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**JANUARY 17, 2024**
On the Prospect website
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Attempt to Get Congress to Do Something on Foreign Policy Fails
A familiar sight: Congress abdicates its statutory and
constitutional responsibility in matters of war and safeguards on
foreign assistance. BY DAVID DAYEN
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Manchin Staffers Cash In With Big Oil
The West Virginia senator's longtime press aide's move to ExxonMobil
is the latest in a long line of revolving-door spinners. BY LUKE
GOLDSTEIN
Metaphors Journalists Live By (Part I)
One of the reasons political journalism is so ill-equipped for this
moment in America is because of its stubborn adherence to outdated
frames. BY RICK PERLSTEIN
Kuttner on TAP
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**** Time for Biden to Break With Netanyahu
The plan to depopulate Gaza of Palestinians is one excess too many.
President Biden's failure to demand that Prime Minister Netanyahu end
Israel's policy of destroying civilian Gaza could cost Biden the 2024
election by alienating young voters and voters of color, and cost Israel
the few friends it has left. After three months of White House
assurances that Biden is asking Netanyahu to go a little easier on the
Gazans, requests that Netanyahu cynically ignores, Biden looks not only
complicit but pathetically weak. Most of Gaza has already been
destroyed.
Instead, Biden has settled for totally inadequate token gestures, such
as temporary pauses to allow Gazans to travel (to no safe location) or
to allow in medical supplies. Netanyahu is playing Biden for a fool, and
the whole world is watching. Axios recently quoted Sen. Chris Van Hollen
(D-MD): "At every juncture, Netanyahu has given Biden the finger
."
However, Israel's government has now given Biden the red line that he
needs to condition U.S. aid on radical changes in Israel's policy. The
two most extreme members of the Cabinet, Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have said in so
many words that the real plan is to depopulate Gaza of Palestinians and
open it to Jewish settlement
.
To add insult to injury, Netanyahu's own statements have become more
openly defiant
of world opinion and of Biden, his paymaster. Axios also reported that
Biden and Netanyahu have not spoken in weeks.
Elite opinion has lagged public opinion on the Gaza issue. Yesterday,
Bernie Sanders's resolution calling for a State Department report on
human rights violations in Gaza got only 11 votes in the Senate
,
but polls show
that support for a cease-fire and conditioned aid is steadily rising.
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Private warnings and pleas have done nothing. It's time for a Biden
speech that goes something like this:
As Prime Minister Netanyahu knows, the United States, Israel's
staunchest ally, has repeatedly called on Israel to minimize loss of
civilian life and property in Gaza. These calls have been ignored.
Now, key members of his Cabinet have said that the real goal is not just
to eliminate Hamas as a military force but to depopulate Gaza of
Palestinians and open it to settlement by Israelis. The same Cabinet
members have encouraged settlements and the violent taking of
Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.
The United States cannot support these policies. It is painful to issue
an ultimatum to a good friend, but our friendship is with the State of
Israel and the Jewish people, not with the current government and its
extremist policies.
Therefore, we request that Prime Minister Netanyahu do the following, by
February 1:
First, disavow any intent to depopulate Gaza or open it to settlement by
Israelis.
Second, enforce Israel's own laws against illegal incursion into
Palestinian lands in the West Bank.
Third, eject from his Cabinet all members who espouse such policies.
Fourth, initiate a cease-fire so that a regional peace conference can
begin.
If the Israeli government does not agree to these terms, all U.S. aid
will cease as of February 1.
This speech would put Biden back on the side of human decency. It would
demonstrate real leadership. It would likely accelerate Netanyahu's
fall from power, something that most Israelis would welcome.
Netanyahu's suicidal policies, which conflate his own political
survival with Israel's survival, are unifying Israel's enemies,
isolating Israel from world public opinion, and making Israel less
secure.
Will Biden give such a speech? I am far from optimistic. But if he
doesn't, the needless carnage in Gaza and in Biden's presidential
prospects will continue.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
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