The editorial content is in the headline to this post.
Weird is the word for the report and for what Biden's trying to sell. "Fails" is a key thought. "As in fails in trying to work both sides of the street," which is the main sentiment.
That said, this PiPress/AP link:
The president also renewed his warnings that Israel should not make the same mistakes of overreaction that the U.S. did following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
That paragraph has interest because many believe the Twin Towers (and Building 9) was a staged collapse as a prelude-event with some loss of life to boost the nation to want war. The same thought can apply to non-intervention against Oct. 7.
Resuming the excerpt:
He recounted a familiar anecdote about inscribing on a photo with Netanyahu decades ago, “Bibi, I don’t agree with a damn thing you have to say.” This time, the president added to his retelling of the story: “That remains to be the case.”
The 2024 campaign fundraiser was part of a gathering of Jewish donors, many of whom attended a White House Hanukkah reception on Monday evening; Biden’s fundraisers are open to some reporters on the condition that no audio or video be shared.
His rhetoric to donors tracks his more candid and private messaging to Netanyahu on their frequent calls, according to two White House officials, where he reasserts U.S. support for Israel before pushing for Israel to do more to help civilians in Gaza.
“Israel has a tough decision to make. Bibi has a tough decision to make. There’s no question about the need to take on Hamas. There’s no question about that. None. Zero,” Biden said. But he added, of Israel’s leader, “I think he has to change his government. His government in Israel is making it very difficult.”
Well, there is some question. That's a fact. One he ducks especially while hustling Jewish money for his campaign, and Jewish goodwill for the same purpose. There is little question that policy of elites in both the U.S. and Israel are consonant against Muslim fundamentalism - when such fundamentalism is in action - yet both elites also are cognizant of secular Islam's potential over time to impact and affect the world's balance of power. That is something Nassar brought home before he was assassinated. PiPress/AP continuing -
Biden specifically called out Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of a far-right Israeli party and the minister of national security in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, who opposes a two-state solution and has called for Israel to reassert control over all of the West Bank and Gaza. Ben-Gvir sits on Israel’s security cabinet, but is not a member of the country’s three-person war cabinet.
It is easy to find fault with Netanyahu's cabinet, but why give him a free pass? He's against a two state answer as much as anybody in Israel is.
No video/audio sharing. Speaking to U.S. Jewish money about APPEARANCES.
Not about substance, as to what's next after the bombs and ground actions end. As to BDS and holding back the Security Council veto as weapons to bring Israel into something resembling compliance with war crime prevention norms.
NOTHING - Other than saying he'd prefer a two state answer. If he said jack about it looking as if the Israeli government intended to expel the Gazans into somebody else's lands, fobbing off the problems on neighbors, you'd expect AP would have mentioned.
If he said anything THAT WAY - that should have been reported. Hence the presumption seems inevitable that for that particular money tree shaking venue he said nothing. Same borders mentioned, but nothing about any DMZ border minefield outcome, which some in Israel have advocated.
He's sending Jake Sullivan, a Minnesota Tommie, to speak to Israeli leadership, in private, where we can only speculate on what message besides ongoing armaments provision matters.
It seems a Bidenary caution mentioned about APPEARANCES is a cheap effort to not lose too many voters who are appalled at what Israel is doing while those at the venue could know a nod and a wink. With Trump the other choice, Biden actually will not lose any/many in the "lesser evil" bloc he needs to remain in the White House. No matter what Biden says/does, Trump is the greater evil. However, all show, no action unnecessarily pisses off even sane "lesser evil" voters who THINK.
Biden is doing a straddle, while MSM is not pressing Trump to define anything concrete as policy besides his "getting even" rhetoric - which is GREAT EVIL.
As to sending Jake Sullivan to Israel to work - behind closed doors as Biden's career-long preference has been - AP reports vaguely, necessarily so, given venue and Biden's luke warm remarks:
“The repercussions (of the war) will be catastrophic on the entity (Israel) and on the results of elections in which Biden might lose his seat in the White House,” Osama Hamdan, member of Hamas’ political bureau said during a news conference.
During the fundraiser, Biden said that when he has warned Netanyahu of a loss of international support over the bombing, the Israeli leader has mentioned that the U.S. had “carpet-bombed Germany” in World War II and dropped the atomic bomb on Japan.
“That’s why all these institutions were set up after World War II, to see that it didn’t happen again,” he said. “Don’t make the same mistakes we made in 9/11. There’s no reason we had to be in a war in Afghanistan. There’s no reason we had to do so many things that we did.”
"We" being George W. Bush of the other party and his ghoul advisers. Not Joe. But how in the Senate then did he vote?
The U.N. General Assembly voted Tuesday on a nonbinding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, days after the U.S. vetoed a similar measure at the U.N. Security Council. The U.K abstained from that 13-1 vote, but France and Japan were among those supporting the call for a cease-fire. Only Security Council resolutions are legally binding under the terms of the international body’s charter, but the vote Tuesday sent a strong message on how the conflict was viewed around the world.
Before Biden’s comments at the fundraiser, Netanyahu said in a statement that he appreciated American support and that he’d received “full backing for the ground incursion and blocking the international pressure to stop the war.”
“Yes, there is disagreement about ‘the day after Hamas’ and I hope that we will reach agreement here as well. I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo. Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.”
Speaking at a forum hosted by The Wall Street Journal before either leader’s comments, Sullivan reiterated the Biden administration’s position that it does not want to see Israel reoccupy Gaza or further shrink its already small territory.
The U.S. has repeatedly called for a return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority and the resumption of peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Sullivan said he would also speak to Netanyahu about his recent comments that Israel Defense Forces would maintain open-ended security control of Gaza after the war ends.
“I will have the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu about what exactly he has in mind with that comment, because that can be interpreted in a number of different ways,” Sullivan said. “But the U.S. position on this is clear.”
If Jake can shake some shit loose visiting with Bibi, bless him, but it is Bibi so prospects are dim, and it will be behind closed doors which means it will have no positive or negative impact upon reelection chances which Biden now faces (while now standing in need of any positive boost or poll movement he can get although the feeling here is that low polling is a reflection of being pissed off with stuff Biden does, but when the rubber meets the road the vote against Trump will carry the day).
Crabgrass belief is other voters in a Dem primary setting will express pissed-offedness as will Crabgrass, Williamson looking more promising than Dean's conservative bent, but in the general, Trump menaces and Crabgrass believes votes will fall accordingly.
Anyway, Minnesota will not likely be a contested state, so we will not be bombarded with dumb advertisements, the creepy voiced over negative shit that swing state voters will have to face more and more as November 2024 is approached.
All for now. Do a preview, editing, and publish the post. Winter is here.
__________UPDATE_________
Israeli coverage, English language versions, Haaretz headline (story paywalled)
After Rare Critique, Biden Dispatches Top Adviser to Israel for Talks on Gaza War Timetable
Israeli officials are concerned that the U.S. national security advisor's arrival in Israel will set an American deadline of just a few weeks to end the Gaza war. Other visiting senior U.S. officials have also had the impression that Netanyahu seeks a public confrontation with Biden over 'the day after' in Gaza
Netanyahu wants an apparent "confrontation," with all else hunky dory. Root out Hamas, arms shipped toward that aim; let's have a gentlemen's modest "show disagreement" over the future of Gaza and Occupied Territory; Bibi and crew sitting on both seized lands at the time of differing scenario-visions. Sitting there, holding the hammer.
Times Of Isreal sees no quasi-problematic Biden position, as AP represented things to U.S. readers:
Marking Hanukkah, Biden vows to keep military support for Israel until Hamas gone
US president tells White House holiday reception ‘surge’ in antisemitism ‘sickening,’ promises steadfast backing despite differences with Israel’s leaders
12 December 2023, 5:59 am
US President Joe Biden speaks at a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023, as second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Rabbi Angela Buchdahl listen. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden vowed to continue arming Israel in its war with Hamas during a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Monday night, but warned that Jerusalem needed to be wary of shifting world opinion as it pursues its goal of toppling the terror group.
Speaking to a packed crowd of some 800 in East Room, including Holocaust survivors, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and around two dozen members of Congress, Biden also called a “surge of antisemitism” around the globe “sickening,” while drawing applause for his administration’s efforts to rush more aid to Gaza.
“We continue to provide military assistance until they get rid of Hamas, but we have to be careful,” Biden said of US support for the war. “The whole world, public opinion can shift overnight. We can’t let that happen.
”Amid US pressure for Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, Biden noted that he does not always agree with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [...]
“As I said after the [Oct.7] attack, my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, and the security of Israel, its right to exist as an independent Jewish state, is unshakeable,’ he said.
“You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist. I am a Zionist,” he said, [...] “Were there no Israel, there would not be a Jew in the world who is safe,” he added at Monday’s event.
Also present at the reception were Jewish community leaders and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who was among those who lit a menorah partially made from the original timbers of the White House.
The husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, Emhoff is the first Jewish person to be the spouse of one of the country’s nationally elected leaders. Last week, he presided over the lighting ceremony of a massive menorah in front of the White House.
Separately, a menorah recovered from Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel, one of the communities ravaged in the October 7 attack, is currently on display at the White House.
[...] A menorah is lit nightly during the eight-day Jewish festival, which this year is being celebrated from December 7 until Friday.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of Central Synagogue in New York City led Monday’s ceremony at the White House, telling the president: “You’ve been a steadfast supporter of Israel’s right to defend itself. A trusted and true friend to the Jewish people.”
Buchdahl talked about the darkness of the October 7 attack by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
But she said that since, “It’s only gotten darker, with many around the world justifying terrorism, normalizing antisemitism, with the pain of so many lives lost — Israeli and Palestinian — in this just but tragic war.”
She also drew sustained applause when she called Biden “a beacon of strength.”
The Biden administration in May announced what it called the first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism.
Still, antisemitism has only intensified in some quarters as criticism rises over the mounting Palestinian death toll.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
Biden said of hostages being held by Hamas, which US authorities have been working for months to help free, “We’re not going to stop until we get every one of them home.” He said he had spent “countless hours” on the issue himself.
The crowd also cheered when he talked of his administration’s efforts to increase humanitarian aid flowing to civilians in Gaza caught in the fighting.
Others, though, have decried Biden’s stance on the war.
Earlier Monday, protesters gathered outside the White House as nearly 20 women describing themselves as “Jewish elders” chained themselves to the fence around the grounds. Wearing black T-shirts reading “Not In Our Name,” they chanted: “Biden, Biden, pick a side! Cease-fire not genocide!” while reading the names of those killed in Gaza.
Authorities took the women away after using a bolt cutter to cut the chains that had encircled the protesters’ waists. Organizers said they deliberately picked the day of the White House’s Hanukkah celebration to protest.
“We, as elder Jews, we know what genocide looks like. We know what genocide feels like. It’s in our bodies, in our bones,” said Esther Farmer of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group which organized the demonstration. “It’s horrifying, it’s devastating. Sometimes, it’s hard to get up in the morning to see this, and it’s being done in the name of Jews. So we are here — as elderly Jews — to say, not in our name.”
The US Park Police said they issued 18 citations to the protesters and released them from custody.
Activists with Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group, gather to protest the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and chain themselves to the fence outside the White House, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)Biden at the reception said he recognized American Jews “hurt” and “fear for your safety” because “the surge of antisemitism in the United States and around the world is sickening.”
“We see it in our communities and in schools and colleges and social media,” the president said, adding that such instances “surface painful scars.”
On Saturday, Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned following pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.
Universities across the US have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid the fallout from the war in Gaza.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates declined to comment Monday on Magill’s decision to resign.
Presidents Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who appeared alongside Magill, have also faced criticism.
Gay has apologized for her remarks. On Monday, hundreds of Harvard faculty signed a petition calling on the university to keep Gay in her role as president.
Bates noted that Magill issued a statement withdrawing her remarks. “That was the right thing to do,” he said.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
So, same event, two separate perspectives, one said "chastisement" per AP, "schmoozing together" said the Israeli MSM judgment.
Why AP editorialized in its "news report" is a question of why present Biden as doing some fashion of a straddle when no straddle is there.
AP made it appear as if Biden had a critique, ToI made it appear as if "world opinion" were a joint Biden/Bibi worry and possible concern. But surely no wedge.
Truth suffers, reporters write, Gazans suffer.
____________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Times of Israel as quoted above picked no fight with anyone about what Biden said among Jewish funding event attendees.
Breitbart tells a different story, one of the two resources being honest, the other not so. Here is a part of what Breitbart published:
At 115 casualties since the invasion, Israel has suffered fewer losses than expected. But each fallen soldier is mourned deeply by the entire nation, especially in a small country, and especially when so many of those doing the fighting are reservists, away from their jobs, spouses and children.
Israel is also shocked — at a level that doesn’t always come through in the headlines — at being abandoned by the universities of the West.
Israelis, like Jews around the world, value higher education, and many work closely with the brightest American minds in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. They seem to have assumed the smartest people in the world would have understood the fact that a nation attacked by terrorists in an unprovoked and brutal assault has a right to respond.
The fact that the president of Harvard and other elite universities would tolerate calls for the destruction of Israel and the genocide of Jews has left a deep wound.
So Biden’s backstabbing — after making a show of his support for Israel at a Hanukkah party — has hurt Israeli morale, badly.
It is also being celebrated by Israel’s enemies, who believe that if an American president says something — even something provably false, like “indiscriminate bombing” — you can regard it as a political fact.
Hamas is pointing to Tuesday’s non-binding vote of the United Nations General Assembly on a ceasefire resolution as proof that Israel is, as Biden said, losing support — and all the terrorists need to do to survive is hold out just a little bit longer against Israel.
It is dawning on the Israeli left, in particular — who loved his criticism of Netanyahu, who savored his “don’t” warning to Iran — that Joe Biden’s only real interest is, and always has been, the political survival of Joe Biden, and that Biden remains, as he was for decades, wrong about everything in foreign policy.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
What a screed.
The shells and bombs and the veto are delivered. "I am a Zionist" Biden has been quoted as saying at his menorah lighting fundraiser. What else matters? This Breitbart Pollak fellow likes the current Israeli government, and waves around his crying towel over 115 Israeli combat deaths while over 17,000 Gazans (out of a smaller total population - a third as many as Israelis) have been certifiably bombed to death, with many more being buried under rubble still, after bombing intensely (with one short interval of hostage exchanges) over weeks and weeks of otherwise uninterrupted around the clock bombing of housing, hospitals and other infrastructure; where Israel's Minister of Defense promised a siege and is delivering one; that delivery tracking exactly a consciously articulated preexisting policy declaration of Israel.
Pollak contends Biden is a deficient cheerleader for Israel-can-never-be-at-fault for anything, when Biden told the truth that the world is seeing implementation of a war doctrine premised upon excessively disproportionate civilian suffering.
A neutral academic item (mostly paywalled) has a clear beginning:
U.S. President Joe Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war, especially his seemingly preternatural support for Israel, has been criticized across much of the U.S. political spectrum. An NBC News poll published Nov. 19 found that just 34 percent of registered voters approve of how Biden is handling the war. Many younger voters in particular are angry; and some Arab and Muslim Americans are telling pollsters they won’t vote for Biden in 2024 because of his stance.
Compare that and the above quoted Times of Israel coverage with the Pollak screed that fits Breitbart well, and discern truth vs fiction. Breitbart should be ashamed of its bias, both because it is wrong headed and because it is so obviously so.
Breitbart is not alone in its misreporting. Others are propagating the lie that Biden is deficient in his attitude and actions toward Israel's government and its Gaza actions, but are less grotesquely partisan about it than Breitbart.
Is Netanyahu beyond criticism? Who says? Using a phrase from the 60's -
THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING. And that is what Biden pointed out while addressing a clearly pro-Israel donor group. It is true. And it needed saying.
Indeed, calling the Gaza air offensive, "indiscriminate bombing," is a euphemism for what is intentional, rather than indiscriminately negligent activity. It is giving Israel a pass on its declared intent.