I am riffing here on a Sunday night, but bear with me.
Does anyone else in the DKos community see the same value I see — value writ large — in the Biden camp corralling Big Dog Bill, Bush 2, and Obama to deliver a joint 4 President statement on reinforcing the intent of the USA to never waiver in its support of Israel AND in its unrelenting support for a Palestinian state?
It seems that the current state of I-P affairs — at this very hour — sits on a knife’s edge and some kind of cornerstone of statesmanship might be useful at this inflection point. The U.S. Presidency has, for the most part, always been able to uniquely provide that guide star. Assembling 4 U.S. Presidents with all of them singing from the same hymnal seems like it should resonate with the intended audience as well as other Stakeholders on the global stage.
Those 4 Presidents speaking in turn, directly to the citizens of Israel and to the residents of the West Bank and Gaza — with a message that re-emphasizes their intertwined fates. It also shines a light on the fact that Iran, Hezbollah and other bad actors in the region are working — for their own self-interest — to keep the good faith people of Israel and the Palestinians in conflict.
The need to create a just and lasting peace in the region and improve the lived experience of Israelis and Palestinians over the balance of the 21st century is an issue to be solved now. I believe the U.S. / Biden administration has an opportunity to forcefully re-assert its role — rooted in history — as a powerful catalyst to that outcome. It can do so with the gravitas that those 4 American Presidents can bring to the world stage of diplomacy.
p.s. — I’ll leave it completely unsaid about who may comprise the “other bad actors in the region” and what the message such a joint undertaking says about the perceived international standing of the orange one as we approach November…..