One of the recurrent themes of American history is that periods of domestic political reform are regularly followed like clockwork by periods of foreign preoccupation leading to war. In the process, reform movements at home invariably come to an end. We’re apparently in the midst of such a policy turnaround at this very moment.
Recall the course of the 20th century. The Progressive era of the early 1900s was terminated by World War I. The New Deal of the 1930s was subsumed by World War II. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society disappeared in the jungles of Vietnam. And what’s left of Joe Biden’s new-age progressivism appears destined to become a victim of Middle East entanglements and hubristic military adventures. Middle Class Joe of the 2020 campaign morphed into Union Joe for the 2022 festivities, and now (with apologies to Sen. Joseph McCarthy), he’s reemerging as Tail-Gunner Joe just in time for 2024.
This country’s imperial impulse can’t be held in abeyance for long; its pull on the national psyche and its attraction to US presidents, in particular, is too strong. Today’s belief in “American exceptionalism,” the successor to yesteryear’s “manifest destiny,” is our ticket of admission to intervene in the world and set it to rights. Joe Biden’s proclamation of a “rules-based order” enforced by the indispensable nation should surprise no one; he’s always been a foreign-policy wonk, whose interest in international affairs far exceeds his domestic focus. The left-leaning internal agenda he pursued in 2021-22 was largely forced on him by the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.
In addition, like previous chief executives, Biden’s finding it’s far easier to assert freedom of action abroad than at home, where an activist president often has to deal with a recalcitrant Congress unsympathetic to his aims. And he’s got a restive military-industrial complex eager to try out its latest toys urging him on and playing to his policy instincts. So, the US is presently looking to exercise its influence over Taiwan, the Ukraine and, of course, the Mideast. In the process, it’s engaging in indirect confrontations with China, Russia and Iran. Other hot spots (say, the Korean peninsula) are likely to flare up as well.
At the moment, the hottest of the hot spots is Israel, where our “partner,” Benjamin Netanyahu, continues on his quest to rid Palestine of Palestinian influence (and, preferably, people) “from the river to the sea.” That phrase, used in this country to rally support for an independent Palestinian state, is said to imply anti-Semitic hatred of Jews and an end to the State of Israel. In fact, both sides use it as a cri de coeur; Netanyahu himself has employed the expression in speeches on behalf of a Greater Israel, applying it to the Palestinian West Bank, which hard-right Israelis claim as their own patrimony under the biblical name Judea and Samaria.
The truth is that extremists on both sides of the current conflict want exclusive ownership of disputed Israeli-Palestinian territory. Arab extremists, represented by Hamas, wish to abolish the State of Israel; Jewish extremists, represented by Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition, would prefer that Palestinians pack up and leave, migrating to Jordan, Egypt, or whatever neighboring Arab state will have them. Population transfer has been a dream of Israeli conservatives since before 1948, and by backing Netanyahu to the hilt, the Biden administration (despite empty talk about a two-state solution) does nothing to discourage it.
Only intense US pressure, which Biden refuses to apply, will budge Netanyahu from his intransigent position. But instead of adding conditions to American aid to Israel (on armaments, for instance), the administration persists in providing 2,000-pound, bunker-busting bombs with a half-mile kill radius, which Israelis are using to flatten Gaza and decimate its population.
To date, upwards of 29,000 Gazans, the vast majority civilians and most of them women and children, have been sacrificed in the course of Israel “defending itself.” Like it or not, their blood is on American hands. Those casualties are in stark contrast to the estimated 1,200 Israeli victims of the Oct. 7 attacks; it’s a ratio of over 24 to one, which seems to suggest the respective values placed on Palestinian and Israeli lives by those resisting a ceasefire — including Joe Biden.
The wonder is that America’s president continues to see reasonableness and a willingness to negotiate in his Israeli counterpart, who wants what he calls “total victory.” For years, stories have circulated about Netanyahu’s contempt for American policymakers, Democrats like Barack Obama and John Kerry in particular. His belief that he can manipulate them to a fare-thee-well is the stuff of legend. Still, they coddle him.
Israel has become the tail that wags the American dog; its right wing visualizes a regional American-Israeli partnership aimed at jointly eliminating the Iranian threat to the Jewish state. In the short run, though, it will settle for an American-backed Gaza bombing campaign to somehow force Hamas to release Israeli hostages, a tactic unlikely to produce the desired effect.
Meanwhile, the related loss of American personnel in the sudden confrontation between US forces and Iranian proxies, namely Yemeni guerillas active in the Persian Gulf, raises more questions about the Biden administration’s turn toward the Middle East as its policy priority. The losses were suffered in the bombing of an American base in Jordan, one of over 80 countries worldwide with significant US military installations.
Why, you might ask, do we have bases in Jordan? The answer is, first, to keep tabs on Iran, Israel’s archenemy in the region; and, second, to be ready to defend Israel (despite its nuclear capacity) in case of attack. We have thereby mortgaged American lives and treasure on whatever our client state Israel initiates or stumbles into policywise.
So, prepare for an increasingly foreign policy-dominated campaign in 2024, at least on the part of the Democrats. Immigration is on the back burner; so is climate change. Even abortion is presently taking a back seat to war.
For now, all that matters is the fixation on Israel, which has displaced Ukraine as the prime object of Joe Biden’s overseas attentions. Whether for good or ill, the imperial president is prepared to risk the success of his entire administration on that basis. These days, the sun never sets on the American empire, especially that portion of it shining on the Near East.
Wayne O’Leary is a writer in Orono, Maine, specializing in political economy. He holds a doctorate in American history and is the author of two prizewinning books.
From The Progressive Populist, March 15, 2024
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us