I agree with Tom Friedman’s conclusion in his most recent New York Times column which is that American leaders should stop courting Israel. His argument has a certain amount of partisan slant:
They have done so much damage already, and yet President Biden, the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC and many in Congress have not come to terms with just how radical this government is.
Indeed, House Speaker Mike Johnson and his fellow G.O.P. mischief makers decided to reward Netanyahu with the high honor of speaking to a joint meeting of
Congress on July 24. Pushed into a corner, the top Democrats in the Senate and the House signed on to the invitation, but the unstated goal of this Republican exercise is to divide Democrats and provoke shouted insults from their most progressive representatives that would alienate American Jewish voters and donors and turn them toward Donald Trump.
but
No friend of Israel should participate in this circus. Israel needs a pragmatic centrist government that can lead it out of this multifaceted crisis — and seize the offer of normalization with Saudi Arabia that Biden has been able to engineer. This can come about only by removing Netanyahu through a new election — as the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, bravely called for in March. Israel does not need a U.S.-sponsored booze party for its drunken driver.
What is notable about the column is that Mr. Friedman does not make a single mention of U. S. interest. What is the U. S. interest in supporting Israel? In supporting the Palestinians? I would say that our interests in either are quite narrow and somewhat abstract. Our interest are humanitarian. Mr. Friedman does, however, point out why we should not support Israel:
Unlike any previous Israeli cabinet, this government wrote the goal of annexing the West Bank into the coalition agreement, so it is no surprise that it spent its first year trying to crush the ability of the Israeli Supreme Court to put any check on its powers. Bibi also ceded control over the police and key authorities in the Defense Ministry to Jewish supremacists in his coalition to enable them to deepen settlers’ control over the West Bank. They immediately proceeded to add settlement housing units in the heart of that occupied territory by record numbers to try to block any Palestinian state there.
He does not similarly point out why we should not support the Palestinians but it’s pretty simple. They are violent radical Islamists. Not only do they support Hamas but the more violent and radical a faction is, the greater is their support for it.
As I’ve pointed out before American supporters of either group are thinking about imaginary Israelis or imaginary Palestinians. Neither the real Israelis nor the real Palestinians are particularly appealing to us.
Netanyahu has courted the American right wing for decades. He has deliberately engaged in partisan efforts to help the GOP stay in office. He is much more blatant in these efforts than any other nominal ally I can think of. Unfortunately the American right is easy to manipulate. I dont think we should let him enter the US.
Steve
“As I’ve pointed out before American supporters of either group are thinking about imaginary Israelis or imaginary Palestinians. Neither the real Israelis nor the real Palestinians are particularly appealing to us.”
Of course not. A pox on both. But that’s not a rationale for withholding funds from Israel, or asking them to play nicey-nice until Iran can fund the next attack. Either you are at war, or you are not. As long as Iran knows we are not serious they will play Biden for the fool he is.
And, separately, the lefts full throated support of the Palestinians, who lie prostrate against Hamas is immoral beyond all belief.
Where was the campus Left in 2002 when America was carpet bombing goat herder in Afghanistan because of a terror act committed by Saudis? Do they think children didn’t die?
The anti- Israel noise is a symptom of Misplaced socialist sympathies and sophistication of their organizations in Americas institutions today.
The protesters are largely non students and probably the very same people who instigated the Floyd riots.