President Biden told a Democratic lawmaker and members of his Cabinet after the State of the Union address that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they will need to have a “come…
President Biden told a Democratic lawmaker and members of his Cabinet after the State of the Union address that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they will need to have a “come-to-Jesus meeting.”
Biden’s comments, captured on a hot mic as he spoke with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) on the floor of the House chamber, came after Bennet congratulated the commander in chief on his speech and pressed him to keep pressure on Netanyahu over increasing humanitarian issues in Gaza.
When he was campaigning, he was in an interview about Turkey, and he said more or less if Erdoğan gets out of line we might have to get rid of him. Then he realized what he said wasn't a "say out loud" type of statement, and tried to walk it back by saying well, I don't mean with a coup or anything, just, you know, we'll have to see what we can do. Which only made it 10 times worse. The US press didn't really notice but it was a shit storm in the central-Asian press for like 6 months.
But the thing is, every US president has thoughts and plans like that. I'm not saying it or the neoliberal empire are good things. I'm just saying that Biden has those thoughts and then sometimes actually says them out loud which I actually prefer over the "I'm so self-aware that every statement is preanalyzed and often kind of indirect" Washington standard.
Biden has those thoughts and then sometimes actually says them out loud which I actually prefer over the "I'm so self-aware that every statement is preanalyzed and often kind of indirect" Washington standard.
Which is something that MAGAs say they like about Trump, but they're always trying to cover for his most outrageous nonsense by saying "no, that's not what he meant." And in actuality, what he really does is say what he thinks will get the most applause at the time; and sometimes he overshoots.
Whereas with this, it's like...reasonable stuff that has been caught slipping out of Biden's mouth, just reasonable stuff that most politicians won't say.
Though I have to say, I really wish some reasonable stuff about a cease-fire and stopping arms shipments would've slipped out a few months ago.
To your last point, compare and contrast with Obama, whose speech patterns were chock-full of long pauses where you could just tell he was doing higher-order political math on the next phrase. To an extent that's because that's what Obama had to do or else the Hannities and Carlsons of the world would find some minute quibble they could build out into an elaborate conspiracy with which to fan the right-wing outrage machines for another week... but for all the other problems I have with the man I do appreciate the no-fucks-given mindset Biden's brought to the job. The right wing media hate machine has become fully decoupled from reality at this point; there's no reason to soft-shoe around things that might set them off anymore.
I mean, look at what they're doing in Pakistan right now. They didn't like Khan so they've put him in prison, and when his party still won the election despite this, they tried to steal the election (and the state department still hasn't said anything about this).
The irony is funny, but that is a common idiom in english speaking countries. Biden isn't literally going to speak to Netanyahu about converting to Christianity as if he's some sort of political missionary.
I believe it is American specifically, I haven't even heard it in Canada. But it is a very secular saying - it has a religious background but is used in irreligious contexts all the time.
Have you ever avoided saying "It'll be a slam dunk" in front of us Bostinians because you're afraid we'll interpret that as you assuming we're all fond of Dunkin Donuts and that's a generalization?
I have no doubt he wants to finally explain to Bibi how weak he is domestically and picking a fight with Biden by meddling in US domestic politics can be a two way street. I don't, however, believe Biden actually wants to stop the genocide. The point is, Bibi is very vulnerable to someone actually hitting his weak points for once and a vote of no confidence on the war cabinet is very possible.
If Biden had any sense, he would've already been going after Likud this whole time. Instead he's been allowing himself to be dragged around by his ear while Bibi openly supports him getting replaced by Trump.
You've received several responses but the meaningful "come to Jesus" story actually relates to Saul (Paul, who is responsible for much of Christianity) on the road to Damascus.
Paul was persecuting primitive Christians and while he was traveling to Damascus to arrest them, he was temporarily blinded by divine intervention that led to his conversion and stopped him from continuing to persecute people. The dramatic intervention disabused him of the errant beliefs that caused him to injure people, in other words.
That's what the comparison is talking about. It's a metaphor that relates to needing a dramatic and often violent wakeup call to snap someone out of doing something wrong. From a Christian perspective you can see how Paul being shaken up enough to change his name, religion, profession, etc was a real "come to Jesus" moment.
That's the key context I think you're asking about. It's not really about converting to Christianity. It's more about having a BIG wakeup call that you're on the wrong path (literally in Paul's case) and you need to change your ways because you're hurting people (or you'll stay blinded if you're Paul I guess).
With Hamas being very clear about wanting to commit genocide, the choice is this conflict is not genocide vs. no genocide. The choice is about which side is given more opportunity to commit genocide. Horrific that is the choice, but it's not like disarming the Israelis would result in fewer human deaths in that region.
Hamas does not have anything like the resources to actually enact a genocide and they never will. Regardless of this, the people of Palestine do not deserve to be executed en masse for Hamas' crimes.
When you colonize a region and then try to say it's an US vs Them situation like you both should be allowed, it makes your argument a lot less valid. It's not like these 2 peoples just woke up in a cage together. It's a colony. One group forced themselves into the area.
This isn't to say to genocide the Jews or something like your fucked up brain imagines is the only solution. But it does mean that the state of Israel doesn't get to just stop here and keep all its genocidal spoils. It's going to have to give up and lose some of its land and absolute power over these people. It has to stop treating palastinians like subhumans. It has to give up control over some things. As long as it's unwilling to do so, it will continue creating people who hate it to the point of utter annihilation, and it will be the state of Israels fault for treating people that way.
Biden doesn't want to stop it, he wants to reduce the noise. And to achieve that his best option is to use indirect and direct support to knock Bibi out of control of the knesset. It's something that should've been done since the inauguration. The idea that he was going to somehow get the support of Bibi in any capacity was idiotic.
Edit: I'm genuinely curious what makes this so controversial of a take. That I'm arguing for realpolitik interventionism or that I'm criticizing biden?
He does a lot of talking. He also structures arms deals so that they don't meet the minimum requirement for oversight from Congress in order to supply arms to a country engaged in an obvious genocide. I guess he's a pretty good multitasker!
Let me guess: If Biden does actually reverse several generations' worth of mass-murder-enabling Israel policy, and brings about a positive change to the absolute worst thing that the US does and has been doing for the last 50 years, it'll suddenly be something else that you're incredibly upset at him about which is your reason you can't possibly support him.
No? Maybe not. How do you feel about his actions in regard to climate change?
Lemme guess, Biden could go over to Netty’s for a little Palestinian-Baby bbq, and you’d still support Biden?
It’s fair to criticize Biden for supporting and enabling genocide. It’s also fair to point out that. Biden has been a senator for most of those fifty years.
It’s also fair to point out that corporate subsidies aren’t going to solve climate change or bring resiliency to what change is now unavoidable.
It’s also fair to recognize that Trump is an even greater asshole.
But it’s not fair to point to Trump and say it’s unfair to criticize the sitting president for their actions.
Well the fact that he allowed record oil extraction under his watch says that he doesn't take it as seriously as he should.
I don't support Biden for a lot of reasons. One of which being I'm Canadian. Trump is worse than Biden. Does that allow me to pass your purity test? Do you have anything at all of substance to add to my comment or just fucking argumentative bullshit?
I was legitimately thrilled with the Inflation Reduction Act. That was huge. But I can't turn a blind eye on the travesty that is the Gaza genocide. It's not just a continuation of US foreign policy. But maybe our foreign policy wouldn't be so awful if people like you didn't just shrug.
It really looks like he's about to start taking concrete actions, you're perfectly correct in criticizing how long this took but in the past few days he's started the floating harbor plan and is probably going to come down hard on Netanyahu. Skepticism is fair, but everything is currently moving in the right direction.
He's not doing anything though. The air drops are literally useless (some of the meals were even expired), and the port is gonna take two months, which is too late to save anyone unless aid arrives by truck. If he really wants to do anything he could just force Netanyahu to allow in aid.
Yeah but he was caught in this totally unscripted “hot mic” event looking like he’s going to do something. Thats all he needs to do for the sycophants to swoon over him.
Fuck the 30,000 dead, its Dark Brandon time baby. He’s totally gonna one day do something to stop what he is already doing for Israel!