Biden can end the bombing of Gaza right now. Here's how Mehdi Hasan

[elleng]

'Picture the scene. An Israeli prime minister launches airstrikes on an Arab population. Civilians are killed in their thousands. An American president, stunned and shocked by the scenes of carnage on his TV screen, makes a call to his Israeli counterpart. And … within minutes … the bombing is over.

Sound crazy? Or maybe simplistic? Perhaps naive, even?

My son asks me what will be left when we return to Gaza. The answer? Only rubble and memories

Yet, the year was 1982. . .

On 12 August, in what would later be dubbed “Black Thursday”, Israeli jets bombed Beirut for 11 consecutive hours, killing more than 100 people. That same day, a horrified Ronald Reagan placed a phone call to Menachem Begin, then Israeli prime minister, to “express his outrage” and condemn the “needless destruction and bloodshed”.

“Menachem, this is a holocaust,” Reagan told Begin. . .

Twenty minutes. That’s all the time it took for Begin to call back and tell the president he had ordered Sharon to stop the bombing. It was over. “I didn’t know I had that kind of power,” a surprised Reagan told an aide, upon putting down the phone.

Flash forward 42 years and the Israeli assault on Gaza has now gone on for twice as long as the siege of Beirut.'>>>

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/21/biden-stop-gaza-bombing-genocide-israel

[Raven123]

1. I'm skeptical Netanyahu and Begin see things the same way

[maxsolomon]

2. He just says Biden could do it with an ultimatum phone call.

Last edited Thu Feb 22, 2024, 09:10 PM - Edit history (1)

...we know Biden has the power to stop Netanyahu from killing Palestinians en masse in Gaza because … he has done it before. In May 2021, Israel bombed the strip for 11 straight days, killing more than 100 Palestinians, including 66 children. Over that same period, Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups in Gaza fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israel, killing 14 civilians. Then as now, Netanyahu rejected calls for a ceasefire – from Hamas, as well as from France, Egypt and Jordan.

But guess who he couldn’t reject? Yes, the president of the United States. “We need to accomplish more,” pleaded Netanyahu when Biden called him on 19 May, according to the journalist Franklin Foer. The president’s response? “Hey, man, we are out of runway here. It’s over.”

Two days later, a ceasefire was announced. And, less than a month later, the Israeli prime minister had been ejected from office.

So why then, but not now? Perhaps because Biden, like millions of Americans and others around the world, was understandably horrified by the terror endured by Israelis on 7 October. But where is his horror over the ongoing terror in Gaza?

I don't think it's that simple this time. October 2023 is not May 2021.

Is Hassan sure that the call hasn't already been made in some form, rejected by Netanyahu, and that the Biden Admin is unwilling to burn 75-year-old bridges with an ultimatum? Is "domestic politics" not supposed to factor into his decisions?

[dutch777]

4. Hard to know the complete past conversations but short of withholding $$$ and diplomatic support, what is US leverage?

I am talking today. Bibi is up against the FAR right wingers who are key to holding his teetering government together. And even with them, if Israel has not gotten all the hostages back and they step down from a war footing, he knows his political career is over. Like Putin, Trump, Un, Orban, Erdogan, Johnson, Bolsonaro, etc., I hope Bibi fades to black sooner than later.

[maxsolomon]

16. Well, that's what Hassan is saying. US leverage is our weaponry.

It's just not as easy as a phone call this time.

[The Magistrate]

3. The Man Deploys A 'Get Out Of Context Free' Card, Ma'am

The siege of Beirut was culmination of several months of open, largely conventional warfare involving the Syrian army. The end was not a simple phone call and end to bombing, but negotiations which eventuated in the departure of several thousand PLO fighters, with their arms, to other places in the Near East and North Africa that August. The result was hardly peace, among much else which followed, the US embassy in Beirut was bombed to great effect the following April.

I'm curious what Mr. Mehdi's source for this is, there's a lot of tall tales emerged from the Reagan administration.

[Demsrule86]

5. It is not 1982...Biden would not be listened to.

People who believe Biden has such power are wrong.

[Cha]

7. Exactly.. they're

Pipe dreaming and want to blame Pres Biden for Everything.

Like the fucking mayor of Dearborn who has stated they surveyed 4 years of TSF once they’ll do it again. Paraphrasing slightly.

[SocialDemocrat61]

6. Hasan has always hated Biden

Now he’s pushing a lie to attack. He’s not someone who should be trusted.

[onecaliberal]

8. NO HE CAN'T. Netanyahu is the President of Israel, not Biden.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. Prime minister, not president.

[TheKentuckian]

9. Seeing that Hasan isn't stupid and seems sane so I'm left to chalk him as evil

[OilemFirchen]

10. Mehdi Hasan giving Reagan a reacharound in The Guardian.

What's not to like?

[David__77]

12. He could certainly give a public try.

[betsuni]

13. See, everything's easy! Why don't Democrats stop the bad things when it's this simple? Why can't they be

more like Republicans!

Whatever.

[All Mixed Up]

14. And what happens if Biden does just that and Netanyahu shrugs?

Which he almost certainly will?

Biden now looks weak. Sure, Biden can hit back and say the US will pull funding (isn't that technically happening anyway since no aid is getting through the House currently that goes to Israel?). And then what? If they continue ... declare war on Israel? Threaten to bomb 'em if they don't stop? I mean, let's be serious.

[NickB79]

15. In 1982, Israel was HEAVILY dependent upon the US for arms and funding

Today?

Israel is a net EXPORTER of weapons, and world-class weapons at that. Losing US financial and military aid wouldn't be a substantial obstacle to their war with Hamas, despite some people insisting it would.

The simple fact of the matter is that Israel learned from that interaction with Reagan to become far more independent from even their allies.

[GhostHunter22]

17. We supplied Israel with well over $2 Billion in aid in 2023 and Joe requested another 14.3 Billion since Oct. 7th.

Would be interesting to see Israel stand on its own two feet without US financial and military backing.

My guess is that they wouldn’t last six months - and if they did, it would be because they would have had to become a MUCH nicer neighbor in their neck of the woods.

Pretty easy to dominate the region with us having their financial and political back - not so much without it.

[NickB79]

18. Israel spends $25 billion annually on military spending

$2 billion isn't insubstantial, but it also isn't nearly as substantial as people want to believe.

And your assumption could go the opposite way: without US backing, the Arab nations could attempt to exploit this weakness to wipe Israel out again, like the did in 1948, 1967 and 1973. Only this time, Israel has over 100 nuclear weapons, and a policy to use them if Israel is pushed to defeat. Because your assumption that they have to "play nice" doesn't do jack when they are up against nations that want to wipe them out entirely. To Hamas and Hezbollah, Jews simply existing is an offense.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option