Back on April 4, 2024, Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo offered up an observation that I found rather striking. Many people have been outraged that Biden has not forced Israel into a cease-fire and are angry that the U.S. is still sending weapons to Israel.
It’s worth checking to see how people feel about that now after Iran sent several hundred missiles against Israel. It should be noted that not only did the U.S. shoot down a number of them along with France and Great Britain, Arab countries Jordan and Saudi Arabia also joined in defense efforts. (The missiles were going through their air space after all.
But to get back to my original point, Mashall commented before these latest developments on something that speaks to President Biden’s character, while also discussing the role of Prime Minister Netanyahu in all this:
...It’s a brief video that comes from the Talking Feds podcast. It’s a snippet of Michael Oren, the Israeli diplomat and sometimes politician, also a historian of real note. In it he uses this bracing metaphor to describe what Biden was doing on Israel’s behalf. I’m just going to include the text here and then the video
What Oren had to say, roughly six weeks after the October 7 attack, was this:
“Joe Biden — what he used to tell me, because I spent a significant amount of time with him — he used to always quote his father, and his father used to say to him, ‘[n]ever crucify yourself on a small cross.’
“He is crucifying himself on a very large cross, and that cross is us.
“And we have to be appreciative of that. We have to try to help him to help us as much as we can. We can’t always, we can’t agree to an open-ended, cease fire — I don’t know if he even wants that.
“But he’s really crucifying himself here. And it’s something that historians will write about, I’ll write about.
“I’ve never seen anything — I’ve been in U.S.-Israel relationships, I don’t know to tell you how long, as a practitioner and a historian for 50 years. And I’ve never seen anything like this.”
At the time Marshall wrote about this, Israel had just killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers; Biden responded by calling for an immediate cease fire and the administration signaled a “broader policy shift.” Marshall went on to add:
...The shift, to the extent it is a shift (I will come back to that later), is entirely on the Israeli government. From the beginning of this horrid saga, the Biden White House has made a series of quite limited demands which do not impact any of Israel’s core security interests. Not just what might seem to be core interests from a U.S. perspective, or even that of a Democratic administration, but in fact what many Israel hawks recognize as its core interests.
...We could cite numerous other examples or go into greater depth on these. But what they amount to is the Biden White House saying to the Israeli government: we are going to support you, but don’t make it totally impossible for us. And that is what the Israeli government has done at every single stage of this. It’s really no surprise because it is quite simply in Benjamin Netanyahu’s nature, the casual duplicity. But it is also in his interest. His personal interest. These are decisions which not only match his beliefs and ambitions. They are key for keeping his current coalition intact. Which is to say, keeping himself in power and out of prison.
….On food, I expect someone like Gantz would say, we really need to destroy as much of Hamas’s army and military infrastructure as possible. Joe, you tell us what you need to make it possible to support us in doing that. Netanyahu’s approach has been you give us the support we want and, as for the things you need, fuck you. And also fuck you again. And also I have a coalition to manage so don’t put me under this kind of pressure. And also fuck you.
emphasis added
Needless to say, you won’t find unambiguous analysis like this in The NY Times or the rest of the mainstream media, but it’s a point that needs to be more widely made.
That Biden has been willing to put up with so much malarkey for so long speaks to his patience and regard for the bigger picture — but it also shows that there are limits. The missile attacks by Iran are a reminder that Netanyahu is not the only player in this game. That being said, the U.S. is making it very clear to Israel that the U.S. will not participate in any retaliation against Iran.
...During the call, the two leaders had a discussion "about how to slow things down and think through things", with Mr Biden emphasising that Israel has "gotten the best of it".
The official declined to say, however, whether the White House warned against a significant response, saying only that "it is a calculation the Israelis have to make".
In a string of television appearances on US networks earlier in the day, national security spokesman John Kirby repeatedly said that the US had made it clear to Israel that it seeks to avoid a wider conflict.
The senior administration said that the same message has been sent to Iran through diplomatic channels.
Biden is attempting to deal with unreasonable people to keep the conflict from blowing up. It goes without saying that there are no easy answers — but Biden has been willing to take a lot of political heat because he’s keeping the big picture in mind. We could do a lot worse with someone else sitting in the Oval Office.
UPDATE: I am increasingly reluctant to write up anything dealing with the Middle East if only because any mention of it and the issues involved are guaranteed to trigger responses right from the lizard brain. It’s understandable but not helpful — and too often self-defeating.