new levels. This action has to be the lowest form of human behaviour.
Reason why I tagged you is that I find it incredible that you try to defend action like this. If you accepted this is outrageous - then perhaps I would take you seriously and discuss potential solutions.
Khansaheeb
Elite Member
- Dec 14, 2008
- 19,909
- 20,961
- Country of Origin
- Country of Residence
Man from Uncle, one man who could stop the slaughter in Palestine but chooses not to do so:-
Khansaheeb
Elite Member
- Dec 14, 2008
- 19,909
- 20,961
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Biden is being blackmailed that's why he is doing Israel's bidding, Zions have him by the balls :-
www.aljazeera.com
BREAKING
At least 26,751 killed and 65,636 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Oct 7Israelis storm Al-Amal Hospital, order doctors and displaced people to leaveWorld Health Organization chief raises alarm over 'severe hunger' in Gaza
Click to pause breaking news tickerClose Breaking News Ticker
Smoke billows over Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on January 29, 2024 [AFP]
By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours and Joseph Stepansky
Published On 30 Jan 202430 Jan 2024
This is the first instalment of a two-part series delving into the origins of President Joe Biden's stance on Israel. For part two, click here.
Washington, DC – In retrospect, it may have been one of Joe Biden’s most career-defining moments.
Stern-faced and with outstretched arms, the then-Democratic senator paced from left to right as he delivered an impassioned plea to his colleagues in the United States Congress. His message? Stop apologising for your support of Israel.
“There’s no apology to be made. None,” he said, pausing for dramatic effect.
“Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interest in the region. The United States would have to go out and invent an Israel.”
It was June 1986: Biden, only 43, was decades away from becoming president. But in the years since, his words have taken on near-mythic significance – repeatedly touted by Biden himself as a symbol of his pro-Israel bona fides.
Today, Biden remains – in his words – “unwavering” in his support for Israel, despite anger over its deadly military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Some observers see his present-day stance as the product of decades spent building a reputation as one of Israel's foremost champions in Washington, DC.
Biden delivers remarks last December in Washington, DC [Evan Vucci/AP]
That support, however, could prove to be a political liability.
The war in Gaza has elicited fears of genocide as Israel bombards the Palestinian territory and limits access to food and water. More than 26,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks.
But Biden’s administration has blocked ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations and even bypassed Congress to increase weapons sales to Israel – pushing many experts to say he is leading one of the most staunchly pro-Israel administrations in US history.
“It’s self-destructive. It is not in the United States’s interests to be supporting a criminal, genocidal attack on Gaza. It is not in the Biden administration’s political interests to be supporting the war on Gaza,” said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a think tank in Washington, DC.
“But President Biden has insisted against all odds and all advice ... to continue the flow of arms and unconditional political support for Israel.”
So why is the administration’s support for Israel so unshakeable? Al Jazeera spoke to more than a dozen foreign policy experts, rights advocates and former US officials about the factors that underpin Washington’s position.
In this first instalment of a two-part series, we examine Biden’s personal and professional connections to Israel, forged over decades, and what his support for Israel amid the war in Gaza means for his political future.
In part two, we look at how history, domestic politics and foreign policy strategies influence the Biden administration’s stance.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden gestures during his speech at Tel Aviv University in 2010 [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]
“It starts with Biden himself and his personal beliefs,” said Josh Ruebner, an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University.
Ruebner – who authored the book Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace – believes Biden’s public affinity for Israel is sincere. “I don’t think it’s a political gimmick or a political act with him. I think it’s something he deeply and fundamentally believes in his bones.”
Biden himself has admitted as much. “It’s personal for me,” he said in a speech in 2015.
Indeed, Biden has woven his attachment to Israel into his origin story.
Born to a Catholic family in the mining town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden has recounted on multiple occasions how his father educated him and his siblings about the Holocaust over the dinner table.
Biden looks at pictures of Jews killed in the Holocaust during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem in 2010 [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]
“My dad taught us about the horror of the Shoah,” Biden explained last month at a Hanukkah celebration, repeating a well-worn tale. “It awakened in me and my brothers and sisters and our children a sense ... that this can happen again.”
On other occasions, Biden said his father – a “righteous Christian” – instilled in him the importance of Israel as a bulwark against threats to the Jewish people.
“He could not understand why there was a debate among Americans, or why there was a debate among American Jews, about whether or not we should have recognised Israel,” Biden said in the 2015 speech.
Those lessons would stay with him throughout his political career. As a young adult, Biden transitioned from being a lawyer to being a rising star in Delaware politics.
He quickly emerged as the surprise winner in the state’s 1972 race for the US Senate. He was only 29 years old at the time. The Senate seat would be his for the next 36 years.
The US Capitol Dome is reflected in a rain puddle in September 2023 [J David Ake/AP]
It was during his time in Congress that Biden forged his deep bonds with prominent Israeli leaders, including longtime politician and now-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He was only in his inaugural year as a senator when he met Golda Meir, the first female prime minister of Israel.
In an anecdote he has brought up frequently over the years, Biden recounts how, on a trip to the country shortly before the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Meir leaned over to tell him why she was confident in Israel’s longevity.
“She said, ‘Don’t worry, Senator Biden. We have a secret weapon here in Israel.’ My word, this is what she said: ‘We have no place else to go',” Biden said during a news conference on October 10, repeating the anecdote.
Amid the current war in Gaza, Biden has used Meir’s words as part of his rationale for backing Israel, describing its existence as essential for Jewish safety.
“For 75 years, Israel has stood as the ultimate guarantor of security of Jewish people around the world so that the atrocities of the past could never happen again,” he said in the same October speech.
“And let there be no doubt: The United States has Israel’s back.”
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, in this handout picture released on January 29 [Israeli army/Handout via Reuters]
While apparently sincere, Biden’s personal affinity for Israel has served a political purpose, too.
Biden has repeatedly touted his pro-Israel credentials over the years, even calling himself a “Zionist in my heart” at a 1999 hearing for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (PDF).
But never were his ties to Israel more politically important than when Biden became vice president to Barack Obama.
At the time, US media and pro-Israel lobby groups were painting Obama as the toughest Israel critic to ever step into the Oval Office. Reports of “frosty” relations between Obama and Netanyahu frequently made headlines.
“I hate to present it as good cop-bad cop,” said Ruebner, the Georgetown lecturer, noting that Obama ultimately provided unprecedented levels of military support for Israel. But “Biden was often sent as the good cop and to smooth things over”.
Biden, top left, looks on as Israel's Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of the US Congress in 2011 [Alex Wong/Getty Images]
Biden’s role, he added, was to be “someone who could talk at that emotional, empathetic level of identification with Israel”.
And that’s the part he played. In 2015, as Obama’s vice president, Biden marked Israeli Independence Day by declaring: “My name is Joe Biden, and everybody knows I love Israel.”
His pronouncement came despite Israel regularly putting a spoke in the wheel of the Obama administration’s Middle East efforts. Netanyahu was staunchly opposed to an Iran nuclear deal, a top priority for Obama.
He also stymied US efforts to jumpstart stalled peace negotiations with the Palestinians, going as far as to unveil plans for Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank while Biden was visiting in 2010.
But “even that slap in the face” was not enough “to really detract Biden from his own personal rapport with Netanyahu and his personal identification with Israel”, Ruebner told Al Jazeera.
Demonstrators rally in the US capital for the March on Washington for Gaza on January 13 [Jose Luis Magana/AP]
Elected president in 2020, Biden has continued to play the role he honed under the Obama administration: steadfast ally to Israel.
Some critics have termed Biden’s approach “bear-hug diplomacy”, in reference to the warm embrace he gave Netanyahu soon after the war in Gaza erupted in October.
But the outcry over that approach has mounted as the death toll in Gaza has grown amid relentless Israeli bombardment.
Critics have called on Biden to push Israel for a ceasefire – or premise US aid on human rights protections. So far, he has done neither.
“This administration’s policy [has been] absolutely abominable, devoid of any rationale, devoid of human compassion,” said Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian-American activist and civil rights lawyer.
Video Duration 01 minutes 37 seconds01:37
Biden visits Israel and reaffirms support for war in Gaza
“It’s one thing to say you sympathise with Israel but to take that to the level of what [Biden is] doing now, which is enabling a genocide and not showing concern for Palestinian life at all, is beyond not only what we would expect from a world leader, a national leader, but also a decent human being,” she told Al Jazeera.
The policy, she added, “defies logic”.
Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland and director of the Critical Issues poll, said it is clear that Biden “has made up his mind, and everybody in the administration is going along with it”.
Telhami, who previously served as an adviser to US officials, told Al Jazeera that, in his interactions with Biden over the years, it was clear that the now-president was always “very confident” in his own knowledge and opinions.
“While he will listen, it’s not clear that he hears,” Telhami said. “There’s a little bit of give and take, but in the end, it settles down on: ‘He knows best.'”
That approach, Telhami explained, “puts a wall around him, not to hear the voices of dissent, or to dismiss them, because he already has made up his mind. And he does that in the name of leadership.”
Then-Vice President Biden waves upon his arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv in 2010 [Baz Ratner/Reuters]
A former US official also told Al Jazeera that “the absence of debate” is a critical piece of the puzzle.
The ex-official, who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely, explained that before the start of the war on October 7, there was space to raise concerns – but they never got very far.
The general view was that criticising Israel within the administration was “career suicide” and, as a result, many staffers engaged in “self-censorship”.
The former official also drew a contrast between how Biden and Obama set up their cabinets: Obama brought in people with opposing views, while Biden recruited colleagues he had worked with for many years.
“The people around Biden are not giving him a broad variety of perspectives,” the ex-official said. “When you don't have debate, when you don't have other voices heard, you don't have good policy.”
Recent US media reports have highlighted one lesser-known official who does, however, have the president’s ear: Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
A longtime diplomat, he previously served as a special assistant to Republican President George W Bush, focusing on policy and strategic planning in Iraq and Afghanistan. McGurk also became Obama’s special envoy in the global coalition to counter ISIL (ISIS).
A report in the HuffPost last month described McGurk as controlling which voices can weigh in on the White House’s decisions about Gaza.
“The State Department essentially has no juice on [Israel-Palestine] because Brett is at the centre of it,” an unnamed US official told the news outlet.
The HuffPost also reported on January 12 that McGurk is pushing a post-war plan that prioritises the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, something likely to spark ire among Palestinians.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, also said the “normalisation” initiative will remain a key component of the administration’s policies when the war ends.
Play Video
Video Duration 05 minutes 15 seconds05:15
Antony Blinken is translating Israel genocide into strategic breakthrough: Marwan Bishara
“When President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke in the weeks and months leading up to October 7, this was a key topic of discussion: Where do the Palestinians fit into a broad vision for Israel’s integration into the region and normalisation with Arab states?” Sullivan said during this month’s World Economic Forum.
The White House did not respond to Al Jazeera’s multiple requests for comment on the administration’s policies.
However, Imad Harb, the director of research and analysis at the Arab Center Washington DC, a think tank, slammed the Biden administration’s approach.
“It’s like they haven’t learned anything over the last 100 days,” he told Al Jazeera. “They’re still talking about, ‘How can we accommodate Israel’s grand design of being friendly with the Arab world?’ You can’t be friendly with the Arab world any more if you are still killing Palestinians.”
Harb added that, while US presidents often make their own policy decisions, the advice they seek is critical. “The most effective administrations usually are those that listen to two sides of the coin. This one does not seem to be listening to other opinions.”
Posters of Biden and plastic dolls are placed next to a fence near the White House during the March on Washington for Gaza in January [Anna Rose Layden/Reuters]
Biden’s Gaza policy could have serious ramifications as he seeks reelection this November.
Jaylani Hussein is among many Muslim Americans who cannot envision a scenario in which they would cast another vote for the Democrat.
Hussein is a national committee member for AbandonBiden, a campaign to encourage Muslim community members to ditch the president over his stance on Gaza. He said many voters who supported Biden in 2020 feel betrayed by his decision not to call for a Gaza ceasefire.
“We elected him and we fought really hard,” Hussein told Al Jazeera. “We’re not asking him to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue. We’re just asking him to say the most basic thing, which is: Palestinian families shouldn’t be wiped out with American weapons.”
The 2024 presidential race is shaping up to be a rematch of the 2020 election, where Biden edged out former Republican President Donald Trump.
Play Video
Video Duration 02 minutes 09 seconds02:09
Biden’s election-year Gaza problem
But November’s election is set to be tight. Surveys late last year showed Trump leading Biden in key swing states including Arizona, Georgia and Michigan. Experts warn Biden’s support for Israel could prove to be a decisive factor in his reelection efforts.
A recent poll from The New York Times and Siena College showed 57 percent of Americans disapproved of Biden’s handling of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But that disapproval figure jumped to 72 percent among voters under age 30 – a key Democratic Party demographic.
“The Biden administration and the Democratic Party itself, they’re under-estimating how valuable and how important the Palestinian cause is,” said Laura Albast, an editor with the Institute for Palestine Studies-USA.
“They think that foreign policy doesn’t matter, and that people are just going to vote based on economic need, based on whatever other promises that are [made],” she explained. “But they’re underestimating how committed free people are to the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Telhami, the University of Maryland professor, said Biden likely believes that a “fear of Trump” might “suffice for him to win” again. Trump enacted a strict immigration policy known as the “Muslim ban” and regularly uses racist and divisive rhetoric at his rallies.
But Telhami said, “I think he’s wrong.”
“He may have assumed early on, based on his experience from the 1980s and 1990s, that this posture [on Israel] could be also helpful to him politically, but it has proven to be not particularly helpful.”
Demonstrators hold up a bloody effigy of Biden during the March on Washington for Gaza in Washington, DC, on January 13 [Jose Luis Magana/AP]
Widespread anger keeps building. As a result of Biden's Gaza policy, two officials publicly resigned, staff members wrote open letters in protest, and Arab-American leaders in Michigan refused to meet with his campaign staff last week. Demonstrators continue to interrupt his campaign speeches with calls for a ceasefire.
Asked if he was concerned about losing the support of Arab-American voters over Gaza, Biden recently told reporters: “The former president [Trump] wants to put a ban on Arabs coming into the country. Let's make sure we understand who cares about the Arab population – number one. Number two, we've got a long way to go in terms of settling the situation in Gaza.”
But Arraf said that, if Biden believes Americans will vote for him because of a fear of Trump, he has gravely misread the situation.
“Certainly, we can’t say Trump is going to be any better, but that still is not going to convince people to pull the lever for the person who green-lighted and was complicit in and enabled a genocide,” she told Al Jazeera.
“What kind of person not only allows this to happen but actually enables this to happen? And what kind of person would I be, voting for the kind of person that enables these atrocities to happen?”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
‘Defies logic’: The makings of Joe Biden’s ‘blank cheque’ to Israel
As the war on Gaza sparks unprecedented anger, why is the US president’s support for Israel so unshakeable?
BREAKING
At least 26,751 killed and 65,636 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Oct 7Israelis storm Al-Amal Hospital, order doctors and displaced people to leaveWorld Health Organization chief raises alarm over 'severe hunger' in Gaza
Click to pause breaking news tickerClose Breaking News Ticker
'Defies logic'
The makings of Joe Biden's 'blank cheque' to IsraelSmoke billows over Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on January 29, 2024 [AFP]
By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours and Joseph Stepansky
Published On 30 Jan 202430 Jan 2024
This is the first instalment of a two-part series delving into the origins of President Joe Biden's stance on Israel. For part two, click here.
Washington, DC – In retrospect, it may have been one of Joe Biden’s most career-defining moments.
Stern-faced and with outstretched arms, the then-Democratic senator paced from left to right as he delivered an impassioned plea to his colleagues in the United States Congress. His message? Stop apologising for your support of Israel.
“There’s no apology to be made. None,” he said, pausing for dramatic effect.
“Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interest in the region. The United States would have to go out and invent an Israel.”
It was June 1986: Biden, only 43, was decades away from becoming president. But in the years since, his words have taken on near-mythic significance – repeatedly touted by Biden himself as a symbol of his pro-Israel bona fides.
Today, Biden remains – in his words – “unwavering” in his support for Israel, despite anger over its deadly military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Some observers see his present-day stance as the product of decades spent building a reputation as one of Israel's foremost champions in Washington, DC.
Biden delivers remarks last December in Washington, DC [Evan Vucci/AP]
That support, however, could prove to be a political liability.
The war in Gaza has elicited fears of genocide as Israel bombards the Palestinian territory and limits access to food and water. More than 26,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks.
But Biden’s administration has blocked ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations and even bypassed Congress to increase weapons sales to Israel – pushing many experts to say he is leading one of the most staunchly pro-Israel administrations in US history.
“It’s self-destructive. It is not in the United States’s interests to be supporting a criminal, genocidal attack on Gaza. It is not in the Biden administration’s political interests to be supporting the war on Gaza,” said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a think tank in Washington, DC.
“But President Biden has insisted against all odds and all advice ... to continue the flow of arms and unconditional political support for Israel.”
So why is the administration’s support for Israel so unshakeable? Al Jazeera spoke to more than a dozen foreign policy experts, rights advocates and former US officials about the factors that underpin Washington’s position.
In this first instalment of a two-part series, we examine Biden’s personal and professional connections to Israel, forged over decades, and what his support for Israel amid the war in Gaza means for his political future.
In part two, we look at how history, domestic politics and foreign policy strategies influence the Biden administration’s stance.
Bonds forged over the dinner table
Then-Vice President Joe Biden gestures during his speech at Tel Aviv University in 2010 [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]
“It starts with Biden himself and his personal beliefs,” said Josh Ruebner, an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University.
Ruebner – who authored the book Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace – believes Biden’s public affinity for Israel is sincere. “I don’t think it’s a political gimmick or a political act with him. I think it’s something he deeply and fundamentally believes in his bones.”
Biden himself has admitted as much. “It’s personal for me,” he said in a speech in 2015.
Indeed, Biden has woven his attachment to Israel into his origin story.
Born to a Catholic family in the mining town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden has recounted on multiple occasions how his father educated him and his siblings about the Holocaust over the dinner table.
Biden looks at pictures of Jews killed in the Holocaust during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem in 2010 [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]
“My dad taught us about the horror of the Shoah,” Biden explained last month at a Hanukkah celebration, repeating a well-worn tale. “It awakened in me and my brothers and sisters and our children a sense ... that this can happen again.”
On other occasions, Biden said his father – a “righteous Christian” – instilled in him the importance of Israel as a bulwark against threats to the Jewish people.
“He could not understand why there was a debate among Americans, or why there was a debate among American Jews, about whether or not we should have recognised Israel,” Biden said in the 2015 speech.
Those lessons would stay with him throughout his political career. As a young adult, Biden transitioned from being a lawyer to being a rising star in Delaware politics.
He quickly emerged as the surprise winner in the state’s 1972 race for the US Senate. He was only 29 years old at the time. The Senate seat would be his for the next 36 years.
Israeli ties define formative years as senator
The US Capitol Dome is reflected in a rain puddle in September 2023 [J David Ake/AP]
It was during his time in Congress that Biden forged his deep bonds with prominent Israeli leaders, including longtime politician and now-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He was only in his inaugural year as a senator when he met Golda Meir, the first female prime minister of Israel.
In an anecdote he has brought up frequently over the years, Biden recounts how, on a trip to the country shortly before the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Meir leaned over to tell him why she was confident in Israel’s longevity.
“She said, ‘Don’t worry, Senator Biden. We have a secret weapon here in Israel.’ My word, this is what she said: ‘We have no place else to go',” Biden said during a news conference on October 10, repeating the anecdote.
Amid the current war in Gaza, Biden has used Meir’s words as part of his rationale for backing Israel, describing its existence as essential for Jewish safety.
“For 75 years, Israel has stood as the ultimate guarantor of security of Jewish people around the world so that the atrocities of the past could never happen again,” he said in the same October speech.
“And let there be no doubt: The United States has Israel’s back.”
'Everybody knows I love Israel'
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, in this handout picture released on January 29 [Israeli army/Handout via Reuters]
While apparently sincere, Biden’s personal affinity for Israel has served a political purpose, too.
Biden has repeatedly touted his pro-Israel credentials over the years, even calling himself a “Zionist in my heart” at a 1999 hearing for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (PDF).
But never were his ties to Israel more politically important than when Biden became vice president to Barack Obama.
At the time, US media and pro-Israel lobby groups were painting Obama as the toughest Israel critic to ever step into the Oval Office. Reports of “frosty” relations between Obama and Netanyahu frequently made headlines.
“I hate to present it as good cop-bad cop,” said Ruebner, the Georgetown lecturer, noting that Obama ultimately provided unprecedented levels of military support for Israel. But “Biden was often sent as the good cop and to smooth things over”.
Biden’s role, he added, was to be “someone who could talk at that emotional, empathetic level of identification with Israel”.
And that’s the part he played. In 2015, as Obama’s vice president, Biden marked Israeli Independence Day by declaring: “My name is Joe Biden, and everybody knows I love Israel.”
His pronouncement came despite Israel regularly putting a spoke in the wheel of the Obama administration’s Middle East efforts. Netanyahu was staunchly opposed to an Iran nuclear deal, a top priority for Obama.
He also stymied US efforts to jumpstart stalled peace negotiations with the Palestinians, going as far as to unveil plans for Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank while Biden was visiting in 2010.
But “even that slap in the face” was not enough “to really detract Biden from his own personal rapport with Netanyahu and his personal identification with Israel”, Ruebner told Al Jazeera.
Lack of critical voices, debate
Demonstrators rally in the US capital for the March on Washington for Gaza on January 13 [Jose Luis Magana/AP]
Elected president in 2020, Biden has continued to play the role he honed under the Obama administration: steadfast ally to Israel.
Some critics have termed Biden’s approach “bear-hug diplomacy”, in reference to the warm embrace he gave Netanyahu soon after the war in Gaza erupted in October.
But the outcry over that approach has mounted as the death toll in Gaza has grown amid relentless Israeli bombardment.
Critics have called on Biden to push Israel for a ceasefire – or premise US aid on human rights protections. So far, he has done neither.
“This administration’s policy [has been] absolutely abominable, devoid of any rationale, devoid of human compassion,” said Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian-American activist and civil rights lawyer.
Video Duration 01 minutes 37 seconds01:37
Biden visits Israel and reaffirms support for war in Gaza
“It’s one thing to say you sympathise with Israel but to take that to the level of what [Biden is] doing now, which is enabling a genocide and not showing concern for Palestinian life at all, is beyond not only what we would expect from a world leader, a national leader, but also a decent human being,” she told Al Jazeera.
The policy, she added, “defies logic”.
Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland and director of the Critical Issues poll, said it is clear that Biden “has made up his mind, and everybody in the administration is going along with it”.
Telhami, who previously served as an adviser to US officials, told Al Jazeera that, in his interactions with Biden over the years, it was clear that the now-president was always “very confident” in his own knowledge and opinions.
“While he will listen, it’s not clear that he hears,” Telhami said. “There’s a little bit of give and take, but in the end, it settles down on: ‘He knows best.'”
That approach, Telhami explained, “puts a wall around him, not to hear the voices of dissent, or to dismiss them, because he already has made up his mind. And he does that in the name of leadership.”
A former US official also told Al Jazeera that “the absence of debate” is a critical piece of the puzzle.
The ex-official, who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely, explained that before the start of the war on October 7, there was space to raise concerns – but they never got very far.
The general view was that criticising Israel within the administration was “career suicide” and, as a result, many staffers engaged in “self-censorship”.
The former official also drew a contrast between how Biden and Obama set up their cabinets: Obama brought in people with opposing views, while Biden recruited colleagues he had worked with for many years.
“The people around Biden are not giving him a broad variety of perspectives,” the ex-official said. “When you don't have debate, when you don't have other voices heard, you don't have good policy.”
Israeli-Arab normalisation an end goal
Biden, right, holds a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly in September 2023 [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]Recent US media reports have highlighted one lesser-known official who does, however, have the president’s ear: Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
A longtime diplomat, he previously served as a special assistant to Republican President George W Bush, focusing on policy and strategic planning in Iraq and Afghanistan. McGurk also became Obama’s special envoy in the global coalition to counter ISIL (ISIS).
A report in the HuffPost last month described McGurk as controlling which voices can weigh in on the White House’s decisions about Gaza.
“The State Department essentially has no juice on [Israel-Palestine] because Brett is at the centre of it,” an unnamed US official told the news outlet.
The HuffPost also reported on January 12 that McGurk is pushing a post-war plan that prioritises the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, something likely to spark ire among Palestinians.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, also said the “normalisation” initiative will remain a key component of the administration’s policies when the war ends.
Play Video
Video Duration 05 minutes 15 seconds05:15
Antony Blinken is translating Israel genocide into strategic breakthrough: Marwan Bishara
“When President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke in the weeks and months leading up to October 7, this was a key topic of discussion: Where do the Palestinians fit into a broad vision for Israel’s integration into the region and normalisation with Arab states?” Sullivan said during this month’s World Economic Forum.
The White House did not respond to Al Jazeera’s multiple requests for comment on the administration’s policies.
However, Imad Harb, the director of research and analysis at the Arab Center Washington DC, a think tank, slammed the Biden administration’s approach.
“It’s like they haven’t learned anything over the last 100 days,” he told Al Jazeera. “They’re still talking about, ‘How can we accommodate Israel’s grand design of being friendly with the Arab world?’ You can’t be friendly with the Arab world any more if you are still killing Palestinians.”
Harb added that, while US presidents often make their own policy decisions, the advice they seek is critical. “The most effective administrations usually are those that listen to two sides of the coin. This one does not seem to be listening to other opinions.”
Political costs to Biden’s wartime stance
Posters of Biden and plastic dolls are placed next to a fence near the White House during the March on Washington for Gaza in January [Anna Rose Layden/Reuters]
Biden’s Gaza policy could have serious ramifications as he seeks reelection this November.
Jaylani Hussein is among many Muslim Americans who cannot envision a scenario in which they would cast another vote for the Democrat.
Hussein is a national committee member for AbandonBiden, a campaign to encourage Muslim community members to ditch the president over his stance on Gaza. He said many voters who supported Biden in 2020 feel betrayed by his decision not to call for a Gaza ceasefire.
“We elected him and we fought really hard,” Hussein told Al Jazeera. “We’re not asking him to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue. We’re just asking him to say the most basic thing, which is: Palestinian families shouldn’t be wiped out with American weapons.”
The 2024 presidential race is shaping up to be a rematch of the 2020 election, where Biden edged out former Republican President Donald Trump.
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Biden’s election-year Gaza problem
But November’s election is set to be tight. Surveys late last year showed Trump leading Biden in key swing states including Arizona, Georgia and Michigan. Experts warn Biden’s support for Israel could prove to be a decisive factor in his reelection efforts.
A recent poll from The New York Times and Siena College showed 57 percent of Americans disapproved of Biden’s handling of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But that disapproval figure jumped to 72 percent among voters under age 30 – a key Democratic Party demographic.
“The Biden administration and the Democratic Party itself, they’re under-estimating how valuable and how important the Palestinian cause is,” said Laura Albast, an editor with the Institute for Palestine Studies-USA.
“They think that foreign policy doesn’t matter, and that people are just going to vote based on economic need, based on whatever other promises that are [made],” she explained. “But they’re underestimating how committed free people are to the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Telhami, the University of Maryland professor, said Biden likely believes that a “fear of Trump” might “suffice for him to win” again. Trump enacted a strict immigration policy known as the “Muslim ban” and regularly uses racist and divisive rhetoric at his rallies.
But Telhami said, “I think he’s wrong.”
“He may have assumed early on, based on his experience from the 1980s and 1990s, that this posture [on Israel] could be also helpful to him politically, but it has proven to be not particularly helpful.”
Widespread anger keeps building. As a result of Biden's Gaza policy, two officials publicly resigned, staff members wrote open letters in protest, and Arab-American leaders in Michigan refused to meet with his campaign staff last week. Demonstrators continue to interrupt his campaign speeches with calls for a ceasefire.
Asked if he was concerned about losing the support of Arab-American voters over Gaza, Biden recently told reporters: “The former president [Trump] wants to put a ban on Arabs coming into the country. Let's make sure we understand who cares about the Arab population – number one. Number two, we've got a long way to go in terms of settling the situation in Gaza.”
But Arraf said that, if Biden believes Americans will vote for him because of a fear of Trump, he has gravely misread the situation.
“Certainly, we can’t say Trump is going to be any better, but that still is not going to convince people to pull the lever for the person who green-lighted and was complicit in and enabled a genocide,” she told Al Jazeera.
“What kind of person not only allows this to happen but actually enables this to happen? And what kind of person would I be, voting for the kind of person that enables these atrocities to happen?”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
Khansaheeb
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A Palestinian man documented on Friday how the park of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital has been turned into a graveyard where many unidentified victims from Israeli attacks on Gaza are buried. The man described how the area was previously used as a sp
A Palestinian man documented on Friday how the park of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital has been turned into a graveyard where many unidentified victims from Israeli attacks on Gaza are buried. The man...
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Khansaheeb
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Hassan Al-Somal
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Hassan Al-Somal
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"Hebrew sources, quoted by the Lebanese Press Agency:
Two delegations from Hamas and Islamic Jihad will arrive in Cairo today to receive the deal document, which includes in its first phase the release of 35 Israeli detainees in exchange for the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners in a six-week truce, during which large amounts of humanitarian aid will enter all parts of Gaza."
The West and Israel are basically using the death, the destruction, and the famine they imposed on Gaza in a way to pressure the Resistance. This is what the cancelling of funding UNRWA meant. The evil that these Satan worshippers have in their heart and displayed in this conflict knows no bounds.
Two delegations from Hamas and Islamic Jihad will arrive in Cairo today to receive the deal document, which includes in its first phase the release of 35 Israeli detainees in exchange for the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners in a six-week truce, during which large amounts of humanitarian aid will enter all parts of Gaza."
The West and Israel are basically using the death, the destruction, and the famine they imposed on Gaza in a way to pressure the Resistance. This is what the cancelling of funding UNRWA meant. The evil that these Satan worshippers have in their heart and displayed in this conflict knows no bounds.
without withdrawal of iof and other conditions to follow, it would be suicide with extended time for them to accept this. jews are in genocide mode and only what it prevents is military resistance. as much as tragic civilian suffering and deaths are caused upon Gaza it will be worse and shattering if they not prevail as combat force and goverement of Gaza.
hussain0216
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All it would mean is that for 6 weeks, Israel is present in Gaza and can't be attacked
They get hostages and they then attack Gaza afterwards
The answer should be NO, Israel is a demonic state full of evil people, push this until Palestine gets freedom and actual concessions
Antonius123
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Acceptable or not depend on the context.
If the context is not in war situation, or in war but they killed civilian for no reason, then the answer is unacceptable.
But if the context is during war situation, they aim and kill the militant, then the answer is yes.
Musings
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They killed civilians with no reason. There was no militant.
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Injured, hungry and alone - the Gazan children orphaned by war
Image caption,
The mother of this newborn baby did not live long enough to name her
By Yolande Knell
BBC News, Jerusalem
Born amid the horrors of the war in Gaza, the month-old baby girl lying in an incubator has never known a parent's embrace.
She was delivered by Caesarean section after her mother, Hanna, was crushed in an Israeli air strike. Hanna did not live to name her daughter.
"We just call her the daughter of Hanna Abu Amsha," says nurse Warda al-Awawda, who is caring for the tiny newborn at the al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Warning: This piece contains graphic descriptions which some may find upsetting.
In the chaos caused by the ongoing fighting and with entire families almost wiped out, medics and rescuers often struggle to find carers for bereaved children.
"We have lost contact with her family," the nurse tells us. "None of her relatives have shown up and we don't know what happened to her father."
Children, who make up nearly half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, have had their lives shattered by the brutal war.
Although Israel says it strives to avoid civilian casualties, including issuing evacuation orders, more than 11,500 under-18s have been killed according to Palestinian health officials. Even more have injuries, many of them life-changing.
It is hard to get accurate figures but according to a recent report from Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a non-profit group, more than 24,000 children have also lost one or both parents.
Image caption,
Ibrahim, lying on the hospital bed, lost his sister, mother and grandfather in a missile strike on his home
Ibrahim Abu Mouss, just 10 years old, suffered severe leg and stomach injuries when a missile hit his home. But his tears are for his dead mum, grandfather and sister.
"They kept telling me they were being treated upstairs in the hospital," says Ibrahim as his father clutches his hand.
"But I found out the truth when I saw photos on my dad's phone. I cried so much that I hurt all over."
The cousins of the Hussein family used to play together but now they sit solemnly by the sandy graves where some of their relatives are buried by a school-turned-shelter in central Gaza. Each has lost one or both parents.
"The missile fell on my mum's lap and her body was torn into pieces. For days we were taking her body parts from the rubble of the house," says Abed Hussein, who lived in al-Bureij refugee camp.
"When they said that my brother, my uncle and my whole family were killed I felt like my heart was bleeding with fire."
With dark bags around his eyes, Abed stays awake at night frightened by the sounds of Israeli shelling and feeling alone.
"When my mum and dad were alive, I used to sleep but after they were killed, I can't sleep any more. I used to sleep next to my dad," he explains.
Abed and his two surviving siblings are being looked after by his grandmother but everyday life is very hard.
"There's no food or water," he says. "I have a stomach ache from drinking sea water."
Image caption,
"Everything is sad," says Kinza, whose father was killed by a missile
Kinza Hussein's father was killed trying to fetch flour to make bread. She is haunted by the image of his corpse, brought home for burial after he was killed by a missile.
"He had no eyes, and his tongue was cut," she remembers.
"All we want is for the war to be over," she says. "Everything is sad."
Nearly everyone in Gaza now relies on aid handouts for the basics of life. According to UN figures, some 1.7 million people have been displaced, with many forced to move repeatedly in search of safety.
But the UN's children's agency, Unicef, says its biggest concern is for an estimated 19,000 children who are orphaned or have ended up alone with no adult to look after them.
"Many of these children have been found under the rubble or have lost their parents in the bombing of their home," Jonathan Crick, chief of communications for Unicef Palestine, tells me from Rafah in southern Gaza. Others have been found at Israeli checkpoints, hospitals and on the streets.
"The youngest ones very often cannot say their name and even the older ones are usually in shock so it can be extremely difficult to identify them and potentially regroup them with their extended family."
Image caption,
Abed Hussein, whose parents were both killed, says he can't sleep at night without them
Even when relatives can be found, they are not always well placed to help care for bereaved children.
"Let's keep in mind they are often also in a very dire situation," Mr Crick says.
"They may have their own children to take care of and it can be difficult, if not impossible, for them to take care of these unaccompanied and separated children."
Since the war started, a local non-profit organisation, SOS Children's Villages, which works with Unicef, says it has taken in 55 such children, all aged under 10. It has employed additional specialist staff in Rafah to give psychological help.
A senior SOS staff member tells me about a four-year-old who had been left at a checkpoint. She was brought in with selective mutism, an anxiety disorder which left her unable to speak about what had happened to her and her family, but is now making progress after being welcomed with gifts and playing with other children she lives with.
Unicef believes that nearly all children in Gaza are now in need of mental health support.
With their lives shattered, even when there is a lasting ceasefire, many will be left with terrible losses that they will struggle to overcome.
Injured, hungry and alone - the Gazan children orphaned by war
Some 19,000 children have been orphaned by the war, or have no adults to look after them, says the UN.
www.bbc.co.uk
You have to be non human not to be touched by stuff like this...........
Antonius123
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According to this they killed militants in the Hospital.
Israeli Forces Kill a Hamas Commander Inside a West Bank Hospital, Military Says
Surveillance video released by the Palestinian Authority shows several gunmen in apparent civilian clothing brandishing weapons in the hospital.
Israeli Forces Dressed As Civilian Women And Medics Kill 3 Militants In A West Bank Hospital
Israel's military said the militants were using the hospital as a hideout, without providing evidence.
Musings
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According to this they killed militants in the Hospital.
Israeli Forces Kill a Hamas Commander Inside a West Bank Hospital, Military Says
Surveillance video released by the Palestinian Authority shows several gunmen in apparent civilian clothing brandishing weapons in the hospital.www.nytimes.com
Israeli Forces Dressed As Civilian Women And Medics Kill 3 Militants In A West Bank Hospital
Israel's military said the militants were using the hospital as a hideout, without providing evidence.www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
Of course.
Yet again there is video evidence. You can quote several sources loyal to the Israeli juggernaut but when there is evidence that suggests otherwise. Bit like the video of a man flying a white flag shot in the back. You cant change that...
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