The increasingly harsh criticism of President Joe Biden’s handling of the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas could help the reelection of former President Donald Trump.
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an ally of Biden, said last week he is concerned Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza could cost him the election, especially with young, progressive voters.
However, the president is also facing harsh criticism from more than two-dozen liberal and moderate Democrats and most Republicans for saying he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah, the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza.
Pennsylvania U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman, both Democrats who do not identify as progressives, are unfairly critical of Biden’s threat to hold up aid in an attempt to sway Israeli leadership.
While supporting Israel, Biden is also concerned about the well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering in Rafah.
In the ongoing war in Gaza, there is also evidence that the weapons that the U.S. has been supplying to Israel is in violation of international law.
Biden was right to express support for Israel after the Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people in Israel and led to about 250 being taken captive by militants.
Critics of Israel’s government are also right to call for a cease-fire after more than 34,700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Hundreds of thousands more face starvation as Israel continues its siege of Gaza.
While polls show inflation, immigration and abortion as being the top issues in the presidential race, the war in Gaza is impacting American politics.
“Thousands of Democratic voters have staged ‘uncommitted’ protest votes in presidential primaries across the country in the hopes of pushing the president to end American military aid to Israel, one of its most staunch foreign allies, before the general election in November,” reports USA Today.
“More than 60,000 Pennsylvania voters chose the write-in option during the state’s April primary, which had a lower-than-average 30% turnout. Biden won the state in 2022 by around 80,500 votes,” says USA Today.
Biden has received condemnation from Democrats and Republicans for his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict and for threatening to hold up more offensive military assistance to Israel if it goes through with plans for an all-out assault on Rafah.
Some Biden critics have gone so far as to label the president as anti-Israel, a vile lie.
House Republicans are threatening to impeach Biden over withholding military assistance to Israel.
Democrats are overreacting and Republicans are playing partisan games.
Itamar Yaar, former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council and CEO of Commanders for Israel’s Security, a group of former senior Israeli security officials, said the U.S. move is largely symbolic.
“It’s not some kind of American embargo on American munitions support, but I think it’s some kind of diplomatic message to Mr. Netanyahu that he needs to take into consideration American interests more than he has over the last few months,” said Yaar.
Biden, in an interview with CNN last week, pointed out that the U.S. was still committed to Israel’s defense and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms but that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”
Biden acknowledged that “civilians have been killed in Gaza” by the type of heavy bombs that the U.S. has been supplying.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN. “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.”
“We’re not walking away from Israel’s security,” Biden continued. “We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.”
Sanders said in a statement that the pause on big bombs must be a “first step.”
“Our leverage is clear,” Sanders said. “Over the years, the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We can no longer be complicit in Netanyahu’s horrific war against the Palestinian people.”
Biden’s position is in line with past American presidents who have threatened to hold up aid in an attempt to sway Israeli leadership.
In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel with the threat of sanctions into withdrawing from Sinai amid the Suez Crisis at a time of escalating violence in the Middle East. President Ronald Reagan delayed the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Israel. President George H.W. Bush held up $10 billion in loan guarantees in response to Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied territories.
Biden is seeking to strike a difficult balance between supporting an ally and using arms shipments to influence Israeli policy to prevent a wider war and stem the death toll and total destruction in Gaza.
Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune
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