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from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/insight-am-zionist-joe-bidens-141102470.html

INSIGHT-'I am a Zionist': How Joe Biden's lifelong bond with Israel
shapes war policy
Matt Spetalnick and Jeff Mason and Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle
Sat, October 21, 2023 at 7:11 AM PDT·6 min read
By Matt Spetalnick, Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - When Joe Biden met with Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet during his visit to Israel, the
U.S. president assured them: "I don't believe you have to be a Jew to be
a Zionist, and I am a Zionist."

The politicians and generals gathered in the ballroom of the Tel Aviv
hotel nodded in approval, according to a U.S. official knowledgeable of
the closed-door remarks, even as Israel bombarded Gaza in retaliation
for a devastating attack by Palestinian Hamas militants and with a
ground invasion looming.

Biden, who is of Irish Catholic descent, has used similar words in the
past to profess his affinity for Israel. But the moment, which has not
been previously reported, illustrates how Biden's decades as one of the
leading "Friends of Israel" in American politics seem to be guiding him
during a defining crisis of his presidency.

It also underscores the challenges he faces balancing unwavering support
for Israel with persuading Netanyahu - with whom he has a long history -
to avoid worsening the civilian death toll and humanitarian meltdown in
Gaza as well as complicating further releases of American hostages.

"Biden's connection to Israel is deeply engrained in his political DNA,"
said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator who served six secretaries of state in both Democratic and Republican administrations. "Whether he likes it or not, he's in the midst of a crisis he'll have to manage."

Reuters interviewed a dozen current and former aides, lawmakers and
analysts, some of whom said Biden's current wartime embrace of Netanyahu
could afford the U.S. leverage to try to moderate Israel's response in Gaza.

In their private session with aides on Wednesday, the two leaders
displayed none of the tensions that have sometimes characterized their meetings, according to a second U.S. official familiar with the talks.

But Biden did pose hard questions to Netanyahu about the coming
offensive, including "have you thought through what comes the day after
and the day after that?" the official said. U.S. and regional sources
have expressed doubt that Israel, which vows to destroy Hamas, has yet
crafted an endgame.

Biden's alignment with the right-wing leader risks alienating some
progressives in his Democratic Party as he seeks re-election in 2024,
with a growing international outcry against Israel's tactics also
casting some blame on the U.S.

It also has prompted many Palestinians and others in the Arab world to
regard Biden as too biased in favor of Israel to act as an even-handed
peace broker.

FORGED OVER DECADES

Biden has partly credited his pro-Israel world view to his father, who
insisted following World War Two and the Nazi Holocaust there was no
doubt of the justness of establishing Israel as a Jewish homeland in 1948.

Biden's awareness of the persecution of Jews over the centuries and a
record high in the number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. last year
could also help explain why Hamas atrocities committed in the Oct. 7
attack on Israel were so disturbing for the 80-year-old president,
according to a former U.S. official.

Entering national politics in 1973, Biden spent the next five decades
forging his policy positions - iron-clad support for Israel's security
coupled with backing for steps toward Palestinian statehood - as he
served as U.S. senator, Barack Obama's vice president and finally president.

His career was marked by deep engagement with the Israeli-Arab conflict, including an oft-retold encounter with Prime Minister Golda Meir who
told the young lawmaker in 1973 on the cusp of the Yom Kippur War that
Israel's secret weapon was "we have no place else to go."

During his 36 years in the Senate, Biden was the chamber's biggest
recipient in history of donations from pro-Israeli groups, taking in
$4.2 million, according to the Open Secrets database.

As vice president, Biden often mediated the testy relationship between
Obama and Netanyahu.

Dennis Ross, a Middle East adviser during Obama's first term, recalled
Biden intervening to prevent retribution against Netanyahu for a
diplomatic snub during a 2010 visit. Obama, Ross said, had wanted to
come down hard over Israel's announcement of a major expansion of
housing for Jews in East Jerusalem, the mostly Arab half of the city
captured in the 1967 war.

"Whenever things were getting out of hand with Israel, Biden was the
bridge," said Ross, now at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy. "His commitment to Israel was that strong ... And it's the
instinct we're seeing now."

While Biden and Netanyahu profess to be longtime friends, their
relationship was frayed in recent months with the White House echoing
Israeli opponents of Netanyahu's plan to curb the powers of the Supreme
Court of Israel.

PROGRESSIVE DISSENT

The two now find themselves in an uneasy alliance that could be tested
by an Israeli ground offensive.

Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, in an interview with Reuters,
expressed confidence that the "arc of time" in Biden and Netanyahu's relationship would enable them to work together.

But in a veiled swipe, Graham, who spent years as Biden's Senate
colleague, said it was "imperative" he set "red lines" to keep Iran,
Hamas's benefactor, out of the conflict.

Biden has warned Iran not to get involved but has not spelled out
consequences.

Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took around 200 hostages, including Americans, when they rampaged through Israeli towns. Israel has since
put Gaza under siege. At least 4,385 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza officials said.

While Republicans have shown near-unanimity in endorsing whatever action
Israel takes, Biden faces dissent from a faction of progressives pushing
for Israeli restraint and a ceasefire.

"President Biden, not all America is with you on this one, and you need
to wake up and understand," Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only
Palestinian American in Congress, told supporters. "We are literally
watching people commit genocide."

But experts say Biden could gain ground among independent voters who
share his affinity for Israel.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday showed stronger U.S. public
sympathy for Israel than in the past, with support for Israel highest
among Republicans at 54%, compared to 37% of Democrats. Younger
Americans showed less support for Israel than older Americans.

Biden, facing low approval ratings, and some fellow Democrats are also
expected to be wary of running afoul of the main U.S. pro-Israel lobby,
AIPAC, a powerful force in U.S. elections.

But the crisis has also stirred criticism of Biden for not devoting
enough attention to the plight of Palestinians, whose hopes for
statehood have grown ever dimmer under Israeli occupation.

U.S. officials had said the time was not right to resume long-suspended Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, largely because of intransigence on
both sides.

"The administration's neglect of the issue is a key factor in where we
are today," Khaled Elgindy, a former Palestinian negotiations adviser, said.

Biden's "blank check" for Israel's assault on Gaza has "shattered,
perhaps irreversibly, what little credibility the U.S. had left," said
Elgindy, now at the Middle East Institute in Washington. (Reporting by
Matt Spetalnick, Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle;
Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Suzanne Goldenberg)

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