Joe Biden’s abandonment of Israel is a cynical attempt to secure votes on election day
As if the rest of his surprise press conference Thursday weren’t disastrous enough, President Biden went back to the podium near the end to throw Israel under the bus.
Ironically, given that he was there to insist his memory was just fine, it seemed he’d been meaning to slam Israel all along, but had almost forgotten.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top,” he announced.
And: “I’m pushing very hard now to deal with this hostage cease-fire. There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it’s gotta stop.”
Why did he decide this was the moment to slam Israel’s justified and humane counterattack against Hamas?
Probably because what was most on his mind was the issues that could lose him the election: Not just his mental acuity, but the obsessive fear that supporting Israel too hard will alienate Arab-American voters in Michigan.
Sadly, it may well: Islamist extremism and Jew-hatred have a worrying foothold there. (Just look at the views espoused by Michigan’s own lefty loon Rep. Rashida Tlaib.)
Being obsessed with the election may also explain why he then suffered his most obvious memory-fail of the night, bragging about he’d gotten Mexico’s president to allow relief supplies into Gaza, since his opening of the Mexican border is his other big headache.
Whatever his thinking, the gratuitous Israel-bash means his defense of our greatest regional ally, currently locked in a struggle with genocidal, Jew-hating terrorists openly committed to its destruction and the murder of its citizens lasted all of three months.
And it wasn’t even much of a defense to begin with: He’d already been pushing the lie that the IDF is bombing indiscriminately; he’s been trying to hem in Israel’s efforts to defend itself almost since the atrocities of Oct. 7.
And that’s to say nothing of his continued appeasement of Iran, which played a role in sparking off those atrocities, as well as the recent attack that killed three American soldiers.
Coming days (and, we guess the polling in Michigan) will tell how fully the president means to turn against Israel.
But navigating thorny and potentially explosive geopolitical conflicts by the light of domestic political expediency is morally odious — and vastly more risky than staying true to a powerful friend in the area.
Then again, at this point being “morally odious” may be the only area where Biden is still competent.
