Jonathan S. Tobin
JNS, Feb. 28, 2024
“With Biden promising to treat any pause in combat as an excuse to work for a permanent ceasefire, the main outcome of the next hostage deal (and there inevitably will be another) will be not so much an egregious act of extortion as a political victory for Hamas that will solidify its hold on Gaza and its place as the preeminent voice of the Palestinian people.”
A late-night comedy show isn’t the place you generally go for insights on the prospects for stability in the Middle East. But the appearance this week of President Joe Biden on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” gave us more than just another example of the broadcast network’s daily in-kind contributions to the Democrats and Biden’s re-election campaign.
The fawning interview served up softballs to the 81-year-old president, intending to undermine concerns about his age and declining abilities. It also served as an opportunity for him to tell us just what the United States stands for in international affairs. The fuzzy rhetoric of the president about being a “Zionist” notwithstanding, his statements about what he wants to happen in the Middle East showed that he was primarily interested in currying favor with his party’s intersectional left wing that despises Zionism and that is well-represented in Hollywood. Working to ensure that Islamist terrorists no longer pose a threat to Israelis or Americans wasn’t high on his “To Do” list.
That was evident in his comments about the imperative for a ceasefire in the current war against Hamas as part of a deal to free Israeli hostages, for Israel to halt its campaign to eradicate the last strongholds of Hamas in Gaza and to pause the fighting before the start of Ramadan. It was also inherent in his insistence that the Palestinians should be rewarded for the Oct. 7 massacres with a diplomatic process that will lead to statehood that they don’t want, but which they can use to continue their genocidal campaign to destroy the one Jewish state on the planet. … [To read the full article, click here.]