This is a far cry from your comment that Biden wants genocide, or that he is fine with it as a cost of doing business. Honestly it looks like shifting goalposts.
It's very difficult to respond to this. You don't link much of it so I'm left having to look up actual words used. For example "invading" is an interesting word. It's also nearly impossible to know what is being said privately. But I think you're getting side-tracked on Biden managing Israel from where we started, which is that you were claiming Biden wants or is ambivalent to genocide. That doesn't appear to be the case.
Israel is indeed committing war crimes. The Biden administration appears to be putting (not enough) pressure to stop that. But I wouldn't confuse that with the idea that the Biden administration wants to see war crimes, or is committing them itself. And further, I wouldn't then pass that on to Biden voters to claim that they also want to see war crimes, or are responsible for them.
It is possible to criticize the Biden admin for handling of Israel (for any Trump supporters, do not take this to mean that Trump would do better, it would be worse because he'd encourage it), without hyperbole, without claim that he wants to see genocide, or that the Biden admin is genocidal itself, or that Biden voters are. You're not just sacrificing the truth by going there, you're also alienating people you probably intend to persuade.
I agree. We do not have to blindly support allies who commit war crimes. I'm not sure why we "support" Israel militarily at all to be honest. It seems like they've got it covered. Maybe that's naive of me. I'd like us to help them a lot less. If they start to get attacked by Iran or something, maybe we get involved, but I'd like our involvement to be our involvement. Not handing them weapons and letting them shoot whoever they choose with them. And definitely applying more, a lot more, pressure to prevent them from committing the awful acts they are.
You could argue that this is almost directly contradictory to my stance on Ukraine. That I'm more than happy to give Ukraine weapons and let them shoot whoever they choose, and for us to not be directly involved. But Ukraine is different. Ukraine is fighting Russia, and at least for now, the use of weapons seems super clear. When it's not, let's not keep handing them weapons. Also it would be bad for the world for the US to get too directly involved against Russia.
I disagree that Biden is putting pressure on Israel. Pressure on Israel requires the admission that Israel has done something wrong. When the international community says Israel has done wrong, and the Biden administration rejects it, that's not pressure. It's the opposite. It's cover.
Calling for a ceasefire is not pressure. Pressure requires potential consequences. The Biden administration has repeatedly refused to impose consequences or even threaten to impose consequences. It has rejected conditioning weapons or aid on a promise not to commit war crimes (a condition which only matters if Israel commits war crimes). Not only that, it hasn't even asked Israel to accept a ceasefire, because it claimed Israel had proposed and therefore accepted the most recent ceasefire deal, even though it hadn't. How can you pressure someone when you claim they've already done what you've asked?
The only thing even approaching real pressure was the call not to invade Rafah, and when they did it anyway, the US not only didn't act, it denied that the invasion happened.
The Wikipedia entry for the
Rafah offensive is well cited.
Here's a source (May 9th) for Biden saying he'd stop sending bombs to Israel if they invaded Rafah (which also includes and admission that US bombs have been used to kill civilians i.e. an admission of culpability in war crimes).
Joe Biden
I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem.
Here's a source (May 22nd) for Israeli infantry (Nahal Brigade) entering Rafah, the fifth infantry division to do so.
Here's a source (May 28th) for the US denying that attacks on Rafah cross their "red line", even after tanks were seen in central Rafah.
Here's a source (June 25th) for Israeli tanks going deeper into Rafah (how do you get tanks into a city without invading it?)
Here's a source (June 19th) for the US denying Netanyahu's claim it had withheld any weapons from Israel.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
We genuinely do not know what he is talking about. We just don't.
How can you put pressure on someone when you deny outright A) that they acted against your instructions and violated your terms and B) that you are imposing any consequences on them for doing so?
Perhaps Biden doesn't
want a genocide. But I disagree that he has obvious moral opposition to it.
There are two options here.
- Biden knows Israel is committing war crimes yet continues to provide them with weapons (he has basically admitted to this in that May 9th source). In this way he knows that he is facilitating war crimes and has made peace with it, whether or not he actually wants it to happen.
- Biden doesn't think Israel is committing war crimes, which means he's either unfathomably uninformed, or just doesn't think what has happened counts as war crimes, which requires him to think crimes against Palestinians don't matter.
It's impossible to know what's inside his head, but based on his actions, I have no choice but to believe he's okay with what's happening because he continues to facilitate it. It's not just that he's failing to stop it. He's providing the means for it to happen and he can stop doing that any time he wants. I already pointed out that it's against US law to provide weapons to an entity committing war crimes. If he admits that Israel is committing war crimes it gives him legal means to stop the shipments.
It's easy to explain Biden's occasional "tough" talk on Israel. He knows it's political poison to publicly support war crimes. He knows it has to seem like he cares about what Israel does. Throughout this whole thing, the impression I have of Biden is a man who is deeply frustrated by the criticism of his handling of the situation and the damage to his image, and irritated with Israel's crimes for making his job harder. Even upset that it
damages Israel's future as a Jewish state. Not a man who is so offended by Israel's callousness and treatment of Palestinians that he will do whatever he can within the bounds of his political strength to right the wrongs and fight for justice.
Can I prove what's in Biden's heart? Of course not. But I'm judging him by his actions, not his words. And to me, his actions say "I support Israel 100%".
en.wikipedia.org
