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**MARCH 11, 2024**
On the Prospect website
Progressive Groups Form Counterweight to AIPAC's Electoral Push
Twenty-four organizations will launch a 'seven-figure' campaign
to defend progressive Democrats. The Israel lobby's first foray into
primaries this year fell flat. BY DAVID DAYEN
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Democrats Need a Party Publication
The New York Times is not going to get Biden's campaign message
before voters. BY RYAN COOPER
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'Return What You Stole and Be a Man With Dignity'
Doctors didn't think it was possible to loathe the world's
biggest health care profiteer any more. Then came the hack that set half
their bookkeeping systems on fire. BY MAUREEN TKACIK
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UnitedHealth Exploits an 'Emergency' It Created
The Change ransomware attack left an Oregon medical practice with an
empty bank account, and only one quick way to fix it: sell to
UnitedHealth. BY MAUREEN TKACIK
Kuttner on TAP
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**** Biden, Bibi, and the Elusive Cease-Fire
There will be no deal in time for the beginning of Ramadan tonight, and
Netanyahu's defiance keeps bleeding both Gaza and Biden's
re-election chances.
On Saturday, President Biden escalated the pressure on Netanyahu, and
Bibi threw it back in his face. Biden, speaking on MSNBC
,
declared that Netanyahu is "hurting Israel more than he is helping
Israel." He called for a prolonged cease-fire followed by a regional
settlement, and said that Netanyahu's plan to invade Rafah in southern
Gaza, where at least a million refugees are huddled, would be crossing a
red line.
Biden also said he would be prepared to go to Israel and address the
Knesset, but ducked the question of whether an invitation would have to
come from Netanyahu. (When Bibi addressed Congress, he didn't ask
Biden's permission.)
It didn't take Netanyahu long to blow Biden off. On Sunday, in an
interview with a Politico correspondent
,
Netanyahu, when asked whether Israeli forces would move into Rafah,
replied: "We'll go there. We're not going to leave them. You know, I
have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn't
happen again." Dousing Biden's call for a pause, Netanyahu added the
preposterous condition that a hostage release would have to come first.
Netanyahu, who is monumentally unpopular with Israelis for his lapses in
letting the October 7 massacre happen, has two pitches with his public.
First, only Bibi's policies can protect Israel from Hamas; and second,
only Bibi can stand up to American pressure. And so far, he has played
Biden like a violin, or maybe played Biden for a fool.
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So now it's up to Biden to call Bibi's bluff. Otherwise the
slaughter in Gaza continues and we get no closer to a regional
settlement.
The proposed floating pier off the Gaza coast to deliver relief supplies
is no substitute for a real policy. It serves Bibi's design. It will
take six weeks to build, during which time tens of thousands more Gazans
can starve or be killed. Letting Israel keep bombing civilians while
increasing relief supplies is a policy worthy of Jonathan Swift.
Biden's "hot mic" moment, supposedly revealing his exasperation with
Bibi, was hardly a toughening of U.S. policy, but it has to win some
kind of mixed-metaphor award. The president said that he and the Israeli
prime minister needed to have a "come to Jesus" moment.
Whatever else Bibi does, he is not coming to Jesus. Whether he comes to
his senses, or comes to a long-overdue ouster from politics, is entirely
dependent on whether Biden has the courage of his convictions.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
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