Israel at War—U.S. Politics

In the very early weeks of the Hamas-Israel war, a very blue, Jewish acquaintence told me how impressed she was by Joe Biden's support for Israel in its response the the Hamas' atrocities of October 7th. You know—the atrocities that led to the wanton slaughter of entire families, the rape, murder, mutilation, and gleeful display of young, dead Israeli women, the murder of infants and their subsequent beheading, and the kidnapping of hundreds to be used as bargaining chips and human sheilds—those atrocities that the propaganda media would prefer that we all forget. All in the name of the palestinian cause and, of course, Allah.

Our conversation went something like this:

"You have to admit," she said, "Joe Biden's support for Israel is wonderful!"

I nodded, "Yeah, his words are encouraging, particularly because his supporters on the Left have become VERY anti-Israel and increasingly anti-Semitic." [This was in the first days of the conflict]

She frowned. "But, but, most of the anti-Semitism is coming from the hard right, you know, neo-Nazis."

"Nah," I laughed, "there aren't many Neo-Nazis who teach at Cornell or go to classes at Harvard, or are graduate assistants at NYU. The last time I looked there were no anti-Israel KKK demonstrations in New York City."

She began to speak and then stopped. The truth somehow penetrating her pre-programmed demonization of the Right.

But I wanted to add one more thing, "Biden is good right now, but get back to me in 2 months to see whether his actions match his words."

It's now been two months, and as I suspected, the Democrats' leftist, anti-Israel wing has eroded Biden's support for Israel. Michael Goodwin writes:

The odds that Israel’s security could be sacrificed to help boost Biden’s bid for a second term have been growing ever since polls started showing that many young leftist Americans have no love for the Jewish state.

The polls inadvertently tell an ugly truth — the antisemites chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” on college campuses are mostly Democrats. And now they have Biden’s full attention because he’s desperate.

So much so that his support for Israel, iron-clad in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre, has softened dramatically.

His once-stout statements about Israel’s right to defend itself have turned into scolds and warnings that it must do more and more to protect Arab civilians.

Never mind that Hamas uses its own people as human shields. Biden is joining the chorus demanding that Israel protect them, even at the risk to its own citizens and soldiers.

The clear implication is that Israel cannot count on American support for its ultimate goal of eliminating Hamas from Gaza and killing its leaders. Biden doesn’t have the stomach for it.

His shameful new message is being delivered primarily by others in the administration. Most alarmingly, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is talking gibberish about a two-state solution in ways that smack of rewarding Hamas.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also has been drafted into the campaign, and he warned recently that Israel could be driving civilians into siding with Hamas, saying it would turn a “tactical victory” into a “strategic defeat.”

If that weren’t enough, Harris finally got called off the bench last weekend and she raised the ante in separate talks and meetings with the leaders of three Arab nations — Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Ostensibly on a trip to a Dubai climate summit, Harris reportedly spent nearly all her time making it clear the United States is nearing the end of its tolerance for Israel’s military operations in Gaza. She is also said to have taken a hard line in a call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Heh. The anonymous cabal that sets policy in the White House [reminder: Joe Biden is cognitively disabled] has decided that losing millions of 18 - 25 year old leftist voters takes precedence over Israel's right to exist and absolutely trumps any concern about left-wing anti-Semitic demonstrations and menacing behavior at major elite universities. 

Goodwin nails it when he states, "Politics doesn’t get any cheaper or more reckless than pandering to the bigot-laced mob calling for Israel’s destruction."

The real problem is that the "bigot-laced mob" has been jointed by the likes of the New York Times, CNN, WaPo, and dozens of other propaganda media outlets. So in yet another act of weakness, Biden caves. And in a coincident act of abject stupidity, progressive Jews like the person I introduced at the head of this post will continue to vote for the political party that forced him to cave. 

UPDATE-1:

This post by Glen Reynolds on Instapundit is telling:

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS ON TOP OF ITS GAME AS USUAL: Kirby: We Need Another Pause to Get 8 American Hostages Out of Gaza. “And why would that be, precisely? Could it be that Joe Biden somehow failed to negotiate their release during the first operational ‘pause’ that he took credit for brokering last month? . . . That certainly sounds suspicious. Hanlon’s Razor could apply here, in which we shouldn’t presume malevolence when incompetence can fully explain a failure. Biden and his team abandoned 14,000 Americans to the Taliban while bugging out of Afghanistan in August 2021, so we have ample precedent for this kind of disgraceful disregard for American lives by Biden et al. What this looks like, however, is Biden and his team using American hostages as leverage on Israel, manipulating American public opinion to force them into bad deals and eventually a solve-nothing cease-fire that allows Hamas to survive and rebuild … again.”

Nothing says that you can’t be both evil and incompetent.

UPDATE-2:

And this post on X (Twitter) from Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-TX):