Biden warns Israel is losing global support

The media are making much ado about President Biden warning Israel’s leaders on Tuesday that they were losing international support. Among other things, he cited the alienating policies of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s right-wing government. 

Foremost, he bemoaned Netanyahu’s refusal to even consider the two-state solution, which Biden maintains offers the only path to peace.  

The president said that Israel had support from Europe and much of the world as well as the United States, but he added that ‘they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place.’

(The New York Times, December 12, 2023)

Reports and commentaries suggest Biden’s remarks reflect a ‘widening rift’ with Netanyahu. You’d be forgiven for thinking this rift is now as wide as the Great Rift Valley, stretching from Lebanon to Mozambique. But nothing could be further from the truth. 

In effect, Biden’s warning is more parental than presidential. Frankly, their relationship is such that it’s like a frustrated parent pleading with an unruly child to stop touching the hot stove. 

As it happens, most US presidents have dealt with most Israeli prime ministers with spare-the-rod indulgence. I decried Biden for doing so with Netanyahu just days ago in “Biden’s Travel Ban on West Bank Settlers Is Feckless and Cynical” on December 6. 

Netanyahu defies Biden despite needing US support

As indicated, Biden keeps repeating the need for Israel to accept the two-state solution as the basis for peace with the Palestinians. But, like an unruly child, Netanyahu remains stubborn: 

‘I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo.’

That idea – of a Palestinian state existing alongside the state of Israel – took off in the 1990s, with a series of agreements known as the Oslo Accords, which created, among other things, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which assumed partial control over the West Bank and Gaza.

(CNN, December 12, 2023)

It speaks volumes that Netanyahu even threw the bad examples the US set with its own indiscriminate bombing in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. All Biden could do was intone that admonitory canard: Do as I say, not as I do. Which makes my parent-child analogy all the more apt. 

Of course, Netanyahu is defiant because, like an indulgent parent, Biden’s unconditional support belies his tough talk. It gives Netanyahu just cause to believe the US will support Israel no matter how much Palestinian land it annexes or how many Palestinians it kills.

Even worse, this unconditional support emboldens Israel to give the finger to the whole world. Sure enough, the US reinforced this support just days ago. It was the only country to support Israel when the US voted against a UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire and the release of all hostages in Gaza. 

The United States’ isolated stand reflected a growing fracture between Washington and some of its closest allies over Israel’s monthslong bombardment of Gaza. France and Japan were among those supporting the call for a cease-fire. 

(The Associated Press, December 9, 2023)

The UN Security Council: All talk, no action

On Tuesday, I criticized the UN’s ineffectiveness in a commentary on Biden’s other child at war, Ukrainian President Zelensky. I noted that its Security Council, a once-potent body, now resembles a high school debate club where the big players – Russia, China, and the United States – use their vetoes like “Get Out of Jail Free” cards. 

The Council’s failure to influence events in Ukraine or Gaza reinforces this view.

Biden balancing act: supporting Israel, losing goodwill

To say Biden is walking a geopolitical tightrope is an understatement. He knows what Israel is doing to Gaza is no more “consistent with international humanitarian law” than what Russia is doing to Ukraine.

Yet Biden is exacerbating his well-known speech impediment by twisting his tongue, decrying Israel’s indiscriminate bombing while championing its right to bomb. 

Indeed, there’s more support for the Palestinian people among Jews in Israel than among evangelicals in the Republican Party.

Of course, Iago Netanyahu would willfully goad Biden to squander all of America’s international goodwill, so long as America stands with … him.   

What Biden should do

I outlined what Biden should do in the commentary on Biden’s travel ban I referenced above. So, I’ll simply reiterate that Biden should: 

• threaten to withhold US support to get the cease-fire he and most Israelis want; 
• impose a travel ban on warmongers in Netanyahu’s cabinet instead of on settlers in the West Bank; and 
• get Israel to facilitate a safe zone in north Gaza: provide security for convoys to relocate Gazans there, open corridors for countries to funnel comprehensive humanitarian aid 24/7, and employ Gazans to clean up and rebuild their homes. 

All else is folly.

Meanwhile, media coverage suggests that the conflict in Gaza and the war in Ukraine are the ones displaying man’s inhumanity to man. But nothing could be further from the truth. 

Remember that a genocidal war is still raging in Sudan, complete with Arab militiamen resuming their ethnic cleansing of Black Africans in Darfur. The media’s attention may be fleeting, but the suffering continues. Spare a thought.