Joe Biden Remains on the Wrong Side of History
When he touched on the Middle East in his farewell speech to the United Nations, Joe Biden failed to meet the moment- and didn't even know what the moment was.
(President Joe Biden Addresses the United Nations in a farewell address. Screenshot from an MSNBC YouTube video.)
Yesterday, I wrote how the governments of Israel and Afghanistan, each based on two different religious viewpoints, use similar fascist methods of dealing with their own people. Afghanistan, led by the far-right reactionary Islamic Taliban, has crafted some of the most brutal and repressive laws against women anywhere in the world. Israel, led by the far-right fascist Netanyahu government, has committed both apartheid and genocide against their Palestinian population.
The American government has had a hand in shaping each situation. In Afghanistan, years of war and occupation proved ineffective at creating a democratic government and has instead led to anti-western sentiment among its leaders. Anti-western sentiment has caused the Taliban to retreat further and further into fundamentalist Islam. In Israel, continued foreign aid has been used to commit war crimes and to engage both terroristic and military operations in Lebanon. Those war crimes and military operations have only caused its neighbors, who already didn’t like Israel, to respond with force in kind.
Israel’s terroristic operation came when explosives they had planted in pagers and other mobile devices exploded. Its military operations came when, after exchanging rocket fire with the militia group Hezbollah, they started bombarding targets in Lebanon this week.
Israel’s history as a nation suggests it doesn’t know how to play well with others. Each peace that’s brokered soon becomes forgotten against generations of hatred spurred by an event in 1948 Palestinians call “The Disaster-” the forcible establishment of the nation of Israel at the expense of the people who had lived there for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Beginning in the 1940’s, there hasn’t been a decade in which Israel hasn’t been involved in an armed conflict, either between nations, an uprising, or a terrorist action. The nation has accustomed itself to war, with Muslims being their perpetual and inveterate enemy.
Rather than suggesting foreign aid to Israel should be cut off until Israel learns how to make peace, Biden instead has chosen to blame Muslims for their plight. Rather than taking any meaningful action to remove Netanyahu from power, such as having him arrested for war crimes, the Prime Minister was instead invited to speak before Congress this year.
Israel, for reasons that aren’t especially clear, has been America’s favorite recipient of foreign aid for the past eighty years. A Council on Foreign Relations report suggests Israel received 310 billion dollars in American foreign aid from 1946 to 2024, the most of any country. In second and third place are Egypt and Afghanistan respectively.
Between 2023 and 2024, when Israel began its program of genocide, military aid increased from $3.9 billion to $12.5 billion. 15% of Israel’s defense budget has reportedly come from American foreign aid.
The Israeli genocide kicked off in October 2023 in response to the terrorist group Hamas taking hostages, in addition to, according to the BBC, raping and mutilating women. New, brutal tactics have emerged from Hamas in what CNN called a “new phase in the war and hostage crisis.” It wasn’t enough for Israel to hold those responsible accountable before the law; they decided to punish the innocent along with the guilty.
Hostages who have died while Israeli soldiers tried to approach Hamas positions have caused some in Israel to accuse Netanyahu of sacrificing Israeli lives to stay in power. Despite months of hostage-taking and terrorist actions, Hamas has not gained a significant advantage or leverage over Israel; instead, both sides have displayed increasingly cruel and inhumane behavior over a seventy-six-year-old problem: forcing people out of their homes and stealing their land creates animosity between both sides, regardless of who initiated or escalated the conflict.
When Biden came to address the United Nations General Assembly on September 24th, he acted as the situation thus described wasn’t the situation as he understood it. He spoke like a man viewing events from within an alternate reality, despite having access to a professional espionage service capable of gathering such information for him- if from news reports, if nowhere else.
His message was hopeful in a time in which anxiety and uncertainty reign. Those who don’t share the same confidence I do that Donald Trump is headed for another defeat, and then almost certainly to prison- if he does not pass away from old age first- struggle to see what’s hopeful about the system they were taught to revere and praise from a young age being destroyed by a senile pathological liar who never met a scam he wouldn’t try or a boundary he wouldn’t break.
Biden suggested that nations could overcome their obstacles; he cited America’s friendship with Vietnam as an example of this.
“Things can get better,” Biden said. “We should never forget that. I’ve seen that throughout my career.”
The president cited his work in the 1990s when he helped to hold Serbian president Slobodan Milošević accountable for war crimes. Milošević, who was came to power in 1989, was arrested in 2001. He died in 2006 at the age of 64 before proceedings against him could conclude.
By comparison, Netanyahu, who has thus far served a total of fourteen years as Israel’s Prime Minister, would be just as difficult to arrest and prosecute. With his 75th birthday coming in October, it may not be possible to hold him personally accountable for his role in harming, starving, bombing, killing, and brutalizing non-combatant civilians in his own country.
In his speech, Biden mentioned several instances of “standing up to aggression.” He referenced the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a moment when he did so, but did not mention standing up against Israel’s aggression against Palestinians- because he has yet to do so. If his remarks at the United Nations are anything to go by, he has no plans to do in the immediate future.
When speaking about Ukraine, he said, “We cannot grow weary. We cannot look away, and we will let up on our support for Ukraine.”
Then, after speaking briefly on China and Pacific nations, he referenced the events of October 7th, 2023 in which Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, took hostages, committed sexual violence against women, and murdered others. He then referenced civilians in Gaza being in dire need, requiring a humanitarian response.
His solutions: a peace deal, a two-state solution. When referring to the suffering of Palestinians, he did not even recognize it as apartheid or genocide, but said, “Ease the suffering in Gaza, and end this war.”
Easing the suffering in Gaza would require removing elements in the country that had started it in the first place- Netanyahu and members of his government. Ending the aggression from Hamas would require arresting members of that group and holding them accountable for their crimes. In his remarks, Biden didn’t seem prepared to do either.
While the content of his speech suggested he would prefer peace in the Middle East, he had no realistic plan how to get there. Tempers are too high in Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Hamas, and Hezbollah. Those who are angry at specific individuals, such as Hamas being angry at Netanyahu or Israeli citizens being angry at Hamas, would have their anger assuaged by finding their enemies being held accountable before international law.
Instead, Biden has chosen to let both sides accept or deny any peace deal put before them. So far- the situation could change before he leaves office in January- no side in the Middle East appears willing to back off from using violence against those whom they dislike. Peace seems a remote, distant prospect.
President Biden, who has been on the wrong side of history with regards to Israel, remains there after his speech before the United Nations, regardless of what other positive steps and achievements he highlighted during his four-year presidency.
During his presidency, he oversaw what can only be called a miraculous recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. He brought the economy back to what his Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, called a “soft landing,” avoiding a prolonged depression or stock market crash. He also invested in American infrastructure and saw, under his regime, the first anti-trust ruling against a corporation in many years.
When President Jimmy Carter failed to rescue hostages in Iran with Operation Eagle Claw, it led to his electoral defeat by Ronald Reagan, who brought the hostages home after 444 days. At the time, his failure was recognized by everyone for what it was, especially after Reagan succeeded so quickly upon coming into office.
Carter’s presidency, taken as a whole, was hardly disastrous. Biden’s presidency, which by most metrics would be rated as successful, isn’t either. However, in 1980, Carter was defined by his failure with Iran. In 2024, Biden should at least be remembered for his failure with Israel.
If Kamala Harris, who I predict will be the next president, means to broker peace in a serious way in the Middle East, will have to begin her presidency by enforcing an international arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, while at the same time seeking out members of Hamas for arrest and trial.
Failing this, the same people who have used violence against civilians there will remain in positions of power to do so again.
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