Biden’s Flaccid Policy toward Bibi Netanyahu
In a recent long, thoughtful, and highly informed article, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof laid out the sad story of how Biden has been too trusting of and naive with respect to Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. In his news and opinion program last evening, Chris Hayes documented Netanyahu’s record, which contained all Biden needed to know to have adopted a much firmer policy. The latest reports indicate that Biden has become more hard-headed about Bibi. A great deal of death and suffering has occurred because he wasn’t hard-headed from the outset. This lamentable fact does not, of course, provide the slightest justification for voting for Trump in this fall’s election. Biden is fallible, but, unlike Trump, he is not a dangerous narcissistic sociopath.
After writing the above, I read Washington Post columnist Max Boot’s column this morning crediting Biden’s “bear hug” with persuading Bibi to execute only “pin prick” retaliation to Iran’s assault last weekend. This thankfully militates toward Iran-Israel de-escalation, but the Gaza humanitarian horror continues.