The Left can be relied upon to lose its nerve when it comes to supporting Israel’s right to self-defense, and the Post seems to want that.
A late Wednesday dispatch in the Washington Post chronicled with breathless anticipation the “pressure” on left-wing lawmakers to force Israel to back away from its commitment to its own self-defense — pressure that is being transposed onto the Biden administration. “The shifting dynamic could create political and diplomatic complications for Biden,” read the paper’s scene-setting ahead of the president’s emergency sojourn to Israel and several Sunni Arab countries as regional tensions escalate.
It sounds like the White House is in a real political bind. The “growing number of Democrats” who are pushing Israel to accept the continued existence of the genocidal horde of barbarians on its borders sound like they punch above their weight. The “outside groups” leveraging their influence over Biden to convince him to muscle Israel out of its reluctant resolve to neutralize Hamas sound downright irresistible. So, who are they?
On Monday, five House Democrats — Reps. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Cori Bush (Mo.), André Carson (Ind.), Summer L. Lee (Pa.) and Delia C. Ramirez (Ill.) — introduced a resolution urging the administration to “call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine, to send humanitarian aid and assistance to Gaza, and to save as many lives as possible.”
Eight other progressive Democrats, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.), quickly signed on.
The menace posed by the usual moral reprobates was reportedly augmented when Representative Omar “retweeted a cartoon” circulating in Europe depicting Joe Biden as acquiescent to Benjamin Netanyahu’s desire to commit “any war crime of its choice.” Persuasive stuff.
The Post adds that 55 out of the 212 House Democrats — roughly a quarter of the caucus — signed their names to a rote request that Biden emphasize in his talks with Israel the need to “take all due measures to limit harm to innocent civilians,” while conspicuously avoiding demands for a ceasefire. Contrary to common but nonetheless odious propagandistic attacks on the Israeli government, Israel goes to great lengths to avoid unnecessary collateral casualties — in marked contrast with their foes, who target civilians both directly and indiscriminately.
Moreover, the Post notes that even the reliably tractable “pro-peace advocacy organization” J Street has steeled itself for war. It has circulated a resolution calling on its allies in Congress to support Israel’s mission — a statement to which “only 13 House Democrats have not signed.”
All told, this is the evidence in support of the notion that Democratic support for Israel has begun “cracking.” And while the fissures can and almost surely will widen when the Jewish state embarks on its just and necessary war of regime change in the Gaza Strip, the “pressure” on the White House right now is eminently resistible. The Left can be relied upon to lose its nerve when it comes to supporting Israel’s right to self-defense, but it is hard to avoid the impression that the Post hoped to hasten that outcome.