Joe Biden Is a Morally Decent President in a Time of Hate. An appreciation of the administration's response to 10/7.

[LymphocyteLover]

Great piece from Jonathan Chait

Despite the vocal and frequently unfair denunciations the Biden administration has received from left and right alike for its response to Hamas’s terror attacks and their aftermath, I believe the policy is broadly correct. The administration’s response to the war in the Middle East has five main components:

1. Publicly embrace Israel in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attack and endorse its right to self-defense.
2. Privately warn Israel’s government not to rush into an expansive military response.
3. Denounce antisemitism.
4. Denounce anti-Muslim bias.
5. Endorse emergency military aid to Israel.

Progressives have greeted this combination of positions with horror, and its backlash has combined public protests by hundreds of Democratic staff, holding demonstrations at congressional hearings, with a level of vitriol that far exceeds anything it has previously raised against Biden.

The left’s dissent grows out of the belief that essentially any military response by Israel is wrong — either due to Israel’s indefensible occupation or because it will inevitably kill innocent Palestinians. I sympathize with both points, even though I am not willing to follow the logic of either one of them fully to the conclusion of ruling out any military response.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/11/joe-biden-policy-israel-hamas-defense-anti-semitism-islamophobia-trump.html

[usonian]

1. I was going to post this, thanks.

I just found it odd that the author's idea of "appreciation" is that Biden is disliked by the far right and the far left.
You quoted what I found to be the only really positive aspect of the article.

The rest goes after the aforementioned extremes.

[KPN]

3. Dd you not read the subtitle: "An appreciation of the administration's response to 10/7"?.

What else did you expect?

[usonian]

4. I just found it to be more about the detractors than the prime mover.

Reactions vary. I’d have liked more. Tuum est.

[The Wizard]

2. k&r

[calimary]

5. Right here.

A morally decent President. In a time of hate. Imagine that.

The best part is: we don’t have to just imagine it. He’s for real. I’ve never seen a President quite like Biden before. And I can remember back to JFK and LBJ.

And I appreciate how he’s steering a careful course through the Israel/Hamas/Palestinian difficulties. I wish the critics would shut up and let him work instead of picking on him all the time.

[Hekate]

6. TY for posting this & hat-tip to Jonathan Chait