Netanyahu has already defeated Biden. Will Kamala Harris be next?

By the manner in which he conducted the US-sponsored war on Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu effectively torpedoed the electoral hopes of Joe Biden. The Israeli PM now looks set to negate the presidential ambitions of Kamala Harris and prepare the way for the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

It is no great secret that by his unwavering support for and inability to reign in Netanyahu, Joe Biden’s political brand became bloodstained, toxic and repulsive to voters on account of his unrelenting sponsorship of Israel’s effort to obliterate Gaza from the face of the Earth.

With the deployment of its Strike Carrier Group 12 and other aircraft carriers to the region in support of Israel, the US administration’s support for the one-sided war on Palestine — despite faint threats by Biden in May to halt some arms supplies to Israel — has been the critical factor in perpetuating the war, given the steady supply of missiles, launchers and F-35 fighter jets, among other weapons of mass destruction.

Conservative estimates of US financial backing for the regime in Tel Aviv include at least S$3.8 billion this year and in 2023 as part of a $38 billion package underwritten by Barack Obama in 2016, while a further US$20 billion was approved in August for additional weapons sales to Israel.

Observers have noted that without such extensive backing, the war on Gaza would likely have ground to a halt within days, but with rising share prices of arms companies and increased orders for munitions, the war on Gaza has proven to be a boon and lucrative market for US arms manufacturers.

In terms of the US investment in this war, for comparison it is worth noting that the National Alliance to End Homelessness has estimated that the annual cost of providing housing to all homeless people — estimated in 2023 to be over 653,000 in the US — would be around $20 billion to $30 billion.

The unbridled support of the Biden administration for Netanyahu’s policy of extermination has been multi-faceted, including such extensive financial backing, intelligence cooperation, arms supplies, deployment of US military assets to the region and the Red Sea, as well as the provision of diplomatic cover at the UN Security Council, where it repeatedly blocked and derailed ceasefire resolutions, so too in the staging of endless and evidently farcical ceasefire negotiations that have played out alongside the daily massacres in the Gaza Strip, with Secretary Blinken in the lead role.

Biden also put his credibility on the line by claiming to have seen pictures of beheaded babies and by casting doubt on the rapidly rising death toll reported from inside the besieged enclave., while the administration has been using the same talking points about human shield and terror bases in hospitals, for which no evidence had yet been provided.

A bridge to nowhere

Biden’s belated attempt to counter growing public criticism of his obsequious policy by having a temporary pier built at the cost of $320 million along the Gazan shore, ostensibly to supply aid to the besieged population, also turned out to be a farce for the Israeli army instead used it to violate international law by launching a deadly assault on a nearby school, with soldiers disguised as aid workers.

Very little aid actually came in via the pier, as Israel effectively prevented it. The whole plan thus soon proved a colossal failure, a huge waste of time and money and had to be dismantled after falling apart. Aid agencies had repeatedly warned that it would have been far more efficient and cost-effective to simply put pressure on the US’ allies in Tel Aviv to allow humanitarian access through the crossing at Rafah and other points of entry, given the hundreds of trucks stranded for months on the Egyptian side of the border, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

A drop in the sea

While the US administration was pleading in public with Netanyahu to allow more aid in and accept a ceasefire deal, the man simply refused, leaving Biden with egg on his face and exposed to mounting criticism at home and abroad, to the extent that the US then attempted to restore its image as a force for good in the world by airlifting food aid and dropping it from the skies over Gaza, which resulted in further deaths, as some desperate and starving people drowned in trying to get to the food, while others were crushed when the “aid” packages landed on them.

Aid convoys and starving refugees were also repeatedly and unashamedly targeted by Israel, as in the case of the now infamous “flour massacre.”

Truth as a casualty

In their attempts to justify, legitimize and excuse the war crimes being committed in full view of the world against the people of Gaza with full US backing, increasingly the spokespersons at the State department appear unhinged, deceitful, evasive and complicit in the cover-up of these self-evident crimes against humanity by their allies in Tel Aviv to whom they keep deferring for answers, investigations and accountability. Not only do they appear disconnected from reality and at odds with their own laws, but by their failure to secure compliance from their allies in Tel Aviv, the US administration looks increasingly weak, irrational and dysfunctional.

Sleep-walking to the abyss

By mid-year, poll after poll confirmed that Biden was losing ground and was increasingly despised by large swathes of the electorate, particularly younger and progressive voters who labelled him “Genocide Joe”, so that it soon dawned on the party machine that he had become an electoral liability, that his was a lost cause, for besides his apparent incoherence and inability to enforce his policy, or at times even to form coherent sentences — as seen in his “disastrous debate performance” — that Biden was a spent force in electoral politics and had become president in name only, as he appeared to be sleep-walking to world war and the edge of a nuclear abyss.

This loss of power and vitality was exemplified by his inability to reign in Netanyahu, as seen in the man’s blunt refusal to accept any ceasefire proposal put forward by the US, and by his stubborn refusal to allow humanitarian aid in to the starving population of the Gaza Strip, or to comply with any norm of human decency and international law.

Indeed, Netanyahu made a point of demonstrating to his own domestic base and to the world that he and the Israeli lobby effectively control the White House and Congress and could pull the strings of the president of the United States to make him move in any way they chose.

All indications are that he is prolonging the war until a hoped-for victory by Trump in November, following which Tel Aviv would get renewed support and a fresh license to expand the war against the Palestinians and neighboring countries, as well as the prime target: Iran.

Can Kamala forge a path to peace?

In light of the catastrophic situation produced by their policy at home and abroad, the reluctance of Harris in a recent interview with CNN to distance herself from Biden’s policy and Netanyahu’s ongoing war means she is likely to suffer the same derision and rejection by voters as Biden. Given her pledge of unconditional support for Israel, she may have ruined her own electoral prospects, as evidenced in the fact that she has already been dubbed “Holocaust Harris” by critics of her policy position.

Unless Harris is able to break with Biden’s now bloodstained policy, she is likely to be defeated by a resurgent Trump in November. By committing herself so fully and unequivocally to the war-policy of the Israel First lobby and Zionists that dominate the US administration and Democratic Party apparatus, she is setting herself up for a monumental defeat in November, thereby preparing the way for the return of Trump to the White House.

With campaigns like “Abandon Harris” on the march, voters — particularly in crucial swing states — have made it clear that the Democrats cannot take their votes for granted and that her presidential hopes rest squarely on whether she can secure a ceasefire in Gaza and distance herself from the warmongers spearheading the administration’s Israel First policy.

Nobody should blame conscientious voters for refusing to abandon their own ethical concerns to endorse the pro-genocidal bent of policymakers in Washington on both side of the aisle. If the so-called Democrats should persist in this policy — despite massive public opposition — the defeat of the Democratic Party nominee in November would be of their own making.

Voters are no longer willing to acquiesce to the violence of the “lesser of two evils,” for they can think of no greater evil than what they have witnessed in recent months. Indeed the policy of Biden and Harris have made even Trump seem more sane and less dangerous by comparison.

The point that should not be lost on any clear-thinking observer of this historical crisis is that despite their unconditional sponsorship of his genocide in Palestine, even in violation of US law, and despite the gruesome daily massacres in Gaza that the world has been forced to watch in horror for months on end, defeating the Democrats in November appears to be the underlying game plan of Netanyahu.

All indications are that he would prefer a Trump presidency, as he would likely be given a fresh license to kill and all restraints on him would be loosened, given that Trump apparently thinks Israel should expand its territorial footprint in the region and would be keen to reward his financial backers in the pro-Israeli lobby by outdoing the generosity of the Biden administration, which he says had not done quite enough to support Israel.

If Harris persists in sticking to the party line on Gaza and refuses to break with Biden on this decisive issue — given that many voters in crucial swing states consider it a non-starter to endorse the daily massacre of Palestinian children with their votes and their tax-dollars — she will have sabotaged her own electoral prospects on the altar of Netanyahu’s ruthless ambition, thus paving the way for the return of Trump, the perpetuation of the war, and the total evisceration of the last vestiges of democracy in the US.