(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Biden and Israel: "You Cannot Serve Two Masters" [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-01-14 The following quote is a translation from Matthew, 6:24 St. James Bible, and attributed to Jesus Christ from his “Sermon on the Mount” speech: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon (money).” If I may update the quote and apply it to the present and Biden’s (and in fairness it’s also the long existing U.S. policy) towards Israel and by extension, to the Palestinians, Hamas and the Middle East: “No one can claim to be progressive and serve two sharply opposing political systems, you will be compelled to choose which side you are on. You cannot serve both the powerful economic elite and those which they brutally rule over.” At this stage, one can debate who is historically more to blame for the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians (and not get anywhere!), but not who is presently the powerful military elite that presently rules and presides over the situation. And that are the governments of America and Israel. . President Biden is in the undesirable position, one that also lacks credibility even to many of his own White House staff, of trying to oppose fascism in his own country while objectively supporting it in another (Israel). Much of Israel’s military capacity and economy that stays afloat has been built on the 3 billion dollars average “aid” America sends it going back to the 60s. There can be little doubt that Netanyahu’s government has morphed into a fascist beast. He has estimated to have, since October 7th, slaughtered as many as 23,000 mostly innocent Palestinians, 40% at least being women and children under 18. Just recently he began banning public demonstrations against him and arresting prominent critics, as a public example. Including a very well know former school teacher Meir Baruchin. For daring to publicly acknowledge on Facebook the carnage being committed in Gaza. Baruchin’s Facebook post from October 8th of this year is worth quoting from: “Horrific images are pouring in from Gaza. Entire families were wiped out. I don’t usually upload pictures like this, but look what we do in revenge,” said a message on 8 October, below a picture of the family of Abu Daqqa, killed in one of the first airstrikes on Gaza. “Anyone who thinks this is justified because of what happened yesterday, should unfriend themselves. I ask everyone else to do everything possible to stop this madness. Stop it now. Not later, Now!!!” International perspective from the Guardian: “Joe Biden alienated global (and much American) opinion by rashly pledging unconditional support to Israel after the Hamas atrocities and vetoing UN ceasefire plans. His Middle East policy looks outdated and out of touch. The US, never popular in the Arab world, was tolerated as a necessary evil. No longer. Non-Arab Iran is in the driving seat now. Israel, too, has suffered a strategic wake-up call since 7 October, although its more extremist politicians still don’t get it. Gaza’s horrors have permanently changed, for the worse, how the country is viewed – witness the unprecedented genocide allegations levied in The Hague. The Saudi ambassador to London, Khalid bin Bandar, told the BBC last week the Jewish state must no longer be treated as a special case.” Biden’s Vietnam? Infamous Vietnam War photo of a U.S. village napalming. Many across the world and the U.S. are expressing similar views. Biden has treated the situation as any American President treats a power/domination issue that threatens our overseas economic (oil in this case) and political interests, by supporting the problem with more military force, regardless of the cost in lives and any sense of humanity or decency. The Vietnamese were also treated in the same way for daring to refuse to be under the U.S. thumb, which was enacted via their tyrannical puppet government in South Vietnam, propped up by as many as 500,000 of our troops. Killing an estimated 2 million Vietnamese before they vanquished us. Using every conceivable weapon of mass destruction save nuclear ones. Biden has walked into a political Catch 22, backing or appearing to be backing an out of control Netanyahu who is trying to slaughter his way into holding onto power after his 14 year cynical and insane policy of supporting Hamas collapsed in Gaza. Anyone in their right mind should have known this would happen. Throwing Away the November Election? Thousands demonstrate for a cease fire in Washington. We now face the possibility of another major, wider and uncontrollable war. Almost as bad, if that’s possible, Biden is risking creating a huge opening for the fascist Republicans to reverse their fate in November. Instead of thousands of Americans coming out to support and demonstrate for democracy, Washington was filled with thousands of Americans opposing his Middle East policy after he foolishly and publicly, in my view, offered Netanyahu unconditional support with no real leverage to curtail his depravities. Iran, a Fascist State Itself, is Buoyed by Netanyahu’s Brutality B. Netanyahu America’s rivals in the world have realized both the weaknesses and brutality of Israeli policy and see an opening to press their interests. A virtual Pandora’s Box has been opened. Israel has just done what Iran via their proxies in Hamas had calculated they would do. Just like the tremendous carnage the U.S. unleashed on Vietnam, Netanyahu is doing to Gaza, and with our financial support. Netty had backed Hamas knowing they would never support a two state solution and thought he had locked them away forever in an Orwellian managed Gaza enclave. Such is the downfall of tyrants. Biden must find a way to extricate himself from this rapidly evolving disaster before he suffers the same fate as Netty. And if Biden falls, so does America and fascism will prevail. Supporting Israel is Not Supporting Netanyahu Entire civilian areas are being bombed in Gaza, not military targets. There are growing indications that Netanyahu’s unprecedented brutality and genocidal policies are committed not to defending Israeli lives but to save his own butt by slaughtering thousands of innocent Palestinians. It’ having disastrous results. He seemingly has abandoned the Israeli hostages to their fate as well as losing the war with Hamas. He only has himself and his extremists in government and the IDF to blame, having deliberately backed Hamas to weaken the PLO. In the process he weakened Israel’s security and position in the world. To My Critics . . . I’m sure there are some who will read this article and maintain that we must remain silent and support Biden uncritically so as not to risk a fascist takeover in our own country. I strongly disagree with such an analysis and maintain that Biden mainting the current course has lead to much worse developments. There are also those who maintain that Biden is doing his best to curb Netanyahu’s massive bombing campaign, now in its hundredth day. I can’t of course know what’s actually on his mind, but the one tool he has, threatening to halt military aid, has not been mentioned, at least publicly. Even a temporary one. A “Pearl Harbor” Level Recruitment Tool for Hamas Netanyahu has given Hamas a Pearl Harbor level recruitment tool. Finally, there are many who will point to Hamas’ inhuman atrocities committed on October 7th as justification for Netanyahu’s inhuman revenge atrocities. The question tends to answer itself. The only thing that Netanyahu’s response demonstrated was that it was worse than Hamas’. And made Israel’s position in the region and across the rest of the world more endangered. And it serves as a “Pearl Harbor” level recruitment tool for Hamas. The U.S. has largely financed Israel selfishly to maintain her as a de-facto military base in the region in our quest to dominate the Middle East’s oil reserves. Oil control once represented power in the world and helped drive our economy. Now it stands to be our civilization’s destruction. 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