Sure, Joe Biden easily won last night's debate against the hapless Sarah Palin. But his comments on American policy toward Israel rubbed me, and hopefully others, the wrong way:
"Gwen, no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden."
Does that mean then that Joe Biden is an enemy of the Palestinians? Israel's continual expansion of settlements in U.N. designated Palestinian territory is hardly a reason, as Sarah Palin put it, "to love israel". Or to blindly support its right wing government with billions of dollars in military aid.
Biden went on to say:
"[The President] insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, 'Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them.' What happened? Hamas won.
"When we kicked -- along with France, we
kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO
forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you
don't, Hezbollah will control it.'
"Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel. ...
"And speaking of freedom being on the march, the only thing on the march is Iran. It's closer to a bomb. Its proxies now have a major stake in Lebanon, as well as in the Gaza Strip with Hamas.
"We will change this policy with thoughtful, real, live diplomacy that understands that you must back Israel in letting them negotiate, support their negotiation, and stand with them... ."
Stand with Israel on what? Its persecution of the Palestinian people? Its contravention of numerous U.N. resolutions?
Too bad Ralph Nader wasn't allowed to debate. He certainly would have objected to the Biden-Palin Israel love fest.
Fortunately, Amy Goodman provided Nader's vice-presidential candidate. Matt Gonzales, a chance to respond. Here's what he said:
"Well, I think, you know, both of these
candidates pay lip service to the notion that we need a two-state
solution. They don’t tell you any specifics around that. Do they
support 1967 borders, for instance? Joe Biden did not repudiate Barack
Obama’s earlier remark about Jerusalem belonging to Israel.
"And I think their sort of over-the-top repeating of how much
they love Israel—I think, in that, they lose an opportunity to support
peace ... joined by many Jews, both in
this country and in Israel, that want to see an end to the violence in
the region, that don’t believe ... the way Palestinians are
being treated is fair.
As Nader reminds us,
"The Israeli people want peace. The Palestinian people want peace. ...
"[But] both Democrats and Republicans reflexively support the militarists in Israel."
Hey, what about "clean coal and safe nuclear"? You're darn right that's a coupla oxymorons! You betcha!
(At least Biden can pronounce nuke-ya-ler correctly.)
The Dems have never been tough on Israel or friends of Palestine. But they used to pretend to care about the environment.
(On a light note, do you think Palin's face was hurting after forcing that smile for 90 minutes?)
Posted by: Steve R. | October 03, 2008 at 04:36 PM
I was impressed by Joe's description of Dick Cheney as a dangerous man as well as his concise statement proving that the founders clearly intended that the vice president is a member of the executive branch and not the legislative branch of the federal government. Sarah Palin, as usual, evaded the question entirely and used her doggon, wink, wink, prerogative to spout repetitive generalities under the fiction of "talking directly" to the, aw shucks, common people like her.
Posted by: howard | October 05, 2008 at 12:39 PM