Israel/Gaza/Lebanon and an American Election

There are a lot of things grinding my gears about this year's election, but the thing that - at least today - is at the top of the list is the effect of Middle Eastern war and politics on our choice of president.

You may recall my basic position on the situation of Israel, the Palestinians, and the rest of the Middle East, which I spelled out in my post almost a year ago titled, "A Plague on Both Your Houses." As far as I'm concerned, the best solution to the problem would be to build a wall a thousand feet high around the entire region, fill it to the top with sand, and start over.

The problem with the Middle East isn't the undying hatred and the endless cycle of attack-respond-attack-respond. The problem is that it's become the rest of the world's problem. I personally don't care if the Jews and Arabs of the Middle East make a national sport of killing each other. What I do care about is that those hatreds are threatening to destroy the United States.

Across the nation, Arab Americans enraged by the Biden Administration's support for Israel are threatening to sit out the election or - worse - vote for Der Furor in the comical belief that he actually cares about them and would put more pressure on Israel to end the wars in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. Likewise, Jewish Americans enraged by a Biden Administration they feel is insufficiently supportive of Israel threaten either to sit out the election or to accept the comical belief that Der Furor actually cares about them and would go "all-in" against Israel's enemies*.

I am neither Jewish nor Arab/Muslim, but I have close friends in each camp. They are all sincere in their beliefs and their anger, and those beliefs and anger - which have echoed down the years at least since the well-intentioned but ultimately deadly Balfour Declaration of 1917 - have only grown more intense with each new death. And now all that accumulated hatred and religious bitterness threatens to upend our election here at home and return to power an angry authoritarian driven by petty jealousy, animosity toward his enemies real and perceived, and a disdain for democratic norms and common decency.

There are no ... no ... clean hands in the ongoing horror of the Middle East. I understand the legitimate fears and desires of both sides, but decry the rigidly zero-sum unwillingness of each to seek a peaceful resolution. Any such resolution will leave each side unsatisfied, but in the words of the "Game of Thrones" character Tyrion Lannister, “No one is very happy, which means it’s a good compromise, I suppose.” 

Do not allow your vote to be decided by undying hatreds from the other side of the world. No matter how sincerely you may want the carnage to end, what's important is that the ones actually fighting want it ... and, so far, they don't.

Have a good day and make sure you vote on the basis of what's good for the United States, not the goals of bitter enemies a world away.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* To the extent that Der Furor admires leaders he perceives as strong and ruthless, he tends to support Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. And the fact that he receives more financial support from Jewish than from Arab supporters doesn't hurt, either.