The frustrating IsraelGaza war: Don’t expect Biden to solve the insoluble
The Israel-Gaza war passed the 170-day mark this weekend with no end in sight. No Israeli or Gazan is unaffected by the death, destruction and trauma sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and ensuing war. Mass demonstrations in Israel occur weekly in opposition to widely reviled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. American Jews reel from a tsunami of antisemitism. Tensions among Democrats remain over U.S. policy. “Frustration” — evident in the Biden administration’s rhetoric and public polling — might best describe Americans’ attitude toward the war.
President Biden’s personal frustration is increasingly reflected in his critical comments about Israel’s failure to provide adequate humanitarian aid to Gazans and to plan for a postwar Gaza. In a rare move, the United States sponsored a U.N. Security Council resolution (which Russia and China later vetoed) that “strongly condemns restrictions preventing aid from entering Gaza, any attempt to ‘reduce’ its territory, and attacks against civilians as violations of international law, and warns against a military offensive in Rafah,” as The Post described it. It also called “for an immediate ceasefire with no stated time limit,” a demand that provoked U.S. vetoes on three earlier resolutions.
Veteran Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross recently told Politico that Biden’s frustration stems from “concerns about where the war in Gaza is going, what’s the nature of the Israeli objective, the lack of effective delivery of humanitarian assistance, the lack of a clear plan for how to deal with what comes next in Gaza.” Moreover, Ross maintains, Biden resists Netanyahu’s objective of “total victory” as unrealistic.
Frustration — if not revulsion — captures American Jews’ reaction to four-times-indicted former president Donald Trump’s revolting declaration that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion” and that they “hate everything about Israel.” His antisemitic effort to impugn millions of Democratic-voting Jews’ faith provoked a firestorm of criticism from
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) (whose recent brave speech argued for new Israeli elections), the media and Jewish leaders.
Unlike Israeli hard-liners and MAGA Republicans, Democrats arguing for a tougher U.S. line with Netanyahu understand that to “be pro-Israel also means being pro-Palestinian,” as progressive rabbis John Rosove (my rabbi for many years) and Elliott Tepperman counseled in Haaretz. Since “the fates of these two peoples — who share a land and a history, and neither of whom is leaving — are inextricably linked,” they cautioned that “providing Palestinians with stability, security and self-determination while promoting reforms in governance and education will also serve to benefit Israel’s security in the future.” Many Americans agree the situation is complex.
A recent Pew Research Center poll reflects Americans’ remarkably nuanced views. Fifty-seven percent sympathize “at least to some extent with both Israelis and Palestinians, including 26% who say their sympathies lie equally with both groups.” Thirty-one percent “say their sympathies lie either entirely or mostly with the Israeli people.” Only 16 percent say this of the Palestinians.
Only 22 percent say Hamas has valid reasons for fighting Israel, and just 5 percent say “the way Hamas carried out its Oct. 7 attack on Israel was acceptable, while 66 percent describe it as completely unacceptable.”
Nevertheless, while 58 percent say Israel has valid reasons for fighting Hamas, only 38 percent say its “conduct of the war has been acceptable”; 34 percent find it unacceptable.
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Pew also found:
47% of the U.S. public says Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack was neither acceptable (in its means) nor valid (in its ends). Just 3% of Americans say both that the way Hamas carried out its Oct. 7 attack was acceptable and that Hamas has valid reasons for fighting Israel …
35% of the U.S. public says both that Israel has valid reasons for fighting Hamas and that the way Israel is carrying out the war is acceptable. At the other end of the spectrum, 13% of respondents indicate that neither Israel’s methods nor its reasons are acceptable to them.
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Age is the most significant factor in determining views. American adults under age 30 are more critical of how Israel is fighting (21 percent acceptable, 46 percent unacceptable). Young Americans also sympathize more with the Palestinians (33 percent) than Israelis (14 percent), while “the balance of opinion is reversed among older age groups.”
However, young people do not sympathize with Hamas. “Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents under 30, the Israeli government (16%) and Hamas (18%) are held in equally low esteem.” (Incidentally, Americans under 30 follow the war less closely than older Americans.)
On Biden’s performance, 21 percent say he has struck the right balance on the war, 22 percent say he favors Israel too much and 16 percent say he favors the Palestinians too much. A 40 percent plurality is uncertain. However, 36 percent under the age of 30 say Biden favors Israel too much, up from 27 percent a few months ago.
Meanwhile, “American Jews stand out for the relatively high share who say Biden is striking the right balance (45%).”
Despite some loud left-wing voices, 89 percent of American Jews agree with Israel’s reason for fighting, 62 percent how it is being fought.
No wonder Israel has lost support, especially among younger Americans. Netanyahu launched the war with diffuse bombing that killed thousands of innocents and then failed to ameliorate Gazans’ suffering. The Israeli government includes racist ministers who use inflammatory rhetoric (resulting in international accusations of genocide) and refuse to offer a viable postwar plan for Gaza.
With few options, Biden is left to ratchet up pressure on Israel (e.g., the harsher U.N. resolution), work to alleviate Gazans’ suffering and underscore that Israel needs a government receptive to a long-range solution for the Palestinians.
As evidenced by Netanyahu’s delay of the Rafah operation, Biden’s efforts do impact Israel (where, as Ross says, the public recognizes “Biden is a president who has really gone to great pains to be supportive of Israel”). At least Americans can take solace that the Netanyahu government’s days are numbered and its right-wingers who presided over the tragedy are highly unlikely to be a part of whatever government follows, according to polls.
America simply cannot solve all conflicts. No truce is on the horizon.
Neither Israel nor Palestinian demands for self-determination will vanish. Therefore, all we can reasonably expect from Biden’s team is strenuous action to prevent wider suffering and preserve the possibility, one day, of two states for two peoples.