Opinion

Trump talks Middle East policy, while Biden and Harris avoid it, stick to coronavirus

Kamala Harris campaigned at two cities in Florida Monday and didn’t mention foreign policy at either event (per online transcription), even as her husband and other Biden proxies are reaching out to Jewish voters there to say that Biden loves Israel. And Democratic Party Israel lobby groups work overtime to affirm the same message.

Joe Biden’s own stump speech is empty of foreign policy. No Mexico, China, Russia, Afghanistan or the Middle East. The only foreign country I found in two recent speeches (North Carolina and Detroit) is Iraq. And Biden brings up Iraq to show what a hawk he is.

“[Trump] looks at Americans who put their lives on the line, like my son put the lives on the line to save our nation, calls them losers and suckers. My son Beau spent a year in Iraq, won the bronze star of the conspicuous service medal. He was no sucker.
And the people he left behind were heroes.

Bernie Sanders ran against the endless wars and for a more balanced U.S. role in Israel and Palestine. But Biden-Harris are avoiding this issue. They are showing message discipline and keeping the focus on Trump’s terrible handling of the pandemic, and systemic racism, too.

Biden and Harris evidently regard Trump’s foreign policy as a strength for his campaign. Biden congratulated Trump for the normalization deals he cut between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain. You can see why Biden avoids the topic: One of Biden’s biggest donors fulsomely praises the Trump administration for the deals, and Biden’s point man on Israel is over the moon for the deals.

Trump believes his foreign policy is a great political asset. He is angry that the last debate isn’t about foreign policy (race, climate change, national security, and leadership).

Trump leads off his foreign policy remarks in speeches with Israel. He brags that he’s done more to bring peace than Biden has done in 47 years. “Instead of these endless wars, we’re forging peace in the Middle East and peace without blood all over the sand.”

Trump is also pushing for more Arab normalization deals before November 3. He wants the Sudan to normalize with Israel, and maybe Saudi Arabia too.

Trump seems to think that these deals will help him with evangelical voters and with Jewish voters in Florida.

Biden appears to agree with him.

It surely makes perfect political sense for Biden to be avoiding these issues when he can talk about coronavirus pandemic and racial injustice; but it’s noteworthy that Biden won’t touch on Iran policy. Trump brags about breaking the Iran deal, and ratcheting up cruel sanctions, but Biden doesn’t campaign on his promise to return to the deal, even though some Israel lobby groups have his back. No, Biden treats Iran as an enemy and praises Trump’s assassination of Qasem Soleimani.

Biden is the foreign policy “elite”‘s hope for restoring traditional policy, but that traditional policy is frightening, says Andrew Bacevich at Responsible Statecraft:

Nothing if not a creature of the establishment, Biden himself will conform to its requirements. For proof, look no further than his vote in favor of invading Iraq in 2003…. Count on a Biden administration, therefore, to perpetuate the entire obsolete retinue of standard practices…

Biden will increase the Pentagon budget, keep U.S. troops in the Middle East, and get tough with China. The United States will remain the world’s number-one arms merchant, accelerate efforts to militarize outer space, and continue the ongoing modernization of the entire U.S. nuclear strike force. Biden will stack his team with CFR [Council on Foreign Relations] notables looking for jobs on the “inside.”

Above all, Biden will recite with practiced sincerity the mantras of American exceptionalism as a summons to exercise global leadership… policies, we should note, that paved the way for Donald Trump to win the White House…

Bacevich points to an essay Biden published in Foreign Affairs last spring, titled, “Why America Must Lead Again” that justifies interventionism. Biden wrote:

“The triumph of democracy and liberalism over fascism and autocracy created the free world. But this contest does not just define our past. It will define our future, as well.”

H/t Adam Horowitz, Michael Arria, James North.

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Thanks for this clear review of the situation. The people who gave their lives, in good faith, are heros, as Biden says. It’s also possible that simultaneously, they were suckered by unscrupulous people, who took advantage of their good faith and trust, as Trump says. Trump drew shudders from the establishment and applause from the bleachers when he openly said Jeb’s brother “LIED” Americans into the Iraq war. Trumps actions on behalf of Israel are enormous, and go unremarked in the corporate press, as do most things Israel, under the radar, behind the scenes. We see this in the case of the “Christian Zionists”, who make up a lot of Israel’s support in the US. The problem with being a “Christian Zionist” is that first you are a Zionist, then you are a Christian. Zion is your top priority. Could you be a “Zionist Christian”, be a Christian first? If you are a Christian, you cannot support Zionist actions, ethnic cleansing, with mass slaughters and mass robberies. Christians were converted to Zionism largely by the Scofield Study Bible. This is a standard Bible with study notes added. The study notes carry the Zionist message, which puts Zion as the top priority. It is claimed that Zion is God’s top priority, and it should be supported unconditionally. Even if it’s doing something that seems insane, we should trust it’s God’s will. And how do we know it’s God’s will? Because of certain statements in the Bible. But those statements are open to interpretation. And it was Jesus’ mission to make corrections in the Judaic worldview. The story of the good Samaratin is an example. Here the Judaic leaders avoided helping a wounded man. But the Samaratin (who was not Judaic) helped the wounded man. And that was the right example to follow, according to Jesus, and not the Judaic leadership’s example. A half hour documentary on the Trojan horse Scofield “Study” Bible is “Christian Zionism: The Tragedy & The Turning”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv-CdTC-StQ

Important!!

https://ca.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2771EU

“Iran Summons Swiss Envoy Over U.S. Election Claim”

“Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran because Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic ties”
Reuters. Oct. 22, 2020.

“Iran summoned the Swiss envoy on Thursday to protest against what it called ‘baseless’ U.S. claims that Tehran has tried to interfere with the 2020 presidential election in November.

“Iran’s strong rejection of American officials’ repetitive, baseless and false claims was conveyed to the Swiss ambassador… ‘As we have said before, it makes no difference for Iran who wins the U.S. election,’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told state TV.
Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran because Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic ties.

“U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday that Russia and Iran have both tried to interfere with the presidential election taking place on Nov. 3

“Tensions have risen between longtime foes Tehran and Washington since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal and stepped up sanctions on Tehran.”