There was small but passionate discussion today at Thinkers Forum USA whether it is a good idea to vote against Biden on just one issue of Gaza massacre. I think it depends on how important that one issue to you is. I think Biden is equally culpable with Netanyahu in slaughter of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians, children, babies, and flattening of almost 2/3 of Gaza. As Bernie Sanders put it, Netanyahu is raging war against Palestinians and not against Hamas. For me this humanitarian issue is lot more important than any other issue and cannot bring myself to vote for Biden.
Consider another observation. Jews are the most educated people. For them one issue-Israel-is the deal breaker. Majority of them, whether conservative or liberal, will not vote or support anyone who says anything against Israel. Jamal Bowman, Democrat representative of Congress from Westchester called for ceasefire and is under fire. Democratic party and Jewish lobby are now putting up a candidate against him in the primary. We all know what happened to Rashida Talab. Something to ponder about one issue.
The “famine of intellectualism” created by the IT and AI has created a leadership gap. Today every kind of experience, from teaching to seeking knowledge and information comes to everyone pre-managed, readymade, and above all filtered through digital devices. A hyper-wired lifestyle is emotionally crippling people by creating social isolation, intellectual introversion, and imaginational stagnation. While creating an emotional decadence and a spiritual dissipation, yet It is keeping everyone connected with everyone accross the globe. Thus, there is no smart and intelligent leader in any country of the world. Peaople have no choice whether to vote Biden for president or to vote Trump–unfortunately both are hopeless. MIRZA ASHRAF
I personally think using one issue only to decide your vote and disregarding others is fraught. Muslims voted George W Bush in on one issue; evangelicals ignored everything and voted Trump in for the issue of abortion. And look what we got.
But pinning the massacre of Palestinians on Biden is not exactly correct. Let’s look at his and his administration’s actions on the days they happened.
When a friend’s family member dies you go visit the friend to offer condolences. Biden went in the first few days after Oct. 7 to offer his condolences as any American president would have done, especially one running for re election. And even at that visit Biden told the leaders ‘not to respond out of rage; that America responded out of rage after 9/11 and made made many mistakes”. Since those first days , if you go back and look at the daily news, Biden and senior administration officials have repeatedly and publicly told Israel to minimize civilian casualties. Israel does not always listen to American advice; it does what it thinks is best for its interests even though American support is key to its survival. Could the US administration have been more forceful? of course but we don’t know what went on in private discussions between US and Israel.
Biden administration was also involved in negotiations for the temporary cease fire during which humanitarian aid was delivered. Israel’s plan was to deny Gaza food, fuel and water to bring Hamas to its knees and if the truce did not occur it would have caused even a worse catastrophe.
Even though Biden could have done more to control Israel, the indiscriminate killing of Gazan civilians cannot be pinned on Biden. I may consider voting for one or two of the non Trump Republican candidates but Biden remains the (much) lesser of the two evils with most Republican candidates.
It is not that Biden was just a silent supporter of Israel but he actively advocated it on Israel’s behalf with his inflammatory statements, some of them fabrication, sent two ships, send weapons without notifying congress which was required, undermined, and had callous response to the thousands of Palestinian children and women’s deaths, and a man of multilateralism was lone in vetoing the security council resolution to stop slaughter in Gaza. His efforts , if any, are limited to “urge caution” which are mostly for public consumption. Biden knew Israel is using ” Dumb bombs” which causes lot of civilian casualities, and only now is asking Israel to move to next phase of ” target” bombing.
Consider this, what if Biden had refused any support and aid to Israel on October 7 or even before that?
Does anybody have any doubt that there would have been uproar and rebellion in Democratic Party and in Congress to remove him from power and no one would have said that consider Biden’s accomplishments and not just one issue of stopping Israel’s support. If this one issue of Israel’s support is deal-breaker, then why not on the other side of coin slaughter of thousands of Gazan children and women?
I think the problem may be that we have unconscientously accepted that support of Israel at any cost is acceptable and a President should be given a pass on it because President has no choice bacause of Israeli lobby.
Fayyaz
I supported Biden before the genocide on the Palestinians. I will not vote for him again. Equally, my Congressional Representative, Katie Porter, is a zionist. I wrote to her to tell her that I cannot vote for her again either. I won’t vote for Trump, but the zionist lobby has tainted the Democratic Party. So, when both parties are pro-war, I might as well vote Republican this year, since it doesn’t matter who gets into office. They’re all living in 30 AD or prior. None represent a modern-day, peaceful, cooperative ideology. I’m just glad that I’ll be gone before the zionists and christians force “the coming of the messiah” with their corrupt souls.
Biden funded the genocide of the Palestinians by supplying Israel with 15B per year in arms.