Biden not ready for prime time (March 19)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
After watching a little television Thursday night, I said a little prayer for the health and long life of President Obama.
The program I watched had a few minutes of video of Vice President Joe Biden speaking to the annual dinner of the White House press corps, and one could see why he never made it to first base in his run for president. His attempts to be funny were sad, sad because he was trying to be clever and self-effacing, but he wasn’t getting it.
He had just come from Israel, where he insulted our allies by taking umbrage at the fact that the Israelis were going to build 1,600 new housing units in north Jerusalem. Why that should upset him, or even President Obama, is a real head-scratcher.
Here is a little something Biden should know: Israel is building the housing development on undisputed land, within its own borders. The Palestinians, who have never kept a peace treaty with Israel under any circumstances, made an objection, and Biden saw that as an embarrassment to him. Where did that come from? Israel is encircled by 21 countries who have sworn themselves as enemies of Israel, and these countries build new housing developments all the time.
Meanwhile, Hamas lobs a missile into Israel from Gaza, hits a greenhouse, and kills a worker. Was Biden upset about that? If he was, he kept it to himself.
Each of the countries of the Middle East, Israel included, has the right to build housing within its own borders. None of them has a right to lob missiles at the other unless attacked first.
According to Harvard Prof. Ruth R. Wisse, writing in The Wall Street Journal, the Arab countries have at least 800 times more land than the Israelis, and they build new housing, whole new towns, all the time. But does any of them put in even a duplex for Palestinians? What do you suppose Biden thinks about that? Let’s hope he doesn’t take over.
