It wasn’t close. Americans once again rejected a flawed female Democratic candidate in favor of Donald Trump, who comes to office with grievances and revenge on his mind, along with a welcome determination to end the war in Ukraine and a far less welcome commitment to continue the Biden policy of unfettered support for the murderous Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Here are some day-after thoughts about an election I thought in my dotage that Trump would not win, especially because his campaign gave no sign of any regrets for his abysmal response to his defeat by Joe Biden four years ago. There are lots of lessons here. First of all, Barack Obama continued a lousy precedent by picking a weak vice president after winning the primaries in 2008. Biden was considered by some of his peers in the Senate as a vain and lazy second-rater: a weak vice presidential choice who was publicly loyal but increasingly resentful of what he saw as Obama’s dismissive attitude toward him. Once elected to the presidency in 2020, he replayed the Obama mantra by selecting a vice president who posed no political threat. Kamala Harris, in turn, did the same by picking a political novice who added little to her campaign and, if elected, would be, at best, a White House liaison to high school football and America’s heartland. Harris, in turn, was unable to separate from an increasingly impaired Biden during her campaign. In a perfect world, the press would have been raising questions for months about Biden’s obvious growing impairment and what clearly was a long-standing cover-up by senior presidential aides, including Harris, until his floundering debate with Trump last June. I have been consistently critical to Biden’s foreign policy as articulated by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. All three shared a Cold War-style hostility toward Vladimir Putin, the autocratic leader of Russia who made it clear after Biden’s election that he would go to war if the United States supported Ukraine’s entry into NATO. That was not on the table, as all in the West know, essentially because of the staggering level of corruption in the government now run by President Volodymyr Zelensky. Instead of assuring Putin that Ukraine was not going to be invited into NATO—it still has not been—Biden had his national security minions play hardball. To his discredit, Putin took the bait and invaded. It is a murderous war now in its third year. It has become a pox on all sides. There has been nothing in Trump’s public comments that suggest he will deviate from Joe Biden’s consistent support of Israel and Netanyahu’s bloody war in Gaza. Given many chances to separate herself from the president’s policy, Harris spoke lamely about a need for a ceasefire that, as it has increasingly become clear, has never been in the cards with Netanyahu in office. One factor in Harris’s reluctance to take a stand against the slaughter in Gaza was the flow of Jewish campaign funds: her campaign raised far more cash than Trump, perhaps more than any presidential candidate in history. It also was obvious that she had no real point of view—or compassion—about the morality of Israel’s continuing slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Trump does have a point of view, and it is an alarming one to those who care about bringing an end to the bloodshed in Gaza and eventually reaching peace in the Middle East. He has said little about Gaza in the campaign and ignored the recent Israeli bombing attacks in Iran, Lebanon, and Syria. In his debate with Biden in June, Trump gave a chaotic and uniformed answer when asked about that war. “As far as Israel and Hamas,” he said, “Israel’s the one that wants to go. He [Biden] said the only ones who want to keep going is Hamas. Actually, Israel is the one. And you should let [them] go and let them finish the job. He doesn’t want to do it. He’s become like a Palestinian. But they [the Palestinians] don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian. He’s a weak man.” The level of discourse did not improve in the September 10 debate Trump had with Harris. “She hates Israel,” he said of his opponent when the moderators brought up the ongoing Gaza war. “She wouldn’t even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress [in July] to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers. She wanted to go to the sorority party. She hates Israel. If she’s president, I believe Israel will not exist within two years from now. And I’ve been pretty good with predictions.” Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy Seymour Hersh, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. |