Elon Musk traveled to Israel on a fact finding trip and sat down one on one with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After surveying some of the areas attacked on October the 7th, Musk and Netanyahu discussed the implications of the attack.
– Elon Musk visited Israel and agreed that the eradication of Hamas is necessary.
– Biden’s support for Israel has led to major conflict within the Democrat party.
– A two-state solution seems supported by the majority of diverse commentators and leaders, however Israel remains radically opposed, complicating matters further.
Netanyahu and Elon Musk discuss the war. Netanyahu: “Hamas must be destroyed”. Musk; “There’s no choice”.
pic.twitter.com/vPp3Pdbx10— Joseph Gelman (@ifofgot) November 27, 2023
Elon Musk just agreed with Israeli forces’ plans to eradicate Hamas. In Musk’s words: ‘There is no choice! There is no choice in the matter!’ Most in the Arab world seem to agree.
The Economist ran a very interesting article after the pan-Arab summit in Riyadh that called for the implementation of a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. The Economist noted that you got this sense that most of the Arab world would love Hamas to be gone. They are just seen as far too rogue, militant, and extremist, almost akin to the way Al Qaeda ended up having to distance itself from ISIS, which was a breakaway faction from Al Qaeda via Abu Al Zarqawi in Iraq.
After the fall of Sadam Hussein, that is when Isis first emerged by breaking away from Al Qaeda. But the point is that Hamas appears to have become a comparable albatross for the Arab world! When Nasrollah, the secretary general, the leader, of Hezbollah, in Lebanon, when he gave his much anticipated speech on the Israeli-Hamas conflict, he affirmed his support for Hamas but he stopped short of entering the war, which many thought he was going to do.
Biden is now backtracking on comments he made about Palestinian casualty numbers coming from Hamas sources, saying that he had no notion that the Palestinians were telling the truth about how many people have been killed. He also claimed that he was sure innocents were indeed being killed, but that’s the price for war. He has now backtracked that statement, saying that he was disappointed in himself for ever saying that, for ever questioning Hamas’ accounts of the death tolls.
Biden is responding to this impossible situation he finds himself in where the fallout from the Israeli-Hamas war has ramifications for Biden here at home. The Democrats are going through a civil war of sorts as part of the fallout from the conflict. Republican voters are overwhelmingly pro-Israel. About 80% of Republican voters back Israel’s campaign against Hamas. The situation is very different when it comes to the Democrats. Astonishingly, Democrat voters are siding with the Palestinians by an 11-point margin, 49 to 38.
This lopsided margin is making things very difficult for Biden, as US interests, at least initially, were solidly behind Israel. Muslim and Arab Americans, who were instrumental in Biden’s support in 2020 are increasingly openly telling Biden that they will not back him in 2024 because of his blanket support for Israel in the Hamas conflict. NBC News just published a report on Biden’s support among Muslim Americans absolutely cratering, particularly in the swing state of Michigan.
According to a study conducted by Biden’s own pollster, while 70% of Muslims voted for Biden in 2020, that support has now plummeted to just 16%. A group called the National Muslim Democratic Council demanded yesterday that Joe Biden force Israel into a cease-fire, or else have Muslims work against Democrats in battleground states in 2024. Biden is already suffering politically with Arab-Americans. Now they’re ready to mobilize and organize fully in order to make sure he actually loses in battleground states like Michigan in 2024.
Biden is clearly pushing for a two-state solution, which is the position for most of the world. The problem is that no one in Israel is talking about a two-state solution at this point. As far as the rightwing nationalist government of Israel is concerned, those annexed regions belong to Israel, and Israel’s control of those regions are absolutely vital to their national security. The Palestinians have to remain a people-group subsumed into the single nation of Israel, and Netanyahu alluded to that with Elon Musk.
Netanyahu and Elon Musk discuss the war. Netanyahu: “Hamas must be destroyed”. Musk; “There’s no choice”.
pic.twitter.com/vPp3Pdbx10— Joseph Gelman (@ifofgot) November 27, 2023
As far as the hardline government in Israel is concerned, there is only one state, and that’s the state of Israel. Palestinians are to be assimilated into the political, economic, and judicial structures of the Israeli nation. The rest of the world, including the Biden administration, believes that a two-state solution is the only real road map for peace in the region. In the meantime, Hamas clearly has a target on their back, and we will have to see the extent to which Israeli resolve and Arab distance together bring about Hamas’ demise!
Copyright, 2023. TurleyTalks.com
