I wanted to offer a follow up to my last diary in which I supported Joe Biden’s decision to withhold 2,000 pound bombs and related unguided destructive offensive weapons from Netanyahu. It’s been a while coming, too.
I want to talk about the remarkable lack of courage being shown by specific ‘Centrist Democrats’ who where previously, and rightly, outraged about Netanyahu’s brutality in Gaza but are now unable to support Biden’s difficult and necessary decision to at least partially manage Netanyahu’s plan to continue his brutality in Rafah.
Finally is a response to a well considered reference by @noofsh who wrote yesterday how the trajectory should change for the better once Biden defeats Trump in November though so many lives will still likely be lost in the interim. And though I hate to say this — if Biden beats Trump.
I agree with @noofsh’s observation and believe it further strengthens the need for us to use our numbers and ensure that Biden beats Trump every which way but loose come November. I’ve been a long time fan of Joe Biden. I know his strengths and recognize his weaknesses. But I also think it worth identifying that Biden has truly made what is a very real and I am certain a personally difficult effort to restrain Netanyahu despite the obvious, and sometimes absurdly imposed, political risks.
It is absolutely imperative that Biden win decisively in November as there is absolutely NO alternative — but catastrophe. Each time I especially hear Democrats talking about how they may need to ‘reconsider’ their vote, I’m not certain what they could possibly be thinking.
In fact, not only MUST we keep the White House, but we also need a super majority in Congress since we currently are a nation with only a one functioning party — the Democrats.
I’ve been particularly stressed by and annoyed with constant media breying (and their non stop ‘polls’) about how Democrats have been ‘turning away from Biden’ due to Gaza. Though I’m not certain how this has exactly been documented by the media, a reality is that anything which remotely strengthens Trump in any way whatsoever is inexcusable.
And the deep, even deadly, irony by so many Congressional ‘centrist’ Democrats is remarkable.
That many of these same 'centrist Democrats' who were rightly horrified by Netanyahu's destruction of Gaza to include Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator Jacky Rosen and Senator Richard Blumenthal — among others — are now engaged in bad political performance art and wringing their hands over the fact that Biden is not going to let Netanyahu carpet bomb Rafah next is, frankly, disturbed and profoundly disturbing
The first and primary problem remains the Iranian proxy genocidal terrorist organization, Hamas, who must be taken apart. And it is critical to recognize that Biden's limited but very important action in no way or remotely impedes the IDF’s objective in this regard.
A second primary problem is that there is no peace for Israel or Palestinians, there is no security for Israel or Palestinians so long as Hamas remains in Gaza — and — Netanyahu remains in office while hard pandering to his violent extremist coalition whose primary goal is to resume full Israeli control over Gaza and the West Bank.
Netanyahu's conduct, along with these confused American 'centrist Democrats' are only giving further succor to Hamas...and simultaneously to the Israeli hard Right. This, just as Netanyahu and Hamas have long carried on a symbiotic relationship until Hamas broke with Netanyahu and engaged the genocidal October 7 massacre in southern Israel.
The only way to break up this symbiosis between Palestinian Islamists, Netanyahu and Jewish extremists is to force Netanyahu, with his coalition, OUT of Israel’s government immediately. There is no alternative here, either.
With all of this, the premise that a cross-section of Democrats are 'moving away' from Biden is truly nuts, self destructive and deeply myopic. That Democrats have long had the knack of pulling defeat from the jaws of victory seems at play once again. Anything that builds votes for or in any way, even indirectly, supports Trump would be a catastrophe for this country; for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Biden must be supported and reality better prioritized. Biden must win big time and convincingly come November. And it's time for these ‘centrist Democrats’ to show political courage and use political capital. It’s also time for the GOP to end their own nonsensical political performance art in the realization that, again, Netanyahu does not need to carpet bomb Rafah to defeat Hamas. That Netanyahu’s extreme response in Gaza continues to play exactly into the hands of Hamas.
One more quick thing...Biden’s action to (temporarily) restrict 2,000 pound bombs, and other unguided unhinged destructive offensive weapons in order to keep them out of Netanyahu’s hands, is NOT incidentally connected or remotely similar to the reason Trump was impeached for the first time.
It’s time for folks to stop making this deeply inaccurate reference. Trump’s first impeachment was for his all very well documented and fully corroborated attempt to extort President Zelenskyy of Ukraine into finding dirt on a political rival (Joe Biden by way of Hunter Biden). That the Senate, with the ultimate coward Mitch McConnell in the lead, voted to acquit Trump on this, as well as on his second impeachment where his guilt was fully acknowledged by McConnell and others in the GOP, will require at least a generation to fully correct