Q&A: The Hypocrisy of the Right
The Hypocrisy of the Right
Question
The right has lately been attacking Biden because of the delay in weapons and claiming that he hates Israel and is a great enemy, and I humbly ask: how hypocritical and pathetic can people be? Let’s start with the fact that since the beginning of the war Biden sent us weapons worth 6 billion dollars (or maybe shekels, I’m not sure, but in any case a lot). Considering inflation and the Russia-Ukraine war, that’s a huge amount. But that’s the less infuriating part. What’s more infuriating is that Trump, with his right-wing nationalist America First approach, would do exactly the opposite and would prevent weapons from reaching Israel, because from his perspective it harms America’s economy. And the biggest proof that I’m right is that in the debate and elsewhere Trump said it was crazy that they gave Ukraine so many weapons and that they should have given them less—that is, America First. In any case, what do you think: is Biden a friend or an enemy, the way the Smotrich crowd and the other corrupt people are trying to portray him?
Answer
This is not a binary question. Clearly he is sympathetic, but he is probably also subject to pressure from the left. And Bibi’s credibility does not help. As for Trump, it is hard to predict what he would do.
Discussion on Answer
We do not need any weapons from America, only that it should not bother us about killing hundreds of thousands of Gazans, because that is the only thing that would deter anyone in Gaza. If Trump allows us to do that, then he will be the greatest friend of Israel among the Gentiles in modern history.
The comparison to Ukraine is problematic. I’m not expert in the details, but Israel and the U.S. have agreements and prior understandings on these matters, including American emergency stockpiles located here and many forms of cooperation. From what I know, there has been an American commitment to supply Israel with what it needs ever since the cancellation of the Lavi project under American pressure—not to mention that a large part of the ammunition Israel needs consists of things that until not long ago were produced locally, and Israel shifted to relying on American imports on the assumption (naively, in my opinion) that they would be equally available. All this aside from the Biden-versus-Trump question. Overall it seems that both of them basically love Israel, but it is still permissible to criticize in a substantive way.