The Israeli war cabinet of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has been on something of a bender lately, with seemingly no limit on how many fronts they are willing to open up militarily.
The First Step Is Admitting You Are a Problem
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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I’ve always thought the various -Aholic groups should have -Enablers. “Hi, my name is Joe Biden, and I’m an Attack-Aholic-Enabler.”
Look at Biden’s options. No matter what he does, he’s going to lose a segment of the democratic base that he needs every vote from come November. A big part of the problem? Barack Obama discussed it in his memoirs: AIPAC will go after anyone who they think isn’t sufficiently pro-Israel. Biden (and by Biden I mean the people leading him around by the hand) is trapped. If he gives Bibi a genuine hard-line, no-malarkey ultimatum, AIPAC will ensure as many democrats as possible lose in November. (Let’s all imagine Trump’s next four years with majorities in the House and Senate.) Biden doesn’t have any options here. Well, no good ones at least. It’s a problem many enablers experience. When you bail your drunk husband/wife/brother/sister/friend out of jail five times, the sixth time really isn’t a credible point upon which to draw a line in the sand. That was five drunk arrests earlier.
It’s not about Bibi. Let’s not make him the scapegoat. Polls show that the vast majority of Israelis support his aggressive posture, although not his corruption. If he were replaced, it would undoubtedly be with someone just as hostile to the Palestinians as he. That’s the underlying dilemma: How could a gang of violent home invaders make peace with those whose they have invaded and brutalized, and not agree to leave the house as part of the deal?
The Israelis won’t stop doing what they’ve been doing since October 8, 2023 (killing, maiming, and detaining many Palestinians, etc.) unless the Palestinians agree to stop doing what they’ve been doing since October 7, 2023 (holding hostages, building attack tunnels, etc.). But the Palestinians won’t stop doing what they’ve been doing unless the Israelis stop doing what they’ve been doing since prior to October 7, 2023 (siege of Palestine, seizing land, etc.). And so on; this cycle goes back more than seventy-five years.
There’s no resurrecting the too-many dead, but there is a way to give peace and security to the survivors. The only way out is a peace treaty along the lines of a two-state solution. If we can get some solid steps there then we can hope that the fighting, hostage-taking, siege, and prior injustices, can be unwound.
So, Mr. Rall–have you just been busy doing other things and not had time to moderate my reply to Lee, which was, at least in my view, friendly and factual? Or do you have a problem with it? Please let me know by fbk messenger what’s going on, and if you’re not going to publish it, would you be so kind as to send me a copy of it? I worked hard on writing it and didn’t think it might simply vanish, so I neglected to copy it. Thank you!