I like Jon Chait's analysis of what Biden is doing with regards to Israel and what it means for American politics. As I mentioned yesterday, the fractured nature of our civic life has tended to pit people against each other, taking maximalist positions often tied to identity politics. It isn't just a policy position people hold, but something intrinsic to who they are as a person.
What Biden is doing feels largely correct, given that we only see the public facing parts of the policy. The public embrace of Israel and condemnation of Hamas was right. What I believe - reading between the lines - is Biden's subsequent efforts to rein in the most extreme responses from Israel are largely not working, but we can't know what the IDF would be doing if Biden had not first embraced them.
What's more, Palestinian civilian casualties are a goal of Hamas. That's why they attacked Israel on October 7th; that's why they place military targets in hospitals and refugee camps. Doing that - human shields - is a war crime, but it's not nearly as dramatic a war crime as when Israel hits those targets without considering the cost in civilian lives.
I would hope that if the IDF doesn't start getting its shit together and stop hitting refugee camps that Biden can use his early embrace to then more forcefully condemn Netanyahu's pogrom against Palestinians.
Finally, Chait is right that the idea that Muslim Americans would look at Biden's embrace of Israel and conclude that they should vote for...Donald Trump is just baffling.
UPDATE: Martin Longman does a good job of pointing out how everything is just awful and there are no good options for Biden or really anyone. The reality is that this is a perfect storm for critics. They have no responsibility for proposing a plausible solution, the existing situation is terrible and everyone is pissed at everyone.
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