Biden our time

The Shift is a weekly politics newsletter from Michael Arria taking you to the front lines in the battle over Palestine in the United States. Got a tip? Send them to michael@mondoweiss.net.

Sign up for The Shift and other Mondoweiss newsletters here.

Joementum

After Bernie Sanders became the Democratic frontrunner, we all knew that the party’s established order would have to act. Biden won South Carolina (a state he was always expected to prevail in), then Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out and endorsed. Beto O’Rourke even came to bat for Joe, much to the chagrin of his former bandmate. As far as centrist coups go, it was extremely effective.

Biden cleaned up on Super Tuesday in part because of the media’s “Comeback Kid” narrative. According to polling from 538, Biden won 40% of voters who decided on a candidate shortly before they went to the polls. People were consistently told “Sanders can’t beat Trump” and there’s reason to believe that narrative stuck. Voters ended up going with a safe centrist who appeals to moderates and thinks he can actually win over some Republicans. Someone in the mold of a Walter Mondale or a Michael Dukakis or an Al Gore or a John Kerry or a Hillary Clinton. What could possibly go wrong?

Bernie Sanders’ politics are basically that of a New Deal liberal, but our political system has moved so far to the right over the last 40 or so years that he’s now perceived as a radical. His movement is an existential threat to the people who have run the party for decades. There’s a similar dynamic going on in relation to his views on Israel/Palestine. The Senator says Palestinians deserve respect, Gaza needs relief, Netanyahu is a dangerous bigot, and military aid to countries should maybe be conditioned on their human rights records. This is all commonsense stuff and in line with the mainstream of Democratic voters. However, compared to most of his rabidly pro-Israel colleagues, he might as well be on a different planet. Even a slight reconsideration of how we run our foreign policy is a major problem for the military–industrial complex.

We’ve covered Sanders a lot over the course of the Democratic campaign because we think his ascent says something about attitudes towards Israel/Palestine slowly changing in this country. In fact, that wider shift inspired the name of this very newsletter. We’ve probably hit Biden less in recent months because his position is standard two-state solution rhetoric from 20 years ago, briefly warmed up for our current age. However, now that the former vice president has the delegate lead, it’s probably worth briefly rehashing his record:

He’s a self-described Zionist. He’s said that unfettered Democratic support of Israel “comes from our gut, moves through our heart, and ends up in our head. It’s almost genetic.” When Israel was contemplating whether or not to bomb an Iranian nuclear facility in 2008 he said that it “is not a question for us to tell the Israelis what they can and cannot do, I have faith in the democracy of Israel. They will arrive at the right decision that they view as being in their own interests.” Biden was VP during the 2014 war in Gaza and he assured Netanyahu that they were “still buddies” while the violence escalated.

Biden’s major issue with Israel’s current trajectory seems to be one of brand management. It’s been a busy week, so you might have missed the video remarks that he sent to AIPAC’s policy conference. He spent most of his speech lamenting that Israel is becoming a partisan issue, as opposed to a cause embraced strongly by Democrats and Republicans. He’s also concerned that more settlements and annexation means less Israel support from young people:

And Israel I think has to stop the threats of annexation and settlement activity, like the recent announcement to build thousands of settlements..that’s going to choke off any hope for peace. And to be frank, those moves are taking Israel further from its democratic values, undermining support for Israel in the United States, especially among young people of both political parties. That’s dangerous! That’s dangerous! We can’t let that happen! We can’t let Israel become another issue that divides Republicans and Democrats in the major parties. We can’t let anything undermine the partnership that has grown and flourished from the moment of Israel’s founding.

We expect to be covering Biden’s future comments on this issue a lot in the coming weeks but, if he becomes the nominee and eventually the president, it’s hard to believe U.S. policy in the region would change that drastically.

More Anti-BDS Bills

Oklahoma’s GOP-controlled House passed an anti-boycott bill that is line with others implemented throughout the country. It will now make its way to the state’s Senate. Here’s Republican Rep. Mark McBride on the proposed law: “The Bible is clear that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed.”

This week House Dems blocked a federal anti-BDS bill that would have taken aim at organizations, like the United Nations Human Rights Council and the European Union, that compile lists of companies which profit off the occupation. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY). “BDS tries to delegitimize Israel by turning it into a pariah state, cut off from all trade, tourism, military, diplomatic, and cultural ties with the rest of the world,” he declared on the House floor.

Did Israel Make a Difference in Texas?

On Tuesday, Trump’s favorite Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar, barely escaped a progressive challenge from a 26-year-old attorney Jessica Cisneros in Texas’ 28th district. The pro-gun, anti-choice Cuellar was pushed over the finish line by the Koch Network and Nancy Pelosi, who showed up in Texas to campaign for the incumbent. Sanders and AOC endorsed Cisneros, but neither ended up campaigning for her. Pro-Israel organizations are trying to spin this as a big win for their cause, even though the conflict wasn’t an issue during the race.

Democratic Majority For Israel CEO Mark Mellman said this kind of stuff proves that “being pro-Israel is good politics and being anti-Israel is bad politics.” Pro Israel America executive director Jeff Mendelsohn said he thinks “it sends a signal that the pro-Israel community is strong and that we will defend the best of our abilities those who have been supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship in Congress.”

I guess after the AIPAC conference debacle, this crew is taking anything they can get.

Odds and Ends

? Two volleyball players from Brooklyn College kneeled during Israel’s national anthem. The action came before a match against Yeshiva University. The two athletes, Hunnan Butt and Omar Rezika, were immediately tagged as antisemites by right-wing websites and pro-Israel groups. Dave Zirin has nice little piece about the whole thing at The Nation. “Now, the two athletes are not making any comment, perhaps fearful that being put on ‘jihad watch’ by one website (seriously) could affect their lives,” Zirin writes, “This is not Israel. If Yeshiva wants to play the anthem, that is their business. To expect athletes to stand with their hand over their hearts only demonstrates just how many inroads Trump’s brigade of Christian soldiers (who think we are going to hell come the rapture) along with their pro-Occupation allies have made in challenging basic freedoms of speech. Many rushed to Colin Kaepernick’s side in solidarity when he took the knee. We should do the same for Hunnan and Omar.”

? This probably seems like a moot point now, but Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar ended up sending video remarks to the AIPAC conference. You may recall that the two former presidential candidates received some praise from progressives after initially deciding to decline the lobbying group’s invitation. “We are disappointed by Amy Klobuchar’s and Pete Buttigieg’s decisions to cave to AIPAC’s pressure, but also unsurprised, given that their campaigns have been distinguished by a stated desire to be seen as progressive alongside a demonstrated refusal to stand up to the corrupt establishment,” said IfNotNow co-founder Dani Moscovitch in a statement, “The last-minute nature of the announcements—and the lowering of AIPAC’s own standards to accept pre-recorded videos from the candidates—gives a glimpse into AIPAC’s frantic scramble to save face.”

?? 131 filmmakers are boycotting the Israeli Film Festival in solidarity with LGBTQ Palestinians. The move is a result of pressure from Queer Cinema for Palestine, which was organized by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. “In Korea I constantly learn of these pinkwashing issues, so I have tried my best to engage in the BDS movement,” the  South Korean documentary filmmaker Minji Ma said in a statement, “Israel is burying its head in the sand, so I couldn’t just wait and see,” Minji added. “I signed the pledge in order to deliver the message that I am strongly opposed to pinkwashing. I send Palestinians solidarity with all my heart.”