So says Phil Weiss, founder of Mondoweiss.
I don't totally agree.
I do agree that all duopoly party US presidents feel some degree of beholden-ness to the Israel lobby. Weiss has the receipts, like Biden's receipts with Saim Haban.
But, I don't think it's entirely that.
One can have an emotional attachment like this as well as a political need.
Obama staffers called out Genocide Joe early this year for having too much of an attachment. That piece notes that Biden called himself a Zionist after Oct. 7. I don't recall other presidents of either major party doing that at the time of an Israel-Palestine fracas. This piece notes that when Biden was Dear Leader's Veep, they disagreed about whether or not to "hug" Israel. It's true that disagreement on that could be primarily if not purely political, whether domestically, in foreign policy, or both. But, if not purely political, it could still have an emotional sidebar.
What I think is partially at play, speaking of emotions, is a sidebar on Biden's Irish Alzheimer's. He is determined to show Obama himself, and certainly Obama staffers, that he is right.
What I also think is in play?
Whether Biden watched "Exodus" about three too many times (or read Leon Uris' book that many too many times) or what, I don't know. But, no, I think he's really into this. That's not mutually exclusive to the political angle, of course, or the grinding against Team Obama But, that political angle was developed when Biden was hobnobbing with the likes of John Lewis on Black civil rights, and many African-Americans have moved bast that era today, too. If this were purely about politics, one would think Biden has a greater degree of nimbleness than Mondoweiss' take implies.
Take environmentalism. While his first-term actions have been pretty weak tea by my point of view, they're far more than Biden would have entertained 10 years ago, let alone 20. Ditto on things like his administration's stance on antitrust issues.
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