{"id":33084,"date":"2024-04-20T20:29:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-21T03:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=33084"},"modified":"2024-04-20T20:29:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T03:29:35","slug":"what-happened-to-the-joe-biden-i-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/04\/20\/what-happened-to-the-joe-biden-i-knew\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happened to the Joe Biden I Knew?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/opinion\">OPINION<\/a><\/strong> | What Happened to the Joe Biden I Knew?<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/21\/multimedia\/19kristof-zjwc\/19kristof-zjwc-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"A photo of a man waving to a woman amid destroyed buildings.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Credit&#8230;Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/opinion\">OPINION<\/a>  NICHOLAS KRISTOF<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Credit&#8230;Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/nicholas-kristof\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2018\/04\/03\/opinion\/nicholas-kristof\/nicholas-kristof-thumbLarge-v2.png\" alt=\"Nicholas Kristof\" title=\"Nicholas Kristof\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/nicholas-kristof\">Nicholas Kristof<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Opinion Columnist<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>April 19, 2024 (NYTimes.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>During the Darfur genocide and humanitarian crisis two decades ago, then-Senator Joe Biden passionately denounced then-President George W. Bush for failing to act decisively to ease suffering. Biden expressed outrage at China for selling weapons used to kill and maim civilians, and he urged me to write columns demanding the White House end needless wretchedness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Darfur and Gaza are very different, of course, but I recall the senator\u2019s compassion and urgency \u2014 and I wonder, where has that Joe Biden gone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gaza has become the albatross around Biden\u2019s neck. It is&nbsp;<em>his<\/em>&nbsp;war, not just Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s. It will be part of&nbsp;<em>his<\/em>&nbsp;legacy, an element of&nbsp;<em>his<\/em>&nbsp;obituary, a blot on&nbsp;<em>his<\/em>&nbsp;campaign \u2014 and it could get worse if Gaza cascades into a full-blown famine or violent anarchy, or if a wider war breaks out involving Iran or Lebanon. An&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2024\/04\/18\/world\/israel-iran-gaza-war-news\">Israeli strike<\/a>&nbsp;on a military base in central Iran early Friday underscored the danger of a bigger and more damaging conflict that could draw in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider just one example of America\u2019s fingerprints on this war under Biden\u2019s leadership. In January, the Israeli military dropped a bomb on a compound in Gaza used by the International Rescue Committee, a much-respected American aid organization that is supported in part by American tax dollars. The International Rescue Committee&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rescue.org\/press-release\/gaza-irc-and-map-additional-statement-airstrike-residential-compound-housing\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">says<\/a>&nbsp;that the near-fatal strike was caused by a 1,000-pound American-made bomb, dropped from an American-made F-16 fighter jet. And when an American-made aircraft drops an American-made bomb on an American aid group in an American-supported war, how can that not come back to Biden?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBiden owns that,\u201d said&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.refugeesinternational.org\/authors\/jeremy-konyndyk\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jeremy Konyndyk<\/a>, a former Biden and Obama administration official who now runs Refugees International, another aid group. \u201cThey\u2019ve provided the mat\u00e9riel that sustains the war. They provided political support that sustains the war. They provided the diplomatic cover at the U.N. that sustains the war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not Biden\u2019s war in the way that Vietnam was Lyndon Johnson\u2019s war or that Iraq was Bush\u2019s war. Biden has not sent American troops, and he has not directed this war. He is clearly uncomfortable with the civilian toll of this war and wishes Israel was conducting it with more restraint \u2014 yet he continues to underwrite it. His rhetoric has become more critical, but his actions so far have not changed significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscription?campaignId=8WXW7\">Subscribe to The Times<\/a>&nbsp;to read as many articles as you like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nicholas Kristof became a columnist for The Times Opinion desk in 2001 and has won two Pulitzer Prizes. His new memoir is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/720814\/chasing-hope-by-nicholas-d-kristof\/\">Chasing Hope: A Reporter&#8217;s Life<\/a>.\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NickKristof\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@NickKristof<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A version of this article appears in print on\u00a0April 21, 2024, Section\u00a0SR, Page\u00a06\u00a0of the New York edition\u00a0with the headline:\u00a0How Joe Biden Lost His Way in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.parsintl.com\/publication\/the-new-york-times\/\">Order Reprints<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper\">Today\u2019s Paper<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscriptions\/Multiproduct\/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY\">Subscribe<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.nytimes.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/115014792127-Copyright-notice\">\u00a9\u00a02024\u00a0The New York Times Company<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OPINION | What Happened to the Joe Biden I Knew? OPINION NICHOLAS KRISTOF Credit&#8230;Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images By&nbsp;Nicholas Kristof Opinion Columnist During the Darfur genocide and humanitarian crisis two decades ago, then-Senator Joe Biden passionately denounced then-President George W. Bush for failing to act decisively to ease suffering. Biden&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/04\/20\/what-happened-to-the-joe-biden-i-knew\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33084"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33085,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33084\/revisions\/33085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}