Anyone feeling that the room is spinning when it comes to trying to understand the US policy towards Israel, is actually seeing things straight and true. The dancing that goes on in the Biden White House, in the administration, and in the Democratic Party itself, all reek of political schizophrenia.
Here was US President Joe Biden, genuinely moved by the horrors of October 7, sympathizing with Israel and standing toe to toe with us in our determination to unseat Hamas. Sounds great, but many if not most Israelis don’t know that Biden is not really calling the shots.
When a headline blares that White House staffers are angry with the president of the United States because they want a ceasefire declared (and implicitly that he should cater to that anger), then you know we have left the dock of strong presidential leadership. Biden is trying to dance at two weddings simultaneously, and his duality is all a function of US electoral politics and the upcoming election of 2024.
Biden is polling poorly. Most Americans want him to step down after his term is over. They see a doddering man incapable of meeting the challenges of the world’s most challenging job. The allegations of corruption are having an impact, and the sense that the US is not controlling its own destiny – witness the southern non-border, the Afghan debacle, and the spike in inflation – all contribute to persistently low approval ratings.
The irony, and a further contributor to the sense of incompetence, is the organized persecution of Donald Trump. The onslaught of prosecutions has turned Trump into a martyr. This is no easy feat, but counter-intuitively it has pushed Trump ahead of Biden in recent polls, especially in critical swing states.
The irony is that other Republicans do even better against Biden than Trump, so you would think the Democrats would be praying for Trump’s nomination. Regardless, the Biden administration is eager not to alienate the progressives in the party, and progressives hate Israel.
Thus, splitting the difference, as it were, in Biden’s policy, the result is to root for Israel... not to win. Certainly not to win in a way that would be a rebuke to the Palestinian sympathizers that are marauding down main streets in towns and cities across America.
Bizarre injunctions to tone down the fighting and to provide massive “humanitarian aid,” all wreak of indecisiveness and muddled thinking. The conga line of officialdom bunny hopping its way through Israel – Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, National Security Advisor Sullivan, and Defense Secretary Austin, to name a few – all are offering the advice resonant of a country that has not won a war since 1945.
The view from America does not look good
Even crazier have been the admonitions to include the Palestinian Authority in post war governance of Gaza, and the bell ringer of them all, that Israel should be seriously pursuing the two-state solution. This last one sounds like it comes from a comedy club audition, but it is deadly serious.
The view from America therefore does not look good. One wonders what historians will say in terms of the clarity and conscience of American decision makers as they endlessly seek to appease Iran and refuse to stand with their stalwart ally.
Even more important, and potentially even harsher, will be history’s judgment of Israel’s leadership in the handling of the current war and the incessant diplomatic pressures to, in effect, cut and run.
Israel’s political leadership, from the Prime Minister on down, including opposition parties currently in the Knesset, must know that the country is quite united about the need to follow through and complete the mission of dismantling Hamas.
This unity exists alongside a strong desire to retrieve our hostages. But the overwhelming sentiment in Israel is that defeating Hamas will accelerate the release of hostages, and must therefore be pursued as the primary objective.
The resolve of our soldiers, their willingness to sacrifice for their country, is sky high and rock solid. Having that sense of mission aborted by a leadership that caves to international pressure would produce a blowback of dramatic, even historic proportions.
Unfortunately, and uneasily, our leadership might be forced to choose between international approval and domestic support. Any leader seeking to stay in office, and in the case of the prime minister, any leader focused on his legacy, must know that bucking foreign leaders and saying no to them is something that Israeli leaders have done in the past.
However, being perceived as having abandoned the citizenry and dishonoring the sacrifice of those who served, and especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice, will be dealt with unforgivingly.
One of the major questions that needs to be addressed on “the day after” is how Israel can stand more on its own, with fewer dependencies on the United States or any other country. For now, however, those dependencies must be viewed against the larger demands of national destiny.
October 7 gave us a wake-up call of seismic proportions. We cannot, we will not seek to ignore or to unlearn the lessons that came from that call.
Not following through on the self-apparent conclusions from that wake call will be judged very harshly by history, especially for the leaders who refused or proved unable to follow through.
Right now, Israel must understand that other countries are pursuing their own interests in seeking to determine ours. Fair enough, but we must be true, clear eyed and determined to pursue our own interests, regardless of how they are viewed abroad.
The writer is the chairman of the board of Im Tirtzu and a director of the Israel Independence Fund.