Has the vice president gone missing? Or is he hiding in a secure undisclosed location?
Strong words delivered by Joe Biden during his visit to Israel were widely reported last week.
“This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden warned his Israeli hosts. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.”
Many in Washington were apparently so shocked that Biden could have said something like this, they were, for several days, dumb-struck and rendered immobile.
One of the first to regain his senses was Jeffrey Goldberg. It can’t be true, Goldberg thought, and then set about getting to the bottom or at the very least the periphery of the story.
Where would one turn if one wanted to find out what the vice president said? Maybe the Office of the Vice President? Not if you’re Goldberg. He asked some fellow at the White House.
Meanwhile, Eric Re-Cantor had a chat with Rahm Emanuel, and the White House Chief of Staff confirmed that he too had heard from some guy (could have been Biden himself — we don’t know) that Biden was misquoted.
I guess I’m a bit of a stickler because when it comes to establishing what Biden did or did not say, I’d prefer to hear it from the vice president himself — or at least in a written statement from his office. He has a reputation for being blunt. I dearly hope he hasn’t lost it.
I’m proud of Joe Biden. He did the right thing.
Don’t worry: [from my post on Mondoweiss]
we all know how this works – only historians really care about what was really said and done and by whom
in the moment-to-moment real world what matters is perception and the linkage has been made by no less than a sitting Vice-President with a son serving in wars that serve israel’s objectives
wherever it came from the current perception is the Vice-President Joe Biden was insulted and humiliated while on a visit to israel and that it was done deliberately, and that israel has little to no regard for how its actions put American lives in jeapoardy
… the proverbial cat is out of the bag – there is no going back
We shall see what comes out of all the back & forth. All things considered, sounds like a classic case of Washington “Kabuki”. Distract in order to cover up.
Righteous indignation aside, nothing will change Israel’s coony-building, as Israel intends of colonizine all land west of the Jordan River. US hegemonic control of unstable regimes that do the bidding of military-industrialists and energy companies is a higher Washington priority than justice for Palestinians. If Israel is abandoned by the US because of its war crimes and intransigence against peace, jihadists will be emboldened and regional chaos will ensue. Light sweet crude that flows to Asia-Pacific and other allies will be interrupted, and ultimate hegemonic control of those governments will be at risk. Palestinians will continue to pay the price of US emperialism, despite rhetorical mouthings of US leaders.