Democratic politicians and commentators in the USA have heaped reward on President Joe Biden since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday.
Consultant Maxine Waters, as an illustration, known as Biden a “type and first rate man”. Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in the meantime, extolled his “imaginative and prescient, values and management”.
However whereas political leaders showered Biden with compliments, bombs continued to rain down on Gaza, killing dozens and sparking one other wave of mass displacement in Khan Younis.
For a lot of Palestinian rights advocates, the carnage and abuses in Gaza will outline Biden’s place within the historical past books, because the US stays steadfast in its help of Israel’s battle within the Palestinian territory.
“He’ll be remembered for the lots of of 1000’s killed, injured and displaced in Gaza,” mentioned Abed Ayoub, the manager director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).
“There is no such thing as a means round it. ‘Genocide Joe’ is what he’s going to be remembered as.”
Thanks, President Biden! I’m one in all your biggest supporters and I used to be keen to stick with you thru the Democratic Celebration nomination. Nevertheless, you have got determined to step down and you’ve got endorsed your Vice President Kamala Harris. You’re a type and first rate man who’s…
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) July 21, 2024
Since Israel’s battle on Gaza began on October 7, Biden has provided the federal government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unconditional army and diplomatic help.
Solely as soon as did Biden withhold a cargo of bombs to Israel over humanitarian issues — and even then, he launched a part of that cargo a pair months later, amid strain from Netanyahu.
Israel’s battle, in the meantime, has killed almost 39,000 Palestinians, displaced lots of of 1000’s, fuelled a man-made starvation disaster and destroyed massive elements of the territory. United Nations consultants and different observers have warned of a “danger of genocide” in Gaza.
Ayoub informed Al Jazeera that, regardless of Biden’s home achievements, the president will rank among the many worst in US historical past resulting from his unconditional help for Israel.
The US Marketing campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) echoed that remark. “Nothing will erase the truth that Biden’s legacy is — and all the time might be — genocide,” the group mentioned in a press release.
Netanyahu ‘bear hug’
The US president has been a stalwart supporter of Israel all through his decades-long political profession.
He often calls himself a Zionist and argues that Jews internationally wouldn’t be secure with out Israel.
He put that worldview into coverage throughout his presidency, as he pushed on with Former President Donald Trump’s pro-Israel doctrine. Biden saved the US embassy in Jerusalem and refused to reverse the Trump-era choice to recognise Israel’s claims to the occupied Golan Heights in Syria.
He additionally aggressively pursued formal ties between Israel and Arab states, a aim Trump superior with the 2020 Abraham Accords.
That push for normalisation, nonetheless, got here with out progress in direction of the popularity of an unbiased Palestinian state or the dismantling of systemic anti-Palestinian discrimination.
The outbreak of the battle in Gaza additional underscored Biden’s pro-Israel insurance policies.
Weeks after the battle began, Biden travelled to Israel and publicly embraced Netanyahu in what many critics have described as a “bear hug”.
That signal of friendliness was extensively understood to be an endorsement of Netanyahu’s response in Gaza, after the Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7.
Even early within the battle, human rights teams accused Israel of horrific violations rising to the extent of genocide — a push to destroy the Palestinian folks.
Inside the first week alone, the Israeli army mentioned it had unleashed 2,000 strikes throughout Gaza — a strip of land roughly the scale of Las Vegas.
Biden has since authorised steady arms transfers and greater than $14bn in extra assist to maintain Israel’s Gaza offensive. Furthermore, his administration has vetoed three United Nations Safety Council proposals that might have known as for a ceasefire.
Hatem Abudayyeh, the chair of the US Palestinian Neighborhood Community (USPCN), mentioned Biden might be remembered above all for enabling Israel’s “crimes in opposition to humanity”.
“He might’ve turned the faucet of cash and weapons off in October, however he allowed this genocide to occur. He’s complicit, and that’s what might be written on his tombstone,” Abudayyeh informed Al Jazeera.
Biden and Palestinians
Following his entry into politics in 1970, Biden rapidly rose from native to nationwide prominence, mounting a profitable dark-horse marketing campaign to signify Delaware within the US Senate in 1972.
After almost 4 many years in Congress, he grew to become vp underneath Barack Obama, and in 2021, he received the presidency himself.
The president doesn’t hail from a political dynasty, and he’s not an distinctive orator. His success in politics is usually credited to his interpersonal abilities and skill to mission empathy.
That sense of compassion, nonetheless, by no means prolonged to Palestinians, activists say.
“For 9 and a half months, President Biden has funded and armed the brutal Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, making the US authorities instantly complicit within the killing of no less than 39,000 folks, together with over 15,000 youngsters,” Jewish Voice for Peace Motion mentioned in a press release on Sunday.
“Individuals have watched in horror and outrage as Biden despatched the Israeli authorities the weapons it used to wipe out whole generations of Palestinian households, to destroy hospitals, bakeries, colleges, mosques, church buildings, universities, refugee camps, houses and Gaza’s whole well being care system and electrical energy and water grids.”
Past coverage, Biden’s rhetoric at occasions appeared dismissive of Israeli atrocities and Palestinian struggling.
“I’ve no notion that the Palestinians are telling the reality about how many individuals are killed. I’m positive innocents have been killed, and it’s the value of waging a battle,” the US president mentioned in October.
However that stance induced Biden troubles each domestically and overseas.
Even earlier than Biden delivered a disastrous debate efficiency on June 27, the 81-year-old had began to path his Republican rival Trump in public opinion polls.
Elements of the Democratic base — together with younger folks, progressives, Arabs and Muslims — voiced frustration and anger together with his help for Israel.
Teams just like the USCPR argued that Biden’s age and debate efficiency have been just one issue within the strain that compelled him from the presidential race.
“It was not Biden’s failed debate that confirmed he’s unfit to steer,” USCPR mentioned. “It was the tens of 1000’s of bombs he despatched to kill Palestinian households. It was his callous, dystopian disregard for Palestinian lives.”
Different commentators likewise argued that Biden failed to indicate sufficient concern for the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza.
Aaron David Miller, a veteran former US official, described the scenario bluntly in an interview with the New Yorker in April.
“Do I feel that Joe Biden has the identical depth of feeling and empathy for the Palestinians of Gaza as he does for the Israelis? No, he doesn’t, nor does he convey it. I don’t suppose there’s any doubt about that,” he mentioned.
