Democratic views on how President Joe Biden is handling the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians have rebounded slightly, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The shift occurred during a time in which Biden and top U.S. officials expressed increased concern about civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, emphasized the need for a future independent Palestinian state and helped secure the release of hostages held by Hamas during a temporary truce.
Fifty-nine percent of Democrats approve of Biden’s approach to the conflict, a tick up from 50% in November. His latest standing is roughly equivalent to Democrats’ 57% approval rating for him on the issue in an August poll, conducted well before the latest war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel.
Still, the issue remains divisive among Democrats, who are less enthusiastic about Biden’s handling of the war than his overall job performance. Seventy-five percent of Democrats said Biden is doing well as president, also up slightly from 69% last month. His approval rating among U.S. adults stands at 41%.
Over 30 years as chairman of the Foreign Relations committee and 8 years as VP and you know what his thinking was or if it changed?
Yes, quite easily. He was fully on Netanyahu’s side, now he is steadily moving away from him. From this I can conclude that he has decided that supporting Netanyahu is no longer a good idea.
My reasonings why are more supposition, as opposed to any kind of confirmable fact. I cannot read the man’s mind, of course. But, some things are more likely than others.
It’s not exactly a secret that Biden dislikes Netanyahu and has for a long time. He didn’t receive the customary invitation to the white house after his latest election win, which tells you something.
I think Biden decided to be fully on Israel’s side after the attack, and to give Netenyahu the benefit of the doubt, hoping he’d rise to the challenge and become a true statesman. Weirder things have happened. Perhaps that was naive, clearly that’s not in Netenyahu’s nature. Likely it was a decision made in part due to domestic political considerations, but here we are.
Does now make it easier for Biden to criticise Netenyahu and push for moderation. No one can accuse him of not supporting Israel, although I assume the GOP will try to do exactly that if they haven’t already.
Foreign Relations is like chess. You have to think several moves ahead. He could have seemed to be with Bibi until he could setup negotiations with Hamas. He had to get space to pressure Qatar to work on his behalf. He knows exactly who Bibi is and what he responds to. That is a much more likely scenario than “we changed his mind”.
Domestic politics is as major a consideration as geopolitics. Perhaps even moreso, as how much can you do if you’re not in office?
And we don’t need any additional routes towards negotiations with HAMAS. If the Qataris didn’t want to do it, we’d ask Erdogan.
