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December 5th, 2020 
Awake Goy 
“I feel like I’ve done something good for the country by making sure that Donald Trump is not going to be president for four more years,” Joe Biden said, taking a bit of a victory lap with Tom Friedman the other day. Believe me, I’m grateful, Joe. So are billions of other people.
Now Biden wants to go two-for-two: he wants to take out Benjamin Netanyahu. And it looks like he will get a chance, as Israel lurches toward another election next year.
Let go inside Biden’s brain. The former senator is a brilliant politician. You have to give him that. Third-rate mind, first-rate temperament (per the old definition). Biden ran a great campaign, without one misstep. He knows how to delegate. His statements since the election have been faultless. He will have 7 million votes and 4 percentage points over Trump when this is done. Dragonslayer.
Now Biden’s ambitions have moved on; and getting rid of Netanyahu serves him in countless ways.
1, Biden dreams of being a great president; after all, the circumstances demand greatness. But to even start down that road, Biden needs to get out from under the shadow of Barack Obama. One way he will do that is, take a different path with Netanyahu than Obama did. No, Joe Biden is not as smart or chill or well-spoken as Obama, but he is way better at politics/relationships. Look for an all-new relationship. Biden has secretly hated Israeli arrogance for 40 years, and starting Day 1 he will give Netanyahu a smile and a wave and the cold shoulder. He will be able to do what Obama couldn’t because, He is not a greenhorn, to be tested from the very start–no, Biden has a long history of being a “Zionist” and loving “Bibi”– and of course he’s not a black man with leftwing errata on his resume.
2, The politics have changed, and Biden knows it. Yes he’s an old fogy but he knows that his base HATES Netanyahu. Every supposed Israel-Lover Biden has on his team, from Antony Blinken to Avril Haines to Tamara Wittes, on down the line — they hate that asshole for everything he has done to destroy the Iran deal and to show up Obama back when, and to suck up to Trump and destroy the two-state solution. And yes it’s personal. Jen Psaki and Neera Tanden both had their resumes befouled by Netanyahu, but who has the hammer now? Netanyahu figured he couldn’t poison the relationship because he had the Israel lobby at his back. Famously: “America is a thing that can be easily moved.” That was true under Obama. Now not so much. A good portion of the Israel lobby inside the Democratic Party HATES Netanyahu. All those people — J Street — will have Biden’s back as he goes into the Iran deal and puts his foot down on settlements and tells Israel, The party’s over.
3, Biden will interfere in his own way in Israeli politics. It’s no coincidence that his foreign policy team is loaded with putative “Zionists.” And Biden’s Jewish-with-Holocaust-pedigree Secretary of State will send a chill to Netanyahu out of the gate. Blinken will deliver John Kerry’s death-of-the-two-state solution speech of 2016 but do it with klezmer. Biden has been around a long time and he knows one thing about Israeli politics. They are HUGELY engaged with U.S. politics. Martin Indyk has told Biden one of the key points from his own memoir–
Yitzhak Shamir [in ’92] and Bibi Netanyahu [in ’99] lost their reelection bids in large part because the Israeli electorate saw them as ignoring or flouting the concerns of American presidents.
Two centrist generals (who had committed a lot of human rights violations) replaced those rightwingers: Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. Biden wants to do the same magic trick with Benny Gantz. Israelis will see that they are out of step with the U.S. and they’ll choose Gantz because he is more fluid than Netanyahu.
Will it work? Probably not. Israeli Jewish politics are very rightwing. Frankly, the place is irredeemable. (Apartheid corrupts the soul.)
But expect some bold signals from the Biden administration. Putting Netanyahu on Ignore. Adopting a firm stance against further settlements. Maybe some outreach to Ayman Odeh of the Joint List.
The impetus here is How much Democrats hate Netanyahu. And hate the fact that he sits outside their door like an overgrown troll. I’m sure it’s not in his bullshit memoir, but Barack Obama complained about Netanyahu to Sarkozy on a hot mike nearly 10 years ago, “You’re tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day.”
About the same time, Netanyahu humiliated Joe Biden when he came to Israel, announcing new settlements as the vice presidential plane touched down.
Now Netanyahu’s at it again, pushing settlements to see how Biden responds.
When I was a young journalist, Don Fraser the late former mayor of Minneapolis (and a truly emulable person), told me that one of the pleasures of a long political career was getting even. If someone screwed you, you just have to be patient, he said with a smile. One day, you’ll get your shot, and take it. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Joe Biden is about to get that chance.
h/t James North.
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