Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Lebanese people that they could face “destruction and suffering” like the Palestinians in Gaza if they don’t “free” the country from Hezbollah.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video address directed to the people of Lebanon.
“I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”
Biden is fully capable of halting arms and funding to Israel himself if he actually wanted to. We saw him pause shipments temporarily to halt an Israeli invasion into Rafah a few months back. He also has valid legal justification to do it as well given the level of documentation available proving Israel is using US weapons to perform war crimes, since it’s illegal to sell weapons to countries committing war crimes as per US law. He can do it. He just chooses not to. He doesn’t even actually denounce the actions either.
Yes, Biden could do many things, of course, but actions cost political capital and Biden’s first priority is to keep the democrats in power.
Moreover, opinions are changing. Right? We’ve seen the polls shift. Once public sentiment reaches a tipping point then the democrats will magically spring into action.
A majority of the population already supports a ceasefire and has been for the better part of the past year. So it is the popular opinion, Biden does have the power to enforce it, and he chooses not to. Therefore, he does not support a ceasefire and is not actually representing the will of the majority in this case.
Biden also supports a ceasefire. The issue is that a more aggressive stance against Israel would either require an act of Congress or cost enormous political capital since centrist democrats (who are the majority of the actual voters) have conservative views about Israel. That’s because old Americans are religious and dumb, but they’re also the only ones who vote in our elections, since young people are eager to offer opinions but never show up to vote.
Who the hell are they supposed to vote for here? Both candidates have committed to continuing to help Israel commit genocide. The Dems refuse to do anything meaningful to motivate young people to vote, then complain that young people don’t vote and blame them for lost races. The Republicans sure as shit won’t do anything for young people regardless of the circumstances.
You seem to be under the misapprehension that politicians represent ideals among which you are forced to choose, when in fact politicians are malleable creatures who do whatever is necessary to get into power. Want Biden to do what you want? Be the one who elects him. But old people outvote young people by a vast margin, so Biden does whatever they want.
Why is that so hard to grasp?
Biden is a committed zionist, and has been for his entire career. Yes, to a certain extent politicians are malleable. That does not mean they will automatically bend their personal beliefs to the will of the voters. You can see this in action right now, since most Democrat voters support conditioning aid to Israel and Biden refuses to do so.
More fundamentally, you need to reconsider the idea of voting for a politician and then expecting them to do what you want when they have made no indication that they will. At that point, you’ve lost significant leverage.