Biden, Netanyahu, and Gaza
First if my obsession with sharing ideas based on my almost total ignorance is getting to be a nuisance please tell me (can’t hurt – might get me to stop – no promises).
Second, many commenters (on my pointless posts below) claim that the USA could prevent Israel from killing even larger numbers of Palestinians in the near future. I am not sure that this is possible, but in any case it is a hope not a plan. The USA acting together as actually united people … well there is no need to go on, that’s not going to happen. The USA will certainly not act together to help Arabs or Moslems.
The question is what could someone who *might* have good intentions do. I will assume (hope wish) that top Biden administration officials have good intentions. There remain two problems. Congress controls the budget. Biden can’t cut off aid just because he feels like it (recall the first impeachment of Trump). He can make a lot of trouble for Israel, but not, I think, take away anything they need (they don’t need to be *given* weapons anyway — Israel is not a poor country).
More importantly, Biden is running for re-election with a roughly 40% approval rating and is roughly tied in the polls with Donald Trump. He is not going to break with standard US policy of letting Israel act as it chooses and mildly suggesting some advantages of some mercy now and then.
I think (I think it’s time for me to get to the damn point of this post damnation) that one possibly useful attempted trick is to appeal to His Holiness Pope Francis I. Now he is not shy about telling Israel to stop (doesn’t seem to be shy about anything). Joseph Biden is known to be an extremely devout Catholic who attends Mass every Sunday and always carries a rosary. I think it would be useful to (accurately) note that he is the most devoutly Christian US president since Carter (that should put the fear of God (Whom some people illogically think is both one and three) in them.
There is no denying that he doesn’t obey every order from every pope (see Paul VI and count the Biden children, John Paul 1 died before telling Joe what to do, see John Paul II and birth control, abortion, operation Desert Storm, authorizing the Bush II invasion of Iraq and on and on and on. I think one can argue that, this time it’s different, because Biden agrees with Francis, actually thinks Francis is not just they guy who holds the office of the Pope but also the guy who should hold that office (OK that’s what I think and I have no power but there is no proof that Joe disagrees).
OK so finally my plan. Jake Lew and the US ambassador to Israel (if the Senate confirms one) should tell Israelis (using worried tones) that Biden is really suffering going against the pope. You know he’s very Catholic. He’s really struggling and he can make a Whole Lot of Trouble for you if he thinks it’s the best way to avoid damnation and hell and stuff. So how about you tone down the revenge a bit ? Biden himself just talks about how devoutly religious he is, quote Francis, and mention how Jesus tended not to favor living by the sword. No public threats just repeated hints backing up the private threats.
Not likely to work. Time for a sports analogy — in the last seconds a losing football team rationally attempts a hail Mary. How about trying an actual original hail Mary ?
I posted a cartoon this morning captioned “Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those that do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it”
The worst of it is knowing where it’s gonna’ go …
As long as this is part of a strategy that has a reasonable prospect of eliminating Hamas as a threat to Israel, okay.
Assuming back to (ab)normal situation: if I were president I would make loud negotiations with the Palestinians about putting US military bases in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel could do absolutely nothing about it. The psychological trick of course is to pound it into Israeli heads that the occupied territories are NOT THEIR LAND!!!!!!!
That would be a good start to reality of Israel.
A video of a 15 year old Palestinian approaching Israeli troops, hands raised. We get to know a little something about the boy first, at the beginning of the piece from his family — pictures and all. The two Israeli soldiers shot the boy dead. Later his brother goes out to take the body — they shoot him too; last heard in intensive care. What kind of army is this — more importantly, what kind of nation?
@Denis,
Please post the link to this video. Thanks.
Your ‘pointless post below’ is not pointless at all.
It is in the nature of the US to accept the existence of the Abrahamic religions as part of our culture. I say that as an atheist, but even I acccept this. This acceptance is not entirely prevalent in Europe & the Middle East, but they seem to be coming around. Germany is a fine example of this. Such acceptance needs to take root everywhere.
I disagree. As an atheist by definition ~ no religion, that’s it ~ religion is the root of all evils, the Abrahamics the root of our particular evil, turning a cheek to it is just allowing it to continue to fester. We’re facing the existential crisis of our species, perhaps all earth’s species, we cannot continue to allow these irrational dependencies on adolescent fairy tales to dictate our actions.
We will be turned out of the garden …
It also requires all others to be tolerant.
That includes acceptance of ‘quaint beliefs’ all over the place.
And insistence that those who hold them behave likewise.
It even includes you.
You have no idea what I have tolerated down through the years
We as a species, the human species, as a “race”, the human race, today stand at a cusp, an iteration, in the evolution, in the maturing, of humankind. But if we don’t abandon – outgrow – this irrational dependency on adolescent fairytales and attendant adolescent squabbles over whose imaginary dog has the bigger dick… if we don’t stop doing what we are doing, we may well not survive at all
I’m tired of being tolerant of those who won’t tolerate me …
Confusing. The statement is that there is acceptance of Abrahamic religions being art of our culture. Then you point out that not all agree with that but in certain places “they are coming around”. You cite Germany specifically. Germany has centuries of acceptance of Abrahamic religions. Not always peacefully, but it’s sort of ridiculous to suggest that this moment is when they are “coming around” to this acceptance.
“. . . one possibly useful attempted trick is to appeal to His Holiness Pope Francis I.”
Which put me in mind of this possibly apocryphal quote:
“The Pope. How many divisions has he?”
~Josef Stalin
Get the Dalai Lama involved also. It can’t hurt.
However, such leaders don’t speak for all religions, but only large factions.
With Iran, you have their political & religious leader in one person, and he is not even tolerant of other factions within Islam.
@Fred,
To paraphrase Stalin, the Dalai Lama: how many divisions has he?
Legions. Legions upon legions. All queued up and awaiting the order to float down out of the sky on floating rainbow unicorns …