General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We may be in trouble [View all]karynnj
(59,511 posts)Biden's response has consistently been that he is horrified by both the death of thousands of Palestinians and the innocent Israelis who died on October 7. He had a considerable part of his national security team working on every possible ceasefire plan. In recent days, including the SOTU, he expressed disagreement with Netanyahu.
Even before this, Biden has been more candid in support of a Palestinian state and against illegal settlements than any previous President. On the other hand, Trump and Pompeo changed US policy to say we don't have an opinion on whether any settlements are illegal.
I agree that this puts him in a bad position politically and I do think that he should have at leased abstained on the ceasefire resolution. However, one thing they know that I don't is whether doing so would make Netanyahu double down, making it harder to get aid in and actually speeding up the bombing. Consider that the UN resolution alone would not stop the fighting. It would make Israel feel persecuted and a victim especially, as they would note, they didn't start this.
Politically, consider how quickly the problem on the left would become a bigger problem in the center by being seen as abandoning Israel.