Joe Biden is caught in the middle of a political dilemma. A sizable portion of the Democratic Party supports the Palestinians and their terrorist masters in the war against Israel. A slightly larger plurality supports Israel — up to a point. The support is conditional on the IDF not killing too many Palestinians.
There are nuances in both those positions, although the intellectual dishonesty on the side of Palestinian supporters is too much to bear. You can't favor the establishment of a Palestinian state when the authors of that plan support wiping out Jews "from the river to the sea."
But the problem in America is the growing antisemitism on campus. Unfortunately, if Biden takes a swing at the antisemites, he also has to criticize those "who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians." Two separate electoral factions — the Arab-Muslim bloc and Jewish voters — and two vital parts of his winning 2020 coalition, where both can't be catered to at the same time.
So Biden's strategy is twofold. First, show sympathy for both sides. Second, get Democrats to tone down the rhetoric and try not to make the protests a federal issue.
On Tuesday, I wondered when Biden might deliver a nationwide address on antisemitism, given that the issue has reached crisis proportions. But that's exactly what he doesn't want. Biden wants to continue to ignore the issue or downplay it unless it gets bloody.
Biden has done the same thing with the illegal alien issue and the border crisis. Despite Americans saying it's the number one or two issue facing America, he has yet to speak to the nation on the crisis.
Biden and his political brain trust see no upside in the president speaking about the border crisis. Similarly, they see no reason why the president should go on record condemning Palestinians for their antisemitism.
Democrats have long feared Biden’s early pro-Israel posture in the Jewish state’s more than six-month-old war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip may alienate crucial voting blocs ahead of a likely rematch against Trump Nov. 5.
Biden made his Monday comments after speaking with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at an event touting the launch of a website for the new American Climate Corps.
While introducing Biden, the Bronx and Queens rep shouted out “the leadership of those peaceful student-led protests on campus like Columbia, Yale, Berkeley, and many others.”
When Biden took the microphone, he told his audience: “Representative Ocasio Cortez of New York, you know, I learned a long time ago, ‘Listen to that lady. Listen to that lady.’ We’re going to talk more about another part of the world too, real quickly.”
Well, it's the same part of the world, Joe, you geographically-challenged panderer.
Anyone who listens to AOC about anything needs to be shown the door. Biden is incapable of playing both sides against the middle, which is why he's going to say as little as possible about the unrest on campus unless it becomes absolutely necessary.
Politico's Ryan Lizza believes "the Biden political brain trust just isn’t stressing out about what’s roiling the groves of academe — viewing it as an obsession of a subset of the electorate and a phenomenon that’s drawn a disproportionate amount of media coverage to its actual political relevance."
“It’s not going to be for the vast majority of young voters the thing that’s going to determine whether they vote or how they vote," said one Biden campaign official who works with youth outreach.
Wishful thinking? As of now, no. But wait a few weeks and see if there protests explode across the country. Biden and his political team may be singing a different tune then.
