news Biden’s Smart Strategy for Outmaneuvering Bibi

[Stimulus]

Biden’s Smart Strategy for Outmaneuvering Bibi

Yair Rosenberg - The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/biden-netanyahu-geopolitics-israel-hamas-war/676357/

 

Quote

Biden understands that Netanyahu’s position is a precarious one. His governing coalition received just 48.4 percent of the vote, and took power only because of a quirk of the Israeli electoral system. The coalition relies on an alliance of unpopular far-right parties to stay afloat, whom Netanyahu must appease to remain in office. Biden has exploited this weakness and repeatedly poked at it. Rather than directly confronting Netanyahu, he has called out his extremist partners and in this way heightened the contradictions within Netanyahu’s coalition, undermining its stability and gradually eroding its support in the polls.

 

In July, Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that Netanyahu’s government has “the most extremist members of cabinets that I’ve seen” in Israel, noting that “I go all the way back to Golda Meir.” This past week, at a campaign event hosted by a former chair of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, Biden went even further, singling out a far-right minister by name. “This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history,” the president said. Itamar “Ben-Gvir and company and the new folks, they don’t want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution.” This was Biden’s approach in action: criticizing Israel during wartime in front of a pro-Israel crowd, and doing so in a way that nonetheless denied Netanyahu any opening. As long as it’s Biden versus Ben-Gvir, rather than Biden versus Bibi, the president holds the upper hand.

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Hamas’s October 7 slaughter has put Biden’s approach to the ultimate test. Like most Israelis, he wants to see Hamas vanquished. And like most Israelis, he does not trust Netanyahu and his far-right allies to do it. This has left the president with few appealing options. Publicly denying Israel support during what it sees as an existential war wouldn’t just go against Biden’s personal values. It would collapse all the credibility he has accrued with the Israeli public through his careful diplomacy during his presidency. And it would give Netanyahu the American antagonist he desperately craves, providing the floundering premier with a lifeline he would use to reunite the right behind him.

 

To avoid this outcome, Biden has backed Israel’s military campaign, but worked nonstop to shape its contours and limit its fallout on civilians and the rest of the region, tapping into the reservoir of goodwill he has built with the Israeli public. The president has also upped the pressure on Netanyahu by assailing his coalition partners and explicitly calling for a new, more moderate Israeli government. U.S. officials have leaked that they think Netanyahu will not last, and Biden has told the Israeli leader to think about what lessons he’d impart to his successor.

 

In other words, Biden has once again placed himself on the side of the Israeli majority, in order to undermine Netanyahu and shape the political future of the entire country. It’s one of the biggest bets of his presidency, and when the guns finally fall silent, it could determine the fate of the broader Middle East.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Stimulus

[ZeroSuitBritney]

Stopped reading at "Biden's Smart"

 

There's nothing smart about Biden.

[Both Sides Now]

The Dems must be panicking because Biden’s support has plummeted since this war began. 

“Biden outsmarts Netanyahu by promising 10 billion American tax dollars to fund the Israeli war machine” 
 

A joke. Biden couldn’t manoeuvre his way out a paper bag 

 

[Communion]

 

 

[Mr.X]

24 minutes ago, Both Sides Now said:

The Dems must be panicking because Biden’s support has plummeted since this war began. 

“Biden outsmarts Netanyahu by promising 10 billion American tax dollars to fund the Israeli war machine” 
 

A joke. Biden couldn’t manoeuvre his way out a paper bag 

 

Exactly. He is still Genocide Joe even after Netanyahu is gone

[ClashAndBurn]

Is this sarcasm?

 

who does the beltway press think they’re fooling???  

[Contessa]

They cry of “mental gymnastics” of the left, but again they prove they’re always accusing others of what they themselves are guilty of

[DAP]

This reads like a report you’d see from a consulting firm for tax dodgers.

 

[getBusy]

But we're literally paying for this war and supporting Israel unconditionally and blocking the UN's attempts to a ceasefire. I don't understand what's smart about his strategy.

[Specter]

Biden? Smart? Strategy? Outmaneuvering?

 

[Letemtalk]

Over 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the last couple of months, thanks to billions of dollars of US taxpayer funding.

Was this part of Biden's smart plan?

 

Netanyahu will take what he can get from Biden and then probably turn around and support a Republican candidate in 2024.

[Communion]

This is who wrote the article, btw!