The idea that Bibi has been dictating American policy to our weak senile president with no cojones is beyond ridiculous. For those of you who think it's ok to have a senile shell of a Commander in Chief ...err...you're very very wrong.
Sorry to Snitzsplain but the world is a dangerous nasty place. Our government better find the balls to stand up for our strategic interests! That is unless you don't give a crap and want foreign actors deciding for you?
No I'm not done with my soapbox. Suck it.
Biden Begins Backing the Resistance to Netanyahu and His War
America made a costly mistake: Unconditional support for Netanyahu gave a tail-wind to carnage in Gaza. But now, belatedly, a sea-change is underway
David Rothkopf, Haaretz Media
Mar 4, 2024
Every halfway measure toward stopping the war in Gaza carries with it a death toll.
Every policy vacillation, incremental adjustment, rhetorical repositioning, that does not stop the killing and the suffering is too little too late. Anything we do now, in fact, is too little too late.
What the U.S. should be doing is recognizing that supporting Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist mob so unconditionally was a terrible mistake, despite how horrendous 10/7 was. And the atrocities of 10/7 were horrendous, monstrous, indefensible.
Gadi and Reuma Kedem hold up a photo of their daughter Tamar who was murdered by Hamas on October 7 along with her husband, Yonatan (Johnny), and their children, Arbel, Shachar and Omer, at a protest in Tel Aviv this weekend calling for an immediate hostage release/cease-fire deal.
It was clear from the outset that a blank check would enable Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir and Smotrich and their fellow thugs to advance their own personal political agendas and the goals of their nationalist base at the expense of the hostages taken on that horrible October day, not to mention at the cost of Israel's security, Israel's standing in the world, America's standing in the world and, most importantly, at the expense of the lives of the innocent Palestinians who became casualties of their misguided policies, strategy-less tactics, and morality-free revenge nightmare.
It was clear enough that even in the first meetings U.S. leaders had with Netanyahu and his war cabinet, the U.S. felt obligated to press for more Israeli efforts to enable and support humanitarian efforts to help the victims of this war.
It was clear enough that within weeks of the onset of Israeli operations in Gaza, the U.S. was redoubling pressure behind the scenes.
It was clear enough that by early December, the Vice President of the United States felt compelled to deliver a speech laying out a vision for "the day after" in Gaza that she knew, that the whole Biden team knew, was antithetical to Netanyahu's goals.
It has been clear in the weeks since, as the U.S. has taken steps from sanctioning West Bank settlers who were abusing the rights of Palestinians, to this past weekend's initiation of air drops to alleviate the growing threat of famine in Gaza – one currently estimated to put 25 percent of Gaza's population at risk, over 500,000 souls.
Palestinians run along a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City last weekend amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
It is easy to condemn the U.S. policy choices. It is even fair to condemn them. Biden should've known better than to embrace Netanyahu so tightly, given the Israeli prime minister's record of lies, betraying the support of the U.S. and subversive enmity with Biden's political party.
Biden should never have said U.S. aid to Israel was unconditional. As the death toll of innocents from Israel's operations in Gaza quickly grew intolerably high, the U.S. should have slammed on the brakes, publicly condemned (rather than defended) Israel's actions, stopped military aid to Israel, demanded a ceasefire, supported efforts for a ceasefire in international institutions and begun aggressive aid measures for Gaza including sending a hospital ship and finding ways to deliver aid to Gaza via the sea.
In Gaza, you may skirt Israel's bombs, but that doesn't mean you're alive
30,000 dead. A stampede of the starving. Hostages dying. The war in Gaza has to end
Halfway measures like the sanctioning of West Bank settlers seem impotent. Dropping a few tens of thousands of meals to Gazans, given the scale of the crisis being faced, is little more than a gesture. It also put the U.S. in the position of supporting both sides in this war. That does not send the message that our approach is balanced. It makes it clear that it has been, best intentions aside, incoherent.
But, for all that, from Secretary of State Blinken's first calls for humanitarian aid, through U.S. behind-the-scenes efforts to negotiate hostage releases and a cessation of fighting, from Harris' "day after" remarks to the air drop of aid to Gaza, it is also clear that the U.S. has grown disgusted with the behavior of Netanyahu.
The U.S. is trying, desperately to find a way to maintain our vital and longstanding friendship with Israel while acting to resist, change and at times block the actions of the Israeli government. This is a diplomatic conundrum like few we have ever faced. That's not an excuse. It's an explanation.
The decision by the U.S. administration to embrace Benny Gantz's trip to the White House despite the loud protestations of Netanyahu – especially after Netanyahu was long denied such a visit is the latest manifestation of the anti-Bibi component of U.S. policy that has been growing even more acute for weeks. (See, for example, Biden calling Netanyahu an "asshole"…although to be fair he was hardly the first U.S. official to describe Netanyahu that way. It is a tradition that goes back many years.)
Offering high-level meetings for Gantz with the Vice President and with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is significant because it represents a direct challenge to Netanyahu of a sort we have not seen so far in this conflict. It is a dramatic, ironic replay of how Netanyahu addressed Congress "behind Obama's back" exactly nine years ago. It is a step toward pitting Israel's most popular politician, Biden, against its least popular one, its worst-ever prime minister, Netanyahu.
That the day before these meetings saw the Vice President call for a six-week cease-fire in Gaza is no accident. While she rightly put some of the onus on achieving the cease-fire on the malevolent leadership of Hamas, she and the administration knew the message would go further, that it would be yet another signal that the U.S. had had enough with Netanyahu and the carnage in Gaza.
It may all be too late for the innocent victims of the war on both sides thus far. But it is nonetheless essential because the prospect of famine or the operations in Rafah promised by Netanyahu do more than simply promise lifting ghastly death tolls even higher. The famine could easily and swiftly double the losses to date and perhaps do much worse than that.
Allowing the current situation to fester, as the flour massacre last week indicated, raises the possibility of not just absolutely devastating human tragedy but of damage to Israel's reputation in the world from which it will take decades, generations to recover.
The damage that has already occurred has been immense. It makes Israel weaker and puts it at greater risk. The goal of the Gaza operation, to reduce the risk of another October 7, has not only not been advanced, but this war has increased Israel's vulnerability in multiple ways.
The U.S. has also been weakened by its policy errors. But unlike the Israeli leadership, the Biden administration is clearly seeking to learn from its errors and, where possible ameliorate them. Their pace of doing so is accelerating because circumstance demands it.
People who possess a modicum of decency or care about the people of Gaza or Israel or the region should hope the U.S. moves more quickly and decisively to a different policy – one that shows a policy guided more by wisdom, compassion, realism and genuine loyalty rather than one focused on superficial displays of misplaced support.
The U.S. made a serious policy error in giving Netanyahu too much support too quickly. It has compounded that error by changing its policies too slowly. But it now realizes – thanks to the actions and words of Netanyahu and his most right wing cabinet members – that any notion that support for the current Israeli government would buy the U.S. influence over its actions was misplaced (and, to be truthful, sadly naïve).
A sea-change is underway. Netanyahu is not only a failed prime minister whose incompetence set the stage for the October 7 horrors, but he is the man whose desperation to remain in power has produced a military approach to the situation in Gaza that has been a disaster at every level.
It is said that October 7 is the worst day in Israel's history. The operations that followed have multiplied the damage done that day many times over, not just in terms of Palestinian losses that are many tens of times higher than those suffered by Israel, but in terms of damage to virtually all of Israel's greater interests – economic, political and security.
Israel's most important international relationship has also sustained great damage. But fortunately for all concerned, the Biden administration is unilaterally taking steps to rectify that. Let us hope that they encourage Gantz and others within Israel's political leadership community, including those who will govern Israel on 'the day after' Netanyahu, to do the same.
David Rothkopf is a former senior U.S. government official and the author of ten books on foreign policy and politics. He is also a podcast host and CEO of The DSR Podcast Network. Twitter: @djrothkopf
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