Joe Biden on Israel: “I think it’s about time we stop...apologizing for our support for Israel...It is the best $3 billion investment we make. Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.” i.e. mutual back-scratching between relentless U.S. empire-building and the Israeli expansionist agenda. Insisting that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism is as absurd as insisting that anti-Nazism is anti-German. Many Jews rightly condemn Zionism as a political movement which uses Judaism as a front. Now that the main Israeli information centre for human rights B'Tselem has confirmed Israel is an apartheid state, and the regime doesn't even try to deny it, there is no excuse for governments to oppose BDS on the absurd claim Israel is a 'democracy'. But, of course, the US supported apartheid South Africa and called Nelson Mandela a 'terrorist'. The worldwide BDS movement i.e. people power is the only realistic and effective weapon to force change because it focuses worldwide attention on the crimes of the regime which the pro-Israel media worldwide keeps hidden. https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid
I am thoroughly disappointed with Biden on Iran. I am not sure it's American exceptionalism which constrains Biden so much as domestic pressures to not cave on Iran (the Iran deal was not popular among all Democrats, and largely loathed by Republicans). Either way: the result is the same. America's word is tarnished, and our ability to advance policy which reduces nuclear proliferation is weakened.
You sure not only a most eloquent writer, Mr. Peter Beinart, you are savvy of the undercurrent subtilties that shape political reality
Joe Biden on Israel: “I think it’s about time we stop...apologizing for our support for Israel...It is the best $3 billion investment we make. Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.” i.e. mutual back-scratching between relentless U.S. empire-building and the Israeli expansionist agenda. Insisting that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism is as absurd as insisting that anti-Nazism is anti-German. Many Jews rightly condemn Zionism as a political movement which uses Judaism as a front. Now that the main Israeli information centre for human rights B'Tselem has confirmed Israel is an apartheid state, and the regime doesn't even try to deny it, there is no excuse for governments to oppose BDS on the absurd claim Israel is a 'democracy'. But, of course, the US supported apartheid South Africa and called Nelson Mandela a 'terrorist'. The worldwide BDS movement i.e. people power is the only realistic and effective weapon to force change because it focuses worldwide attention on the crimes of the regime which the pro-Israel media worldwide keeps hidden. https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid
I am thoroughly disappointed with Biden on Iran. I am not sure it's American exceptionalism which constrains Biden so much as domestic pressures to not cave on Iran (the Iran deal was not popular among all Democrats, and largely loathed by Republicans). Either way: the result is the same. America's word is tarnished, and our ability to advance policy which reduces nuclear proliferation is weakened.