Biden Should Go to the Knesset
Why the President needs to go over Netanyahu's head and make his argument to the Israeli people
How did it come to this? Us — the United States — the defender of all things democratic, the breaker of the Soviet Union and the human-rights based global superpower in an increasingly authoritarian-right veering world, hugging Bibi Netanyahu tightly. Passionately, even. And so we find ourselves in the ridiculous position of airdropping humanitarian aid because, it appears, we are too afraid of interrupting Netanyahu’s robust slaughterhousing.
Here we are, before the Global South, before the assembled nations of Europe, aligned with a far-right Israeli government that is prosecuting a war against brown-skinned people in a manner wholly inconsistent with the behavior of democracies. “While Western governments were quick to condemn Russia for violating international law when it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, observers in the developing world say the West has been far more reluctant to forcefully condemn Israel both for the enduring occupation and for not doing enough to prevent the deaths of thousands of civilians in its ongoing assault on Gaza,” writes Oliver Stuenkel in Foreign Policy. The Palestinian death toll recently topped 30,000 in Gaza. And the war likely violates US law. But so it goes.
Then came Michigan’s Uncommitteds, who placed second in the primary. You see, Michigan is one of six essential swing states that will determine the winner of the 2024 election. Biden, quite frankly, cannot lose Michigan. And over 100,000 voters in the crucial swing state gave notice to the President last week that his moral principles regarding a “no-limits” friendship with Israel might just cost him the election. We cannot fail to note that Biden, in 2020, won Michigan by about 154,000 votes. It is no surprise that in the days that went by after the Great Lakes state voted, things got interesting …
There is as a result of the Michigan vote what can only be properly construed as a loosening of the Netanyahu hug. (Exaggerated cough) The administration’s tone has markedly changed towards Netanyahu, and as recently as just this week. Particularly noticeable in the Vice President’s speeches. “It's a vitally important foreign policy role for the VP to play,” tweeted David Rothkoff, regarding the Netanyahu pivot. And then there is the matter of this weekend’s visit by Benny Gantz, a member of Netanyahu’s wartime cabinet gone a smidge rogue. With the Vice President, of all administration officials, who until now has seemed sort of aimless during this campaign season. From the AP:
The White House agreed to the meeting with Gantz even as an official from Netanyahu’s nationalist Likud party said Gantz did not have approval from the prime minister for his meetings in Washington. Netanyahu gave Gantz a “tough talk” about the visit — underscoring a widening crack within Israel’s wartime leadership.
“We have been dealing with all members of the war Cabinet, including Mr. Gantz,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. “We see this as a natural outgrowth of those discussions. We’re not going to turn away that sort of opportunity.”
In addition to his talks with (VP) Harris, Gantz met with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and National Security Council Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk. Gantz also met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and on Tuesday will sit down with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
That is one hell of a Washington reception for an Israeli official that “did not have approval from the prime minister.” It is testament to the change. And, in fact, it gets even juicier. Netanyahu ordered the Israeli ambassador to boycott the meeting.
What is the meaning of this thusness? Why is Netanyahu so dismissive of Biden’s every suggestion? It is not inconceivable that Bibi Netanyahu, in his own race against the judgement of History (as well as that of the Israeli justice system), could just be running the clock, hoping, like his philosophical cousin, Vladimir Putin, for a Trump victory in November. Because all happy far-right authoritarians are more or less similar, or some such paraphrase from that Russian novelist. Both Putin and Netanyahu have much to gain in the progress of their sanguinary projects, should Trump regain the Presidency.
This is not the first time Netanyahu has all but campaigned for the Republican nominee against a Democrat incumbent. An Israeli Prime Minister campaigning, however obliquely, for one side in an American Presidential contest is something that once upon a time was never done. It was not just risky, it risked the strategic relationship between the US and Israel. But, over the years, the Israeli Prime Minister has gotten more and more comfortable interfering in our domestic politics. Over the years the Israeli Prime Minister has calculated that an incumbent Democrat President would not risk alienating the Jewish-American vote by taking out his — always his — frustrations with him on the strategic relationship between the two countries. That is what makes a Biden trip to the Knesset necessary.
Clearly Benjamin Netanyahu does not respect the boundaries of American domestic politics, despite the “no limits” friendship implied in Biden’s hug. There are examples aplenty in recent history, stretching from Bill Clinton to Trump. In 2012, for example, Netanyahu all but campaigned outright for Mitt Romney. Then-President Obama, too much of a gentleman to make this a public issue, complained in private. From Harriet Sherwood in The Guardian:
But, according to Yossi Verter writing in Haaretz recently, US officials had relayed to a ‘very senior Israeli figure’ that ‘in the eyes of the Democratic administration, Netanyahu is perceived as campaigning on behalf of Mitt Romney.’ To the president and his aides, the Israeli prime minister's actions look like ‘crude, vulgar and unrestrained intervention in the US election campaign.’
Joe Klein of Time magazine described Netanyahu's recent behaviour as ‘an unprecedented attempt by a putative American ally to influence a US presidential campaign.’
The editor of the New Yorker, David Remnick, said Netanyahu seemed ‘determined, more than ever, to alienate the president of the United States and, as an ally of Mitt Romney's campaign, to make himself a factor in the 2012 election.’
Biden, as Vice President, saw this sort of political ratfuckery up close. And when he ran for President himself, eight years later, Biden experienced it first hand. “After taking office, Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, winning praise from Netanyahu,” the AP reported in November 2020, on the cusp of the US Presidential election. “While Trump is popular with the Israeli public, Netanyahu’s close relationship with the president appears to be deepening a divide with American Jews.” Biden, of course, won that election with 68% of the Jewish-American vote.
So what is keeping the President from taking his objections to the Israeli people, in the Knesset? It is an idea first floated by Richard Haas, who previously worked in the State Departments for both Bush administrations. “It’s increasingly clear that the United States does not have a partner with this Israeli prime minister or government,” Haas told Politico. “We’re paying a price for that: the president is paying a political price domestically and the U.S. is paying a reputational price in the region and the world.” Charmed, I’m sure.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert also thinks that that would be a good idea, going over the head of Bibi, who only pretends to listen to Biden, then continues slaughtering Palestinians afterward the conversation. Netanyahu seems incapable of assessing the proper boundaries of allies, or even the nature of junior and senior parties in a geopolitical strategic relationships, anyway. So why honor these outdated, 20th Century pleasantries? Netanyahu doesn’t. Ohlmert told Fareed Zakaria this week:
… I think that if President Biden will come and speak in the Knesset, it will be a great day for the state of Israel, for the people of Israel, for our nation. We respect the president. I think that he is a great president and a great friend. I know him personally for many years. I've worked with him in different capacities, obviously, and I never doubted his complete, deep commitment for the state of Israel, for its security, for its future, and for the well-being of our people.
So if he comes and speaks, it will be a great day. But I want to take it one step further. I think that on top of making these direct appeal to the Israeli people in the Knesset, he should sit in a closed room with Netanyahu and he should explain to Netanyahu what needs to be explained so that Netanyahu will understand. And I know, I know for sure that if Biden will make this direct appeal
to the Israeli people and will take it one step further, either private talk with the prime minister and explaining what needs to be explained so that he will understand, he will not lose one Jewish vote, one bit of support of the Jewish people in America, on the country. He will gain more. And he will also gain all those who doubt about how important his position is to the American interests, including all the liberals of his party.
So it's a win-win move. And I certainly am very happy that people of such impact and significance advise him to do it.
And perhaps, finally, doing such an audacious thing would defang some of the “sleepy Joe” narrative, which is gaining some traction on the campaign trail. It is said that the President wants to “go for the jugular” of the Trump campaign. Take the offensive, with the office of the Presidency, and get in his head. To own him, effectively. To force Trump to make unforced errors; to show suburban women voters what a wrathful, rage-fueled monster the opposition is in actuality. Because Trump is ultimately a product of every bad decision he has made in his life. Because Trump will probably explode into a sexist, bigoted mess if humiliated in public. How can he not? He is simply incapable of turning the other cheek. And Biden is planning to do owning him, poking him, prodding him as the campaign season deepens.
But let’s start with a trip to the Knesset, and work from there.
“As recently as the late twentieth century, New York City and the surrounding area had many major local or regional newspapers — the Newark Star-Ledger, Newsday on Long Island (with a New York City edition), the Daily News, and the New York Post, survivors of the cull of dailies that had taken place over time. There were chain-owned dailies in Westchester and Fairfield Counties, and downtown the Village Voice provided edgy coverage of culture and cityside celebrities like the developer Donald Trump. The brands may remain, but they are much diminished. There are seven hundred languages spoken in New York, according to some reports, and the largest of these have had news organizations of one kind or another serving them and probably still do. The point is that a robust — and in its heyday profitable — business of metro coverage is now in the past.” (Peter Osnos/Platform)
“In the view of its critics, The Times has been far too distracted as of late by worries over President Joe Biden's age, allowing it to steal attention away from the larger and far more serious danger posed by a second Trump administration. Critics have also argued that The Times covers Biden and Trump with disproportionate standards, placing false equivalence on issues surrounding the current president to those of the former president, who is facing 91 criminal counts and fantasized about being a dictator on ‘day one.’ The latest salvo in the now weeks-long stream of criticism against The Times burst into view over the weekend when the newspaper published a poll it conducted with Siena College that found a majority of Biden voters believe he is too old to be an effective president. That poll touched off a torrent of angry commentary directed at the outlet, with some readers even declaring on social media that they had decided to cancel their subscriptions. ‘That they even asked this question is evidence of the bias — the agenda — in their poll,’ Jeff Jarvis, the Leonard Tow Professor of Journalism Innovation at the CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, posted on Threads. ‘Who made age an 'issue'? The credulous Times falling into the right-wing's projection. This is not journalism. Shameful.’” (Oliver Darcy/Reliable Sources)
“Nate Cohn: ‘The poll found Donald Trump leading Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, 77% to 20%. That’s pretty good for Mr. Trump, of course, but it’s actually Ms. Haley’s best result in a month. And according to our poll, there’s a simple reason for her strength: Biden voters, who now make up 15% of those who say they will probably vote in the Republican primary. In fact, a near majority of Ms. Haley’s supporters (48% to 31%) say they voted for Mr. Biden in the last election instead of Mr. Trump.’” (Political Wire)
“President Biden is privately pushing for a much more aggressive approach to 2024: Go for Donald Trump's jugular.
Why it matters: Biden is convinced he'll rattle Trump if he taunts him daily, Axios' Hans Nichols and Alex Thompson report.
Biden has told friends he thinks Trump is wobbly, both intellectually and emotionally, and will explode if Biden mercilessly gigs and goads him — "go haywire in public," as one adviser put it.
Other sources tell us Biden is looking for a fight.” (Mike Allen/Axios)