Biden staffers outside White House protesting his support for Israeli genocide

• Growing opposition within Democratic Party & in State Department to Biden’s support for Israel.
• Changes in Israel since Biden met Golda Meir in 1973.
• Biden living in the past regarding both Israel and Republican Party.
• Crisis in U.S. capitalist politics.

On January 19, the Washington Post reported: “After weeks of unquestioning support, the Senate is emerging as a center of resistance to Biden’s unwavering embrace of Israel — at least in modest ways — as even centrist Democrats are signaling their discomfort with the president’s “bear hug” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” They further report that there were 18 Democratic senators co-sponsoring a bill that would place conditions on further US aid to Israel. The co-sponsors include mainstream Democrats like Chris Van Hollen (Md), Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Tim Kaine (Maine).

This comes after a series of objections to the Biden Bear Hug:

• In mid October, top State Department official Josh Paul resigned in protest of Biden’s support of Israel.
• Then, in mid November, a memo signed by 100 State Department and US Aid officials came to light. It allegedly urged senior State Department officials to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
• This was followed by the resignation of Tariq Habash, a political appointee of Biden’s to the US Department of Education. Habash said that he had heard from many other officials who are also planning to resign in protest.
• Maybe the most unprecedented of all was the Dec. 12 protest vigil of about a dozen Biden White House staffers outside the White House. They held a banner reading “PRESIDENT BIDEN, YOUR STAFF DEMANDS A CEASEFIRE”. (The staffers wore paper bags over their heads to protect their jobs.)

There are several reasons for this insider criticism of Biden’s policies: First is the fact that the US’s imperialist rivals – Russia and China – are increasing their influence throughout the region due to Biden’s “bear hug” support for Netanyahu and for Israeli expansionism. Second, and related, is the danger that this war could explode throughout the region.

Biden has made extremely muted criticisms of Israel’s genocidal policies. However, these criticisms are meaningless as long as he is determined to give Israel all the weapons it needs to keep on slaughtering Palestinians in Gaza. And determined Biden is. Speaking to donors last month, he  said, “we’re not going to do a damn thing other than protect Israel… Not a single thing.” What explains this supposed expert on world relations having such a blundering and pig-headed policy, even from the point of view of the interests of US capitalism?

Joe Biden and Golda Meir. Biden is stuck in the past, unable to understand the changes in Israel.

To understand that, we have to go back 50 years – yes, that long ago! – to 1973, when a 31 year old newly elected Senator Biden met Golda Meir. That meeting deeply impressed the ambitious young senator. Speaking more recently, he  called it “one of the most consequential meetings I’ve had in my life.” In this case, he’s probably telling the truth. Aaron David Miller, a US negotiator with long experience in the region, has explained, “Biden’s connection to Israel is deeply ingrained in his DNA.” 

Changes in Israel
As we explained, from its very inception over 100 years ago to the present day, Zionism and the State of Israel were racist and expansionist projects. This was just as true in 1973, when Biden first visited Israel, as it is today. Nevertheless, changes have occurred in Israel over these last 50 years, at least in its outward appearance. Ofer Neiman, long time anti-apartheid and pro-BDS Israeli activist explains (in a personal note to Oaklandsocialist): “Israel in 1973 was more Kibbutznik, for all this means: Offering the world something that many (unfortunately) saw as a utopian vision. Israel was more of an underdog, less of a Goliath, in its own perception and in the eyes of the world. And Israel spoke the language of peace (although just lip service) more than it does now.” 

Ofer also explained that the existence of the Soviet Union also made a difference. This makes sense. In the US, for example, that existence was one factor that forced JFK and after him LBJ to make concessions to the rebellion of black people in the South. In other words, U.S. capitalism had to take on a more “progressive” face. It would make sense that the same was the case as far as Israel was concerned. Also, at that time both the Syrian and Egyptian militaries were very powerful, as they proved just a few weeks after Biden’s visit, when they would have probably defeated Israel in the “Yom Kippur War” had it not been for U.S. military intervention. The power of those militaries forced Israel to take a more moderate position.

Settlers
There is also the fact of the settlers. According to Wikipedia, in 1973 there were under 11,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Gaza. Today, according to an article in Foreign Affairs, there are over 750,000 settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The settlers represent a significant bloc in the knesset.

All of this means that the Israel of today is not going back to the Israel of 1973. But at 81 years old, Biden is living in the past. He is living in the past in regards to the Republican Party, which he thinks can shed its fascist influences and return to its days of “bipartisanship”, and he is living in the past in regards to Israel. 

In 2020, Biden was elected on the promise of restoring the “soul of America”, meaning ending the constantly threatened and actual violence of MAGAism, returning bigotry to a low flame on the back burner, and ending some of the more extreme elements of QAnonism. In other words, a return to a (largely mythical) past. In that sense, his age stood him in good stead, but once in office he has been unable to deal with the huge changes that have taken place in the world and in the U.S. itself. In his own way, he represents the crisis of U.S. politics. 

update: Since this was written there has been a new resignation from the State Department. Annelle Shoreline has resigned. She had been responsible for presenting the “democratic” face of the US in South West Asia North Africa region. She explained “Whatever credibility that the United States has had as an advocate for human rights has almost entirely vanished since the war began.” In other words, she was unable to effectively present that face anymore.

Biden staffers outside White House protesting his support for Israeli genocide