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SvennoJ on 22 July 2024
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‘Last Zionist president’: Israelis weigh withdrawal of Biden from election race

Israelis are scrambling to understand what US Vice President Kamala Harris’s potential replacement of Joe Biden as the Democrat’s presidential candidate means for Israel, the AP news agency reports.

Israel’s Haaretz daily newspaper published a story scrutinising Harris’s record of support for Israel, which has deviated slightly from Biden in going further in criticising Israel for the number of civilian casualties resulting from its war on Gaza, and call for a ceasefire.

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York, said: “With Biden leaving, Israel has lost perhaps the last Zionist president.”

“A new Democratic candidate will upend the dynamic,” Pinkas said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who has increasingly butted heads with the US administration over Israel’s war on Gaza – has yet to comment publicly on Biden’s withdrawal.

‘Enabler of genocide’: Biden was not a ‘great’ president, says Cornel West

West, one of the US’s pre-eminent philosophers and justice activists, said Joe Biden was “not a great or excellent president”.

“He was first and foremost an enabler of genocide in Gaza, with over 15,000 Palestinian children murdered,” West wrote on social media.

“The same cold-hearted rich donors” who supported Biden and the “Democratic Party’s militaristic agenda” will now shift their attention to “sister [Kamala] Harris or someone else with the same policies that neglect poor and working people,” he said.




Israel will be strong US ally regardless who is president: Netanyahu

Israel’s Army Radio reports that Netanyahu met families of the Israeli captives at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, who will accompany him to Washington, DC.

Speaking to reporters before his departure, he said Israel will be the US’s strongest ally in the Middle East regardless of who is elected president in November.

He added that he will thank Biden for all he has done for Israel and that they will discuss releasing the captives and defeating Hamas in Gaza.

Translation: Prime Minister Netanyahu meets the families of the abductees who will join him on his visit to the US.

Netanyahu is already changing his tune. Israel will now be US's strongest ally again, instead of the other way around.



Netanyahu says US visit comes as Israel fights ‘on seven fronts’

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has shared some of Netanyahu’s comments on X. Here’s what he has said:

  • I am making a very important visit at a time when we are fighting on seven fronts and there is great political uncertainty in Washington.
  • I will address both houses of the US Congress for the fourth time as prime minister of Israel and emphasise the importance of bipartisan support for Israel.
  • I will discuss with Biden cooperation in releasing the captives, achieving victory over Hamas and repelling the aggression of the Iranian axis.
  • In times of war and political uncertainty, it is very important for our enemies to know that America and Israel stand together today, tomorrow and forever.

Your wars have definitely impacted Bidens's re-election chances / part of the reason he's dropping out. We'll see how willing Biden still is to do your bidding. Biden has shown his frustration with Netanyahu before.



Antiwar, pro-Palestinian activists to protest Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, DC

Activists opposing Israel’s war on Gaza plan to protest in Washington, DC on Wednesday to coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US capital, the Reuters news agency reports.

Police expect a “large number of demonstrators” and are taking additional security measures, but said there were no known threats against the Israeli leader’s visit.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of the US Congress this week and is expected to meet President Joe Biden.

Reuters said a coalition of groups plan to participate in the protests, among them ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), women-led peace and human rights group CodePink, Palestinian groups such as the Palestinian American Community Center and US Jewish groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace.


Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally near the White House in Washington, DC, on June 8, 2024 to protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza