Who’s the Superpower Around Here?
By Patrick Theros - January 12, 2024
After
his first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in
1996, Bill Clinton vented his fury before his staff about his visitor’s
apparent presumptions about the balance of power in the bilateral
relationship. “Who the f**k does he think he is?,” Clinton reportedly
bellowed. “Who’s the f**king superpower here?” Twenty-seven years later,
another American president should be asking himself the same question
about the very same Bibi Netanyahu and the country he leads.
Forgive
me for not taking seriously the repetitio ad nauseam statement "The
Biden administration has been working hard to change Israeli policy."
Too many defenders of our policy towards the tragedy of Gaza usually add
the comment that it is not "politically feasible" to issue a demand and
then crack down on the Netanyahu government if it does not comply for
fear of the backlash from the powerful so-called Israel lobby. Are
Biden’s apologists telling us that the United States and, by extension,
its president is a powerless weakling reduced to begging the leader of a
small country that owes the U.S. for its very existence to do far more
to protect the lives and welfare of the inhabitants of Gaza who have
suffered three months of ‘indiscriminate bombing’-- in Biden’s own
words. The situation in Gaza is now so bad that UN’s humanitarian chief
declared the Gaza Strip “uninhabitable” as of last Saturday.
Biden
is president of the United States, still the most powerful country in
the world by almost every measure and a country without whose support
Israel has no future. A firm public demand to cease and desist
immediately would have enormous domestic political repercussions in
Israel -- far less in the United States. Biden would not have to
publicly threaten to cut off weapons deliveries; a few words delivered
in private to Netanyahu and a few members of his war cabinet would
probably suffice. Most of Netanyahu's government would desert him. Even
the most hawkish of the Israeli Defense Force leadership would not want
to test an American president’s resolve. Netanyahu's refusal would
accelerate the departure of secular Israelis from the country -- as
would many Haredim, especially those who hold U.S. passports.
A
decisive American president can do anything he wants, whether or not a
powerful lobby opposes him. Eisenhower did it, forcing David Ben Gurion
to withdraw from Sinai in 1956. Carter did it, in his “walk in the
woods” at Camp David in 1978 forcing Menachem Begin to abandon Sinai
settlements and agree to a peace treaty with Egypt. Reagan did it in
June 1982, forcing Begin to order a ceasefire in Beirut. George H. W.
Bush did it in 1991, withholding $10 billion in aid after Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir refused to stop settlement construction. Israel
caved in each case. No one believes Netanyahu is made of the same stuff
as Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin nor Yitzhak Shamir.
Biden
seems not to understand that his stance supports Netanyahu’s political
survival, not the long-term interests of Israel. Bibi does not care how
much damage he does to Israel as long as he stays out of jail. He has
sacrificed the Jewish homeland to his personal interests. He and his
government have presided over a slaughter of innocent civilians
unprecedented in any of Israel’s previous wars. Their rhetoric
reinforces the view gaining currency across the globe that Israel has
decided to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from their homeland;
South Africa has brought a case of genocide before the International
Court of Justice.
Israel’s war against the Palestinians has
reignited the perception among the vast majorities of countries in the
so-called Global South that the Palestinians are the new manifestation
of the conflict against colonialism and imperialism. UN votes demanding a
cease-fire have grown increasingly one-sided against Israel, further
isolating the US in the process. If Israel’s bloody campaign against
Gaza does not end soon, the Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab
countries may survive in name only; popular revulsion against Israel in
those countries will rob them of any value. Biden owes it to Israel, a
country long dear to his heart, to stop Netanyahu’s recklessness and
that of his nationalist-religious extremist allies.
Netanyahu has
no plan for the post war. Instead, it appears that he has a plan to
keep the war going as long as he can, possibly by attacking Lebanon
(which Biden "firmly" opposes), not to mention depopulating Gaza by
forcing its now-homeless inhabitants into Sinai or deporting them
elsewhere (which Biden also “firmly” opposes). Left unchecked,
Netanyahu’s intransigence will drag the United States into military
actions we do not need; American hawks are now demanding we bomb the
Houthis. Tomorrow, it might well be hostilities with Iran.
Biden’s
continued full-throated support for Netanyahu mystifies. His initial
embrace of Israel and unconditional material and moral support of Israel
were to be expected. It was an emotional reaction to the horrors of
October 7. While Biden has earned a great deal of praise for his
handling of the Ukraine war, Israel’s war in Gaza has shifted American
attention from Ukraine. In effect, the American president has become
bogged down dealing with a war marginal to American interests and
diverting attention and resources from a conflict whose outcome is of
vital importance to the United States. Biden’s policies have caused
others to see America as either weak or complicit. He has allowed
Netanyahu to get away with “flipping the finger” to the United States, a
serious blow to the prestige of the superpower.
The Gaza war has
also dealt a serious, if not mortal blow, to Biden's reelection. Given
its large Arab American population, Michigan is lost (I was born there).
Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin also have significant Muslim and Arab
populations. He is about to lose the Armenian vote unless someone cracks
down on the hoodlums who have viciously attacked Armenian clergy in
Jerusalem. As a politician rooted firmly in the 1990s – especially the
1992 Clinton-Bush face-off -- Biden may fear the loss of Jewish support
in the coming election. That fear looks misplaced. A recent survey
indicates that nearly half of young Jewish-Americans do not support his
current policies towards Israel, while Christian Zionists, who form a
significant part of the Republican base, are unlikely to vote for Biden
in any event. One also wonders why Biden, if politics are indeed the
driver of a misguided policy, would support a foreign politician who has
demonstrated his hostility towards every Democratic president since
1993.
He has a very short window within which he can cut off
Netanyahu before he can carry out his apparent war aim to depopulate
Gaza and carry the conflict into Lebanon and possibly beyond – a
conflict, in other words that could very well drag American forces into
another endless Middle Eastern war. A quick and decisive decision,
combined with real diplomacy to exploit the crisis and craft a workable
solution to 75 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict would recover
America's reputation.
Now is the time, in other words, for the superpower in this relationship to assert its own interests.