Imperialism
Israel
Palestine
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[1] fair use.
Y’all know I’m no fan either of Joe Biden or Israel.
But I think I may have to give Biden some credit for his handling of Israel in the present crisis. Given Binyamin Netanyahu’s hardline response to the Hamas attack,[2] any ceasefire, however temporary, and which the Biden administration was heavily involved in negotiating[3] is an accomplishment in itself. It’s possible to understand Biden as, in fact, having been very canny in how he has handled this situation, in which he is under fire from all sides.[4]
In my not entirely baseless speculation, however, I suspect that Biden has actually used Palestine’s advocates even within his own party as a “bad cop,” saying to Netanyahu that Netanyahu has to give him something lest Democratic Party support for Israel collapse. There’s surely more to it than this: Netanyahu is likely banking on Donald Trump winning in 2024, which is foolish of course, but he is also clearly feeling pressure as well at home, with many Israelis calling even for his immediate resignation.[5] Netanyahu needed at least for some hostages to go home to win some breathing space while he plots a path to save his own political ass. It’s also apparent that Netanyahu did not have an end-plan for Gaza;[6] an extension gives him a bit more time to come up with one,[7] assuming that’s even possible.
It wouldn’t be a new tactic. Part of the reason for the success of some nonviolent activist “good cops” like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., was—here’s the part you hear a whole lot less about—the presence of “bad cops” like the centuries-long violent resistance to British rule in India and Malcolm X.[8] The idea is that you bolster the “good cop” so the “bad cop” has less reason to follow through on their threats.
If I’m right, handling this negotiation would have required a deft touch. The Biden administration had that touch and, to be honest, I’m not sure how many presidents you’d have to go back to find another one who could have managed it.
Yana T. R. Golding, “Tracking lost pro-Palestinian posts,” Columbia Journalism Review, November 27, 2023, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/excessive-moderation-meta-palestinian-7amleh-nashif.php
Summer Said and Dov Lieber, “Israel, Hamas Agree to Extend Truce by Two Days,” Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/talks-to-extend-israel-hamas-truce-go-down-to-the-wire-8f1cbba9
Washington Post to 5-Minute Fix list, “The 5-Minute Fix: What’s behind Biden’s steadfast support for Israel?” November 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-fix/
Illiberalism
Fig. 1. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.
Ishaan Tharoor, “Europe’s far right goes mainstream,” Washington Post, November 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/27/europe-far-right-geert-wilders-dutch-election-mainstream/
- [1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
- [2]Jason Burke, “Netanyahu sets out uncompromising postwar vision as Israel pounds Gaza,” Guardian, November 12, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/12/main-gaza-hospital-totally-surrounded-director-says-as-netanyahu-rejects-ceasefire-calls↩
- [3]ashington Post to 5-Minute Fix list, “The 5-Minute Fix: What’s behind Biden’s steadfast support for Israel?” November 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-fix/↩
- [4]ashington Post to 5-Minute Fix list, “The 5-Minute Fix: What’s behind Biden’s steadfast support for Israel?” November 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-fix/↩
- [5]Simon Tisdall, “The pressure on Netanyahu is starting to tell – this potential truce shows something has changed,” Guardian, November 21, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/21/pressure-benjamin-netanyahu-potential-truce-gaza-hostages↩
- [6]Hussein Ibish, “Israel’s Dangerous Delusion,” Atlantic, November 1, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/11/israel-gaza-after-hamas/675856/↩
- [7]Summer Said and Dov Lieber, “Israel, Hamas Agree to Extend Truce by Two Days,” Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/talks-to-extend-israel-hamas-truce-go-down-to-the-wire-8f1cbba9↩
- [8]Benjamin Ginsberg, “Why Violence Works,” Chronicle of Higher Education, August 12, 2013, http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Violence-Works/140951/↩