Biden's bear hug worked with Israel -By Jennifer Rubin

[kpete]

...........Biden understood two things his critics (including anti-Zionists) didn’t.

First, despite the assumption of Israel’s critics (including those who mischaracterize the state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people as a “colonizer”), the United States has no power to order Israel around as if it were a vassal state. Israel will do what it must to survive. Even without U.S. approval, it has conducted and will conduct military operations that its government considers essential to its national security. Put differently, as with any other country on the planet, Israel will operate in its own defense even in defiance of allies’ wishes. (The difference between Israel and many other U.S. allies: It has a first-class intelligence apparatus and military capable of conducting sophisticated operations independently.)

Second, any Israeli government, no matter how arrogant, must be concerned with Israeli public opinion. If the Israeli public trusts and embraces the U.S. president, it will be inclined to support his views on the region and his strategic thinking. A U.S. president who they think has their best interests at heart can convince Israelis that they are best protected if their government cooperates with the United States. (Remember, in bragging that he alone could handle the U.S., Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once said, “America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.”) Past freezes on West Bank settlements, truces in wars with Gaza and territorial concessions (including withdrawal from Gaza and the fateful decision to allow Hamas to compete in an election) came about with gentle pressure from trusted American presidents.

........

The current situation confirms the wisdom of Biden’s tactics, honed through decades of foreign policy experience and tenure as vice president (during a presidency that too often wound up in unproductive public fights with Israel’s prime minister).

......................

Biden has again managed to outperform expectations. Turns out he understood Netanyahu and the Middle East dynamic much better than the punditocracy and the left wing of his party.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/27/biden-israel-bear-hug/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzAxMDYxMjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzAyNDQzNTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDEwNjEyMDAsImp0aSI6IjU3MTUyNGI3LTgyOWYtNGQ1Yy04ZDhjLWZkMzc0OTJmZWQ3NCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9vcGluaW9ucy8yMDIzLzExLzI3L2JpZGVuLWlzcmFlbC1iZWFyLWh1Zy8ifQ.uhFBsDtt7ny8m9qL3961DKO2nyRUaLhXgX7rcEMcufU

[tritsofme]

1. Biden has been amazing, easily the best president since at least Clinton on Israel policy

[underpants]

2. There's always something to say about experience

I think he’s handled it very well. We have established policy in regards to Israel that must be honored.