In the midst of the violent Israeli assault on Gaza and the possible offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, President Biden must make a momentous decision that will define his presidency.
Should he continue to support our long-time ally in the Middle East and turn a blind eye to the slaughter of thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women and children? Or should the U.S. look to its better angels and end shipments of weapons of mass destruction to the rogue government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?
Only a better writer than I could do justice to the misery and horror in Gaza. Since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis, more than 30,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed. More than half of the casualties have been women and children.
Many more people are missing and buried in bombed out homes and buildings. More will soon perish without food, shelter and health care adequate enough to sustain them.
The carnage will only get worse if the prime minster delivers on his promise to widen the trail of death and destruction and attacks Rafah.
President Biden’s course of action will have profound national security and domestic political consequences.
The United States has ceded the moral high ground and defied world public opinion by arming Netanyahu’s assault on innocent Palestinians. Realists might consider me a romantic, but I’d like to think that international goodwill is at least as important to American national security as billions of dollars spent on arms and ammunition.
The Middle East has been in turmoil for decades and it’s about to get even worse. The invasion of Gaza has energized the Arab Street, and the hostility will certainly create a new generation of young people who will seek revenge against Israel, the United States and our Western allies.
The hostility towards Israel will strengthen the hands of the radical mullahs who run Iran. China, Russia and Iran have rallied to the Palestinian cause and created a formidable iron triangle to limit American influence in the troubled region. The alliance of our three main antagonists around a single cause increases chances of a global conflict.
Surely, savvy diplomats and military strategists can find a way of stopping the Hamas reign of terror without killing innocent non-combatants who are caught up in a war they didn’t ask for.
The disturbing media images of crippled and dead Palestinian children have taken a toll on public support for Israeli actions. Last month’s Gallup poll found that American support for the invasion of Gaza has declined from 50 percent to 36 percent since November. Only one in four Americans support administration policy in the region.
The international uproar over the tragic deaths of seven employees of the World Central Kitchen who tried to deliver food to the residents of the beleaguered enclave will drive those numbers down even further. The Biden administration’s decision on the day of that attack to deliver more than 1,000 500-pound bombs to Netanyahu has rubbed salt into the wound and intensified the outrage.
Six months before the election, when party unity is at a premium, three out of four Democrats oppose the Israeli action, according to the Gallup national survey. Young Democrats are especially disaffected. Candidate Biden needs their enthusiasm to counter the energy of Donald Trump’s MAGA mob at the polls. Trump’s full-throated embrace of Netanyahu will only make the mess in the Middle East worse if he returns to the White House.
For a president running for reelection, there’s nothing worse than looking weak. Actions speak louder than words. The president has talked the talk about the carnage in Gaza, but he hasn’t walked the walk. His criticism of the prime minster is well deserved, but the failure to act on those complaints makes the president look impotent.
To escape the dark shadow that the violence in Gaza has cast over his presidency, Joe Biden must make a clean break in word and in deed from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign of death and destruction against Palestine.
It’s time for the president to seize the initiative and resolve the crisis of conscience that troubles so many Americans and citizens of the world.
Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster, CEO of Bannon Communications Research and the host of the progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.
Tyler Mitchell