{"id":35131,"date":"2024-07-26T12:47:59","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T19:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=35131"},"modified":"2024-07-26T12:48:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T19:48:00","slug":"bidens-failing-mind-might-explain-his-incoherent-gaza-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/26\/bidens-failing-mind-might-explain-his-incoherent-gaza-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s Failing Mind Might Explain His Incoherent Gaza Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SUPPORT US<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s approach to Gaza isn\u2019t just immoral, it\u2019s incoherent. A new candidate could break with his confused course for good.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Malcolm Harris<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 23 2024, 10:45 a.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pro-Palestinian
Palestine solidarity protesters in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 8, 2024.\u00a0Photo: Mattie Neretin\/Getty Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FROM THE BEGINNING<\/strong>, something has been off about President Joe Biden\u2019s approach to the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel\u2019s genocidal invasion of Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even by the low standards of America\u2019s steadfast support for Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestine and Biden\u2019s own long-standing Zionism, he\u2019s been careless: endorsing baseless Israeli propaganda, bear-hugging the notoriously unreliable Benjamin Netanyahu, and slandering his own supporters as antisemites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disastrous presidential debate, and Biden\u2019s decision to bow out of the race, has given us a new way to understand what\u2019s been happening. Maybe Biden\u2019s approach has been thoughtless because the president is having trouble thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In retrospect, Biden\u2019s incapacity has been on display since the first days following the October 7 raid. \u201cI never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,\u201d the president said, repeating a gruesome but uncorroborated rumor<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The press raced to clarify<\/a>: Had Biden seen evidence that the Israelis were keeping secret? White House staff explained that the president was merely referring to Israeli media reports. We could chalk it up to a gaffe at a highly charged moment, except that Biden kept repeating the charge, leading Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler to accuse the president of exaggerating<\/a> under the headline \u201cBiden yet again says Hamas beheaded babies. Has new evidence emerged?\u201d The answer was \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Joe Biden Keeps Repeating His False Claim That He Saw Pictures of Beheaded Babies<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Intercept\u2019s Jeremy Scahill called Biden\u2019s constant invocation of the fantastical beheaded babies story \u201cinexplicable<\/a>,\u201d but now we know better. As two Harvard researchers wrote in a 2020 peer-reviewed study titled \u201cAging in an Era of Fake News<\/a>,\u201d those in late adulthood tend to have \u201cdifficulty detecting lies,\u201d and they place \u201cless emphasis on accuracy when communicating.\u201d Obviously this does not apply to all older adults \u2014 Sen. Bernie Sanders, for example, has remained notably sharp into his 80s \u2014 but after what we saw on the debate stage and in subsequent interviews, I find it hard to argue that it doesn\u2019t fit Biden. At very least, it\u2019s an explanation that fits the facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result, then how to describe Biden\u2019s plan to break Yemen\u2019s hold on Red Sea shipping lanes? When asked if U.S. airstrikes were working<\/a>, Biden told the press<\/a>, \u201cWhen you say working, are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.\u201d It\u2019d be easier to call this another gaffe if that weren\u2019t exactly what happened. Operation Prosperity Guardian airstrikes have killed dozens of Yemenis, and two Navy SEALs were lost at sea, but there has never been any hint of success for the Western alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over six months after the beginning of Prosperity Guardian, U.S. forces remain locked in what personnel have called<\/a> \u201cthe most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.\u201d America has been losing that battle every step of the way, something the troops aren\u2019t used to. \u201cI\u2019ll be honest,\u201d one recently returned Navy pilot told<\/a> the AP about the novelty of getting shot at off Yemen, \u201cit was a little traumatizing for the group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This drawn-out defeat is more or less what Biden said was going to happen; it\u2019s not the statement that was the mistake, it was the mission itself. Starting a deadly international fight you can\u2019t even plan to win<\/a> is professional incompetence, but not being able to stop yourself from saying so out loud to the press suggests a different, more personal kind of incompetence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THOUGH BIDEN IS<\/strong> unlikely to jump to the alternate explanations \u2014 corruption or racism \u2014 in his own defense, there\u2019s evidence for both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a senator, Biden topped the Open Secrets list<\/a> of recipients for pro-Israel money, receiving more than twice as much since 1990 as second-place Bob Menendez of New Jersey. (Menendez is <\/em>corrupt: He was recently convicted at trial<\/a> of acting as an overseas agent for Egypt.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever combination of earnest and bought, Biden\u2019s support for Israel has never been tempered<\/a> by concern for Palestinians. When the New Yorker\u2019s Isaac Chotiner suggested<\/a> to former State Department official Aaron David Miller that American policymakers don\u2019t value Israeli and Palestinian lives equally, he didn\u2019t get much pushback. \u201cDo I think that Joe Biden has the same depth of feeling and empathy for the Palestinians of Gaza as he does for the Israelis?\u201d said Miller. \u201cNo, he doesn\u2019t, nor does he convey it. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any doubt about that.\u201d I have similarly little doubt that Biden\u2019s bigotry has made it easier for him to support the genocide in Gaza, but it\u2019s not sufficient to explain his conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But incompetence explains Biden\u2019s actions in a way that unconditional support for the Israeli project can\u2019t. It would have been easy enough to try and muddy the waters and obscure Israel Defense Forces responsibility for the massacre at Gaza\u2019s largest hospital, for example, but there was no strategic reason for Biden to claim<\/a>, as he did in November, that it was a \u201cfact\u201d that Hamas was hiding its military headquarters under al-Shifa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When pressed by reporters<\/a> to present some, or any, evidence that this was the case, Biden said with a strange, crooked smile<\/a>, \u201cNo, I can\u2019t tell you. I won\u2019t tell you.\u201d He doesn\u2019t even allow a reporter to get through the follow-up: \u201cDo you feel absolutely confident based on what you know, that\u2014?\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d he says, holding his bizarre expression. Hamas did not<\/a>, in fact, have its military headquarters in tunnels under al-Shifa Hospital<\/a>, and the president has never revealed any basis for his false but absolute confidence.Read Our Complete CoverageIsrael\u2019s War on Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

George W. Bush is not famous for having been one of America\u2019s brighter presidents, but even he knew that you\u2019re not supposed to get fooled twice<\/a>. Biden, on the other hand, doesn\u2019t appear to realize Netanyahu and his administration are running up the score on him: expanding the scope of the war to Lebanon, Syria, and even Iran; demanding the defunding of UNRWA under false pretenses<\/a>, assassinating Western aid workers, and blocking<\/a> aid trucks<\/a>; and sabotaging peace negotiations. Israeli media has even reported<\/a> that Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing allies are opposing a hostage deal because<\/em> it would be a victory for Biden and a \u201cslap in the face\u201d to their ally Donald Trump. None of this has upset Biden\u2019s \u201cbear hug\u201d approach to the Israeli leadership, by which he preemptively ceded any leverage America might have over the country\u2019s actions. Just look to Rafah<\/a>, Biden\u2019s \u201cred line,\u201d where the IDF has called his bluff and turned Gaza\u2019s final \u201csafe zone\u201d into a killing field with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, Biden seems to earnestly believe he is doing a good, fair job. \u201cI\u2019m the guy that did more for the Palestinian community than anybody,\u201d he told<\/a> Speedy Morman of Complex. \u201cI mean, I\u2019ve been very supportive of the Palestinians.\u201d When asked why an Arab or Muslim voter would support him, Biden says his leadership represents the best path to peace and a two-state solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, under Biden\u2019s watch, Israel has not only been seizing land in the West Bank at an unprecedented clip, but the Knesset also overwhelmingly voted against<\/a> the idea of a two-state solution, right before Biden is set to reward Netanyahu with another bear hug during his visit to address Congress in D.C. this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s not even get started with the disastrous temporary pier<\/a> except to say that managing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars without<\/em> helping any of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people in direct proximity to the project surely represents an ironic achievement in American international aid. If still-President Biden thinks he has brought Palestinians anything but the kind of unfathomable tragedy and grief<\/a> that resonates for centuries, it is the single strongest piece of evidence that he lacks the mental capacity to govern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JOE BIDEN WILL<\/strong> not be the Democratic nominee in November\u2019s presidential election, thankfully. He is not withdrawing because he\u2019s being held responsible for enabling war crimes against the Palestinian people (though a recent poll<\/a> does have nearly 40 percent of Americans saying they\u2019re less likely to vote for him thanks to his handling of the war). Yet it\u2019s impossible to extricate the collapse in public faith in the Biden campaign from the \u201cuncommitted<\/a>\u201d movement for Gaza. They were the first people to refuse him their votes, and defections<\/a> from within <\/a>the president\u2019s base hollowed out his support well in advance of the debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ditching Biden won\u2019t automatically change anything, and the president is not solely responsible for Gaza, even within the White House. Anyone who is held personally responsible for a broad social crime such as genocide is, to some degree, a scapegoat \u2014 but that is not a reason to hold no one responsible. And Biden\u2019s public incapacity opens a door to a better way forward for American policy. It\u2019s time to take the keys; millions of Palestinians can\u2019t wait for next January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democrats and their presumptive nominee Kamala Harris are faced with a choice: On the one hand, they can continue Biden\u2019s monstrous support for Netanyahu, the brutal IDF, and Israel\u2019s genocide of Palestinians. That would help allow the party to cover for Biden and put a positive spin on a smooth handoff, even though we all know this would mainly benefit the embittered president himself and his small coterie of loyalists. Such a choice would confirm that the institutional rot that allowed the current situation to develop still characterizes the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alternative is to force a change in policy. Harris must assure voters that, as the party\u2019s leader, she won\u2019t assume Biden\u2019s biggest mistake, effective immediately. That starts with staying out of town during Netanyahu\u2019s visit, and it has to grow from there, with public pressure from her office on the Israelis to sign a permanent ceasefire. This would in effect concede that the president\u2019s incompetence has not been harmless at all: that on the contrary, it paved the road to hundreds of thousands of awful deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden may well go down in history as Genocide Joe<\/a>, a disgrace even to the job of president of the United States, roped to Israel\u2019s atrocities in the same way Lyndon Johnson is tied to the Vietnam War. The upside for the rest of us is the possibility of an end to Israel\u2019s genocidal assault on Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Democrats and Kamala Harris can\u2019t decide between protecting Biden\u2019s legacy and thousands of Palestinian lives, they\u2019re no more competent to lead than he is.Share<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Malcolm Harris<\/a>@BigMeanInternet<\/a>on X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUPPORT US Biden\u2019s approach to Gaza isn\u2019t just immoral, it\u2019s incoherent. A new candidate could break with his confused course for good. Malcolm Harris July 23 2024, 10:45 a.m. (TheIntercept.com) FROM THE BEGINNING, something has been off about President Joe Biden\u2019s approach to the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel\u2019s… Continue reading → <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35132,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35131\/revisions\/35132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}