Idealism Is Destroying The Palestinian Cause
If Leftists Don't Face Reality, The Chance Of Palestine Losing Forever Is Real
For weeks now, pro-Palestinian protests have been popping up around the country, at Holiday events, at airports, train stations, and even at the site of the worst terrorist attack in modern history. The protests, supporters say, are aimed at keeping the ongoing war in Gaza in the minds of normal people to get them outraged by what they call a “genocide,” enough to force the United States to cut Israel off, or, according to some, invade the Jewish state and initiate regime change or eliminate the country.
As any veteran of the Iraq War protests of 2002-2003, like me, can tell you, having big crowds show up to your protest is not indicative of popular support for your cause. The turnout for the pro-Palestine protests has paled in comparison to what we saw against Vietnam or Iraq, or even in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Calls to rein in Israel and stop the “genocide,” represent a faction of the American electorate, but it’s not a large one, and polls still show Americans side with Israel in this conflict, even if young voters and leftists do not.
Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped the Left from arguing that Gaza will be Biden’s Waterloo. Americans, they think, are so angry about what’s happening in Gaza, that they will stay home next year, vote third party, or even for Trump, who has promised to support Israel and encourage an even more brutal response to October 7th. This take assumes the American public already sides with them, something leftists do constantly and get blindsided when it turns out they were wrong. It’s a delusional cope to help the movement turn a blind eye to the ugly reality they don’t want to accept.
This is the reality: Israel is not going anywhere. It is a nuclear power and economic power with powerful allies and strong support among the population in the West, especially the United States. Even Arab countries want to find some way to secure peace with them. Saudi Arabia, the Arab motherland, was close to normalizing relations with Israel before October 7th, and by all accounts, still wants to find a way to do it.
Any chance of Israel being destroyed died more than four decades ago when its former Arab enemies began recognizing the country after losing three wars. The only possible route to peace is a two-state solution and one that will probably not be anything that the Palestinians truly want. Even that’s a tall order. The consecutive defeats to Israel have weakened the Palestinian’s leverage to get a better deal. They will never get anything close to the Camp David plan of 2000, let alone the restoration of the entire territory to Palestinian control. It would even be next to impossible to disband the settlements in the West Bank that proliferated under Trump; another consequence of the Susan Sarandon strategy of allowing him to become president in 2016 in hopes of sparking a socialist revolution.
Any chance of Israel being destroyed died more than four decades ago when its former Arab enemies began recognizing the country after losing three wars.
Further, unless Biden does a 180, little to no hope exists of electing a President in 2024 who will turn the screws on Israel. There is zero chance of that happening in the foreseeable future. If there ever was, it died on October 7th. If leftists got their heads out of their asses long enough to think strategically and thoroughly about the situation, they would realize the only hope Palestinians have is a shift in politics within Israel, the collapse of the current Netanyahu regime, and the rise of a more moderate government in Jerusalem that seeks to restart peace negotiations. The only way that happens is if powerful Western leaders, with the American President the biggest among them, are popular enough within Israel to affect internal Israeli politics. In offering unconditional support to Israel since October 7th – that “bear hug of Bibi” the Left hates so much – Biden has won good graces among the public in Israel and become the first Democrat since Bill Clinton to be popular there. That could parlay into having significant influence over the Israeli electorate. Barack Obama never had it and, indeed, his existence was antagonistic – he opposed settlement expansion in the West Bank – and Netanyahu leveraged that to gain and hold power. With Netanyahu’s political career on the ropes because of Israeli anger toward his dropping the ball on October 7th, now is the time to strike. Only Biden, with the support of like-minded leaders in the UK, Germany, and other Western countries, can possibly affect any political change in Israel in a direction that favors Palestinians.
If Trump, who is also quite popular in Israel, were to win, he would simply prop up Netanyahu indefinitely and, in hopes of winning Jewish votes and support, allow him to annex and settle Gaza and the West Bank, leaving Palestinians stateless. We know he would do this because he already has. While president, he supported Israel annexing Golan Heights. Trump will also use his business influences to bribe Arab states with money and weapons to put down any domestic uprisings and eventually tacitly support Israel’s existence. Currently, the most prominent Muslim country supporting Palestinians is Iran, a Shia nation funding the Houthis in Yemen, the extremist gang firing on ships in the Red Sea, and who are fighting against the Sunni Yemeni government, backed by Sunni Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. Trump would leverage the internal Shia-Sunni Islamic strife with Arabs on one side and anti-Israel Iranians and their proxies on the other to push Arab countries to turn a blind eye to further ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and if you know your history, Arab powers never cared for them anyway. They *especially* do not want an Iranian proxy state (Hamas-controlled Palestine) bordering Egypt and Jordan. The only hope for Palestine is Hamas’ destruction and Biden’s reelection.
Trump would also seek revenge on Palestinian-Americans, perhaps even deporting many of them back to a warzone where they will be forced to flee for somewhere else. Why? His racist base would demand it. If Trump wins, the fight is over. If Biden wins, perhaps it will live another day.
Many of you have asked how things could get worse if Biden doesn’t win. I laid it out for you. I wish it was better news. To quote a line from a recent historical television series: I do not bring comfort, I cannot, but I bring the truth, as one of us should.1.
The line is from Becoming Elizabeth, a recent TV series about the early life of Queen Elizabeth I. It is said to Elizabeth by her half-sister Mary Tudor, played by Romala Gorai, after she explains to a crying Elizabeth, whose idealism was shattered when she sold out her suitor Edward Seymour to save herself, that she will have to learn to do things that go against her conscience to survive.
It’s not that I disagree with the general thesis that things would be far worse under Trump, but I’m confused as to how much power you think Biden has within domestic Israeli politics. He’s popular among those who dislike Netanyahu and unpopular among those who do. So was Obama, it’s just that there’s far less Netanyahu supporters now. American support for Israel has bought America influence with Israeli administrations, but the Israeli public isn’t out there voting for the candidate they feel most represents the wishes of the US president. Oslo was made possible because Israelis were interested in negotiating and elected Rabin to do so, not because Bill Clinton leveraged his popularity.