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Biden's foreign policy is antithesis of Palin's
One vice-presidential candidate describes himself as a Zionist, the other believes the Iraq war was ordered by God.
- By Adel SaftySpecial to Gulf News
- Published: 00:11 October 20, 2008
Given Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's lack of experience in foreign affairs, vice-presidential running mate Joe Biden's views on foreign policy are likely to carry some weight in an Obama administration..
Similarly, given Republican presidential candidate John McCain's age and health, he is more likely to die in office than his running mate Sarah Palin, who would then become president.
The views of the two vice-presidential candidates on foreign policy and especially the Middle East are therefore more than a matter of intellectual curiosity. They are crucial issues of national and international interest.
The picture that emerges from Biden's foreign policy and Middle East record is one of contradictions. When it comes to Israel, however, Biden's position has been consistent all along. He has been a supporter of the Israeli right wing rejectionist camp.
First in terms of contradictions consider the following. Biden opposed the 1991 war against Iraq to end Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, which was authorised by the UN Security Council. Yet, he strongly supported the 2003 war against Iraq, which failed to get authorisation from the UN Security Council and was widely condemned as an illegal war of aggression. He also used his position as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to stifle anti-war voices, and to propagate falsehoods about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
He strongly opposed the Republicans' claim that the president has the constitutional power to wage war without authorisation from Congress. He voted against legislation generally interpreted as paving the way for war against Iran.
Biden also criticised the Bush administration for entertaining adventurous plans for regime change in Iran and called for diplomatic engagement. He met with Iranian officials in Davos. He maintains, however, that a nuclear Iran is "unacceptable".
When it comes to Israel, however, he has been consistent in his biased and unedifying support for the rejectionist camp in Israel. He blames the Palestinians and absolves the Israelis of responsibility for all violence. He co-sponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, which banned all American aid to the Palestinian authority after democratic elections brought Hamas to power.
The Bush administration strongly supported Israel's 2006 war against Lebanon against the mounting international outcry in the face of Israel's bombing of civilian targets and destruction of Lebanese infrastructure. In particular, the Bush administration shamelessly blocked efforts to adopt a ceasefire resolution at the UN in order to give Israel more time to achieve its elusive war aims.
Yet, Biden criticised the Bush administration for not providing more aggressive support for Israel and called the war "a totally legitimate self-defence effort".
Little wisdom
Perhaps nothing more poignantly illustrates Biden's blind identification with Israel than his statement to an Israeli television station Shalom TV: "I am a Zionist." Imagine the outcry that would be provoked if an American vice-presidential candidate were to declare: "I am a Palestinian nationalist." His fate would be instantly sealed.
If Biden has experience but little wisdom when it comes to the Middle East, Palin seems to have neither. Prior to being Governor of Alaska, she was the mayor of a small town with no exposure to foreign policy issues
McCain chose her, "a wildly irresponsible choice," wrote the editors of the New York Times, not because she may be useful to the country, but because she may be useful to him - appealing to the Christian conservative right and to the disaffected women who supported Hillary Clinton. Palin has the temerity to make some incredulous claims. For example, she claims that her involvement with the oil industry in Alaska gave her experience in national security because "energy is the basis of national security".
An interview with Charles Gibson from ABC Television recently gave the first insights into Palin's views on foreign policy. They were not reassuring. On the recent US attacks in Pakistan, Palin had no problem with American forces going across the border into Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government.
Palin's views on foreign policy and the Middle East are as simplistic as they are dangerous, founded in ignorance and coloured by apocalyptic religious beliefs.
Palin told an audience that she believed that the American invasion of Iraq was a "task from God" a statement reminiscent of George W. Bush's description of the invasion of Iraq as a crusade.
The Washington Times reported that "Palin displays an Israeli flag in her governor's office in Juneau, even though she has never been to the country, and attends Protestant evangelical churches that consider the preservation of the state of Israel a biblical imperative." She also has links to organisations with apocalyptic visions of the end of the world, such as Christians United for Israel
It is a stunning picture of deja vu, painted in contradictions and coloured by muddled thinking and blind bias: One vice-presidential candidate describes himself as a Zionist, the other believes the Iraq war was ordered by God, is ready to go to war with Russia, and has Israel's flag in her office.
- Prof. Adel Safty is author of From Camp David to the Gulf. Montreal. New York.
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