Biden Can’t Fight Climate Change and China at the Same Time
There won’t be a call this Friday. We’re off for the Thanksgiving break. Join us on the following week, Friday, December 3, when our guest will be Representative Mark Pocan, who will talk about the visit he and Representative Jamaal Bowman recently took to the village of Susia and other parts of Israel-Palestine that members of Congress rarely see.
In the holiday spirit, we’re also abbreviating today’s newsletter.
Last Thursday, I published a New York Times column entitled, “Biden Thinks He Can Have It Both Ways on China. He’s Wrong.” My argument is that the Biden foreign policy team keeps acting like it can treat Beijing as an adversary while also maximizing cooperation with it against climate change and global pandemics. I don’t think that’s true. In many different ways, America’s geopolitical standoff with China sabotages efforts to protect Americans against the threats that endanger us most. What frustrates me is the fatalism—if not enthusiasm—for a second cold war in Washington in the face of mounting evidence that humanity’s survival requires unprecedented cooperation between the world’s two most powerful countries.
To grasp how much ground we’ve lost, it’s worth remembering that a mere five years ago, US officials not only worked on influenza monitoring inside China’s Center for Disease for Control in Beijing, but the US and Chinese governments also jointly funded an influenza monitoring surveillance system in Africa. They did so despite China’s abominable human rights record and despite disputes over Taiwan and the South China Sea. They did so because Barack Obama (and even George W. Bush before him) understood how crucial public health cooperation was. Donald Trump, with some help from Xi Jinping, sabotaged those efforts, along with the US-China relationship more generally. And now Joe Biden’s key advisors declare that “the period that was broadly described as engagement has come to an end.” That’s not a necessity; it’s a choice, and a terrible one for Americans and the world.
Last Thursday for The Foundation for Middle East Peace, I interviewed Hasan Hammami, a survivor of the 1948 Nakba from Jaffa, and Nida and Dina El-Muti, the daughter and granddaughter of Fatima Radwan, a survivor of the April 1948 massacre in the village of Deir Yassin. The day before the interview, I was appalled to learn that Koren Publishers, which publishes the prayer book and the edition of the Talmud I use every day, has just published a book that claims the Deir Yassin slaughter never happened. I wish I could make everyone at Koren—and everyone who uses their religious texts—listen to Hasan, Nida and Dina. Their stories of terror, dislocation, intergenerational trauma, resilience and hope, reminded me again and again of the families of Holocaust survivors I have known. I doubt many people could listen to them and not grasp the profound injustice that was committed against their families—and continues to be committed—not only by Israel’s denial of the Nakba, but also by its perpetuation of it via the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in place like Sheikh Jarrah. Please listen to Hasan, Nida and Dina’s stories, and encourage others to as well.
Other stuff:
In Jewish Currents, Mari Cohen talks to Julia Bacha, the director of the new documentary “Boycott,” which is about Americans punished by their state governments because they won’t pledge not to boycott Israel.
In the New York Times, Patrick Kingsley tells the story of what happens when a professor in the Gaza Strip teaches the poetry of the late Israeli writer, Yehuda Amichai.
On Sunday, a member of Hamas murdered an Israeli tour guide near the Western Wall and was then killed by Israeli police.
See you next week,
Peter
Re the Beltway's escalation of "China is a threat" - they have to justify our astronomical and ever-increasing defense budget one way or another.
The time for engagement with China has come to an end because China has exploited American engagement to their own benefit and is an untrustworthy actor.
If climate change is an existential threat to the world and equally to the US and China, and it is, then the US shouldn't have to do anything to encourage China to engage: it should be able to do so on its own merits. America shouldn't just give up its legitimate concerns with China and how it operates in the world system because of climate change.
And Palestine should have come to the table and agreed on a two state solution long ago. They had the opportunity in 1947 and blew it. They shouldn't be able to get everything they want NOW after rejecting the diplomatic efforts of the past. That's not how negotiations work.