French academic: Biden declared himself a Zionist since 1973 | Policy

A French academic said that Joe Biden, the first president of the United States to declare himself a Zionist, is still determined to remain faithful to a commitment that lasted more than half a century in favor of Israel, and now, despite being “the most powerful man in the world,” he has not been able to prevent the ongoing Israeli military operation in Rafah. .

Political science professor Jean-Pierre Filho asked – in his column in Le Monde newspaper – why the American Democrats chose the octogenarian Joe Biden to confront former President Donald Trump, who is four years younger than him, highlighting that Biden’s age is no more controversial than his repeated and embarrassing mistakes, such as his mixing between Haifa and Rafah. When urging him not to attack the latter.

Filho reviewed the biography of Biden (born in 1942), who became a Democratic member of the Senate at the age of 30, making his first visit abroad to Egypt and Israel in 1973. He was only received in Egypt by second-class officials, and instead his meeting was in Israel. With Prime Minister Golda Meir, “one of the most important meetings” of his life, in his opinion.

Biden often recounts how the Prime Minister revealed to him “Israel’s secret weapon,” saying, “We have nowhere else to go.” She would repeat in the American media that the “Palestinian nation” does not exist, nor does the “Palestinian people,” and she would also say that “She cannot forgive the Palestinians for forcing her to kill their children,” a quote widely used today in Israel, according to the writer.

The young Senator Biden returned from Israel so enthusiastic that he declared himself a “Zionist,” and kept repeating that publicly, explaining every time that “it is not necessary to be a Jew to be a Zionist.”

Biden supported Menachem Begin’s government in its invasion of Lebanon in 1982, despite the deaths of many civilians, and his enthusiasm reached such a point that it was Begin who had to moderate his exaggeration, reminding Biden that any combatant party was required to preserve women and children.

If it were not for Israel, we would have invented it

Biden enthusiastically defended the massive military aid to Israel in Congress, saying, “It is the best investment we have ever made at $3 billion. If there had been no Israel, the United States would have had to invent Israel to protect its interests in the region.”

Biden voted in favor of the Congressional decision to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an initiative that would undermine the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace process at the time. It was carried out by the Republican right to embarrass both US President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was then assassinated on… The hand of a Jewish extremist.

The current American president has devoted most of his diplomatic energy in the Middle East to achieving normalization between Israel and Arab countries, instead of relaunching an Israeli-Palestinian peace process worthy of this name.

Thus, Biden abdicated the role of the United States as a historical mediator, according to the writer, and the attack of October 7, 2023 did not change anything in his bias, confirming with him his country’s inability to stop the ongoing tragedy, and what is worse is that he believed the lie of “terrorists who behead children.” Before his devices denied it.

Philo considered that Biden’s recent decision to suspend a single military shipment to Israel after a real air bridge amounts to recognition of a form of joint combat, as the White House claims its ability to control the scope and intensity of the war waged by its ally in Gaza.