Dem
51
GOP
49
For various reasons, both political and geopolitical, the Biden administration has rarely said "no" to Israel since the Israelis commenced their current war in Gaza. The one exception to that was a shipment of heavy-duty 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs, which were likely to harm civilians far out of proportion to any military good they might do.
Yesterday, "no" became a partial "yes," as the White House announced that the 500-pound bombs would be released to the Israeli military. The official explanation is that the 500-pound bombs were not the concern, the 2,000-pound bombs were, but the two munitions tend to be stored together. So, putting a halt on the latter put a de facto halt on the former. But now that the 500-pound bombs have been separated out, they can be sent on their way.
We do not know anywhere near enough about munitions to know if this story passes muster. What we do know is that if this had happened a month ago, it would have been HUGE news. But with the news cycle having moved on to new things (e.g., Joe Biden's mental capacity), it was treated as a minor story (if it was covered at all).
And that brings us right back to BidenWatch 2024. Most stories, no matter how big they seem in the moment, eventually lose steam. A month ago, we were not too happy having to write about Israel/Gaza every single day. Right now, we are not too happy having to write about Biden's capacity/lack thereof every single day. It's hard to imagine, in the moment, that the "Biden must go" stories will eventually fade. But it was also hard to imagine that the Israel/Gaza stories would fade, and yet they have, at least for now. It doesn't always work that way; Richard Nixon was sure that the annoying story about that silly hotel would go away, and he was very wrong. But it does work that way a lot of the time, so don't be too surprised if Biden survives the current crisis, and the stories of his demise start to seem pretty distant. Of course, if he shows up for and botches debate #2, then all bets are off. (Z)