So, US President Joe Biden received off an enormous airplane in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and embraced a battle prison whose battle crime-addicted navy had, solely hours earlier, dedicated yet one more battle crime of such horrendous nature and scale that it’s destined to reverberate in reminiscence and historical past.
That would be the sick, defining picture of Biden’s presidency: a hug on an airport tarmac with an Israeli prime minister who has all the time revelled in killing Palestinians, even determined kids, ladies and men who thought they have been past Benjamin Netanyahu’s malevolent attain on the grounds of a hospital in besieged Gaza that, little by little, is being erased in blatant acts of genocide.
It’s price remembering amid all of the touching scenes of fraternity that Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have spent a lot of the previous three years distancing themselves – to place it charitably – from a politician whom numerous Israelis imagine will not be solely a profession criminal, however a rank authoritarian.
Quite than maintain Netanyahu near their loving bosoms just like the immediately infatuated Biden, tons of of hundreds of Israelis have taken to the streets, week after week, demanding his conviction and resignation utilizing blunt, hard-to-miss language.
Not too way back, Biden and Blinken have been so keen to not be seen with the accused swindler turned Machiavellian despot that they haven’t invited Netanyahu to the White Home, lest, I suppose, they have been stained by the stench of his poisonous presence and character.
However occasions and fickle attitudes have, in fact, modified.
Biden hopped on Air Drive 1 for a fast, presidential vote-eve date in Israel to inform his beau to not fear, all is forgiven, whereas shoring up his “robust man” credentials and assist with a strong constituency that he must win re-election – the hundreds of mutilated, maimed and useless Palestinians be damned.
True to indecent type, go away it to a tactless American president to invoke a grotesque sports activities analogy to strive, predictably, to deflect fault for an atrocity that compounds all of the deadly indignities, deprivations and wanton violence already visited upon an imprisoned individuals by their occupier – not for days, weeks, months or years, however many years.
The “different workforce”, Biden mentioned, was responsible for the bloodbath of tons of of defenceless Palestinians holed up at al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Tuesday.
Apparently, the forgetful octogenarian commander-in-chief requires reminding that his “workforce” has concocted exculpatory “proof” and lied time and again – I do know this should come as a shock to him – to cowl up its complicity within the killing of numerous Palestinians, together with the homicide in 2022 of 78-year-old Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad, whom he and his diplomatic sidekick, Blinken, couldn’t have cared much less about, although the retired grocer carried a US passport.
I have to remind Biden and Blinken of those different flagrant details:
His “workforce” is depriving tens of millions of Palestinians in Gaza of the requirements of life – meals, water, gas and electrical energy.
His “workforce” is decided, in impact, to starve and dehydrate Palestinians in Gaza to dying.
His “workforce” is carpet-bombing Palestinians in Gaza with US-supplied weapons to kill as a lot of them as attainable, within the shortest time attainable, prematurely of a floor invasion that can, inevitably, lead to extra appalling massacres.
His “workforce” is attacking colleges sheltering Palestinians with nowhere else to show since escape is inconceivable.
His “workforce” has showered Gaza with white phosphorous meant to completely disfigure and burn kids, ladies and men to the bone.
His “workforce” might allow humanitarian help to achieve Palestinians who, even when they obtain that blockaded assist sometime, will doubtless be killed by his “workforce” anyway.
His “workforce” has held tens of millions of Palestinians “hostage” in Gaza, the occupied West Financial institution and occupied East Jerusalem from Israel’s inception.
His “workforce” is capturing Palestinians on sight within the West Financial institution for daring to withstand the occupation and decrying the homicide of their brothers and sisters in Gaza who took refuge at a hospital.
His “workforce” has described Palestinians as “animals”, “savages” and “vermin” who should be eradicated as a way to strip them of their humanity, and justify its ethnic cleaning and plans to ascertain a fortified “buffer” between Gaza and Israel.
The end result: His “workforce” – in a repeat of the ruinous Nakba in 1948 – is forcing tens of millions of Palestinians to desert the shattered stays of their houses and companies with the barrel of a high-powered gun pressed in opposition to their hearts and heads.
Joe Biden owns all of this – each despicable side of the calamity unfolding in Gaza perpetrated by America’s ever-reliable and obedient proxy, Israel.
The cataclysm that the world is witnessing is the by-product of the, by now, acquainted mantra on the core of each trendy US president’s so-called Center East “international coverage”: Kill first, suppose later.
Within the aftermath of Hamas’s ruthless assault, the pressing second required a temperate combination of concern and calm. As a substitute, Biden opted, on cue, for bluster and self-aggrandising posturing.
As a substitute of understanding that the pursuit of blind vengeance and using incendiary rhetoric wouldn’t dampen the prevailing bloodlust, however solely gas the breathtaking loss and terrible scenes of grief and despair, Biden selected hysteria over statesmanship.
As a substitute of taking care along with his phrases and actions, Biden trafficked in hideous fabrications at swiftly held information conferences that he subsequently needed to “stroll again”.
Nonetheless, the deep and sinister harm was accomplished. Palestinians – each one in all them – had been dehumanised as soon as extra to condone killing them indiscriminately and en masse.
As I mentioned: Kill first, suppose later.
However that’s the American manner: in South East Asia, South and Central America, Africa, and Iraq and Afghanistan – graveyards all, brimming with the harmless victims of the conceitedness and ignorance of a succession of cocky presidents who blundered their manner into battle with out pausing to think about the disastrous and, finally, humiliating penalties.
Is it any marvel that Biden is being praised by the identical unrepentant, evangelical keyboard cavalry who applauded the wholesale destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan yesterday, and are applauding the wholesale destruction of Gaza at the moment?
They are going to by no means study from the previous as a result of they’re consumed by the second.
It’s too late to retreat from the abyss. Biden’s hubris, blindness and obstinacy is not going to allow it. The merciless course has been mounted. The cement is ready. The horrors have simply begun.
That can be Joe Biden’s shameful legacy.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
