By masking support for Israel with hollow humanitarian gestures and empathy for Palestinians, Biden and Harris have diluted pressure to end the war.
By Tariq Kenney-Shawa, +972 Magazine
Over the last year, we have witnessed President Joe Biden elevate the U.S.-Israel “special relationship” to new heights. From replenishing Israel’s weapons stocks and shielding it from accountability on the international stage, to deploying U.S. assets and personnel in Israel’s defense, the Biden administration has gone above and beyond to ensure that Israel not only could sustain its unprecedented assault on Gaza, but that it wouldn’t have to bear the full cost of war.
Biden went into his reelection campaign wrestling with Donald Trump for the title of “Israel’s best friend” — a grotesque race to the bottom that has become a tradition during U.S. election seasons. So when the president ultimately decided to drop out, some were hopeful that Vice President Kamala Harris would release us from this downward spiral. They were soon disappointed.
Media outlets eagerly insisted that Harris seemed to show “greater understanding and empathy for Palestinians,” and surmised that such a difference in perspective might lead to a change in policy. But in the months since assuming the head of the Democratic ticket, Harris has made it clear that she is ready and eager to carry on Biden’s catastrophic legacy for the next four years.
And while Israelis overwhelmingly favor Trump over Harris, and the former president certainly remains the preferred candidate among the country’s most extreme leaders, they might be missing the point. Because if you look past the partisan posturing, not only will Biden go down in history as Israel’s most consistent ally, but the strategy he and his fellow Democrats have embraced — masking their unconditional support for Israel behind a facade of concern for human rights — has played a crucial role in allowing Israel to get away with genocide for this long.
To be fair, America’s “special relationship” is much bigger than Biden. But when unconditional support of Israel became a threat to regional and US interests, past presidents — from Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, to Ronald Regan and George Bush Sr. — drew real red lines.
At 81, Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history, with a political career that spans over half a century — one that he built with the help of the pro-Israel lobby. He once boasted that he did “more fundraisers for AIPAC in the ’70s and early ’80s than just about … anybody,” and in turn the president has received more funding from the Israel lobby than any other U.S. politician since 1990.
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