The Israel Veto
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https://thefederalist.com/2024/02/07/why-biden-is-threatening-to-veto-aid-to-israel/
Some gems:
Biden promised to veto any standalone aid bill for Israel, and Hakeem Jeffries and most House Democrats voted against one. The administration maintains that Israel’s security is so “sacred,” it must be tied to a doomed legislative package containing entirely unrelated issues that deal with border security and Ukrainian aid.
Here’s a little-known reality: Right or left, Netanyahu or someone else, no Israeli prime minister would act any differently in Gaza. Israeli voters rightly demand it. Just as it would have been impossible to lead the United States after 9/11 on a plank that gave al Qaeda a pass, it would be impossible to hold power in Israel and allow Hamas to continue to operate next door.
@bachophile , thoughts on this:
though Netanyahu might be a ruthless politician, he is an ideological moderate with a long record of liberal reforms in Israel. His biggest failure wasn’t acting too bellicose or authoritarian, but rather underestimating his country’s mortal enemies.
Biden acts like a statesman in public but simultaneously leaks angry quotes about Netanyahu to placate the growing anti-Israel left. Recently, for example, we learned that Biden supposedly called Israel’s prime minister a “bad f-cking guy.” (Notice that Democrats have tougher words for Israelis than they ever do for mullahs who murder Americans.)
This leak reminded me of the time in 2014 when Obama’s stenographer Jeffrey Goldberg “reported” that White House officials referred to Netanyahu as “chickensh-t.” Now I don’t mean to demean people like Ben Rhodes, who survived a creative writing MFA program at NYU, but Netanyahu did serve in the IDF, saw combat, and led a special force unit that specialized in freeing hijacked planes. Netanyahu was shot in one of these operations. So I’m going to go out on a limb and say he’s less of a coward than anonymous White House officials. Certainly, he is a better “guy” than the gaggle of Rob Malley types the president surrounds himself with.
I suspect Democrats are probably a couple of presidential cycles away from turning entirely against Israel. Still, it is peculiar that the same people who are purportedly terrified of being dragged into a Middle East war by Israel have no deep-seated fears about the perils of funding a war against a nuclear power in Europe.
