By forcing Israel to end its two-year genocide in Gaza, the Republican president has done what his predecessor Joe Biden and his 2024 challenger Kamala Harris refused to do: act

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/37931397

Mitchell Plitnick
20 October 2025 09:18 BST

US President Donald Trump is boasting of having brought peace to the Middle East, a claim that is wildly exaggerated. But he has, at least for the moment, brought an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Trump’s willingness to use the tools of his office to pressure Israel into accepting his terms for a ceasefire - terms quite favourable to Israel but falling short of the ambitions of its far-right government - reflects poorly on his predecessor, Joe Biden, and his 2024 presidential challenger, Kamala Harris.

It also vindicates the anti-Trump critics within the Democratic Party who implored their leaders to take a forceful stand against Israel’s genocide, warning they could lose the election if they refused.

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
    107·
    5 days ago

    The refusal to do anything but give Israel more weapons from Biden combined with Kamala’s refusal to show any willingness to be different on the issue in her short campaign will be seen as the strategic political blunder that destroyed the Democratic party and one of the largest political miscalculations of the early 21st century.

    Genocide Joe will always be the name I remember Biden by.

    Indeed, according to long-time Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin, a similar deal was proposed more than a year ago, and Biden refused even to consider it.

    “Hamas agreed to the same terms in September 2024,” Baskin wrote. “But at the time, the response of Israeli negotiators was that ‘the Prime Minister does not agree to end the war.’ Even though the proposed ‘three-week deal’ reached President Biden’s office, his envoy Brett McGurk refused to mention the bad deal he was negotiating. I met with members of the US negotiating team in October 2024 and they were as frustrated as I was by their inability to persuade Biden and his advisers to seriously consider the deal.”