Image source, Getty Images
In the newspaper roundup, we explore an article about US President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the election race, another article in the Jerusalem Post about the role of Biden’s advisers, and another article about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.
We begin the tour with the British newspaper The Telegraph, which wrote an editorial entitled “Biden’s decision came too late,” commenting on US President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race, which he announced on Sunday.
“Joe Biden has come too late in his decision to withdraw from the race for the White House, which is to say that it is too late for his party to adapt to the new reality,” the newspaper says. “Just as the assassination attempt on Donald Trump a week ago changed the dynamics of the presidential election, things have changed again.”
“President Biden has increasingly looked incapable of performing his current duties, let alone running America for the next four years if he is re-elected. Last night, former President Donald Trump raised the question of whether the current president is actually capable of completing his term until next January. This is a valid question that the current administration needs convincing answers to.”
Before Biden’s announcement, Democrats were facing the prospect of a heavy defeat at the hands of Trump and Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, according to the newspaper.
“Democrats are hoping that calculus will change. President Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, last night. He called her an “extraordinary partner” and now likely to be his successor as nominee.”
However, most commentators see her as unlikely to beat Trump and Vance, and that could still persuade Democrats to pick an unlikely candidate at the party convention in Chicago next month, according to the Telegraph.
“Democrats are in a similar position to 1968 when Lyndon Johnson dropped out during the primaries. However, Biden had already secured the party’s nomination, so the mechanisms for selecting a new candidate are less clear.”
“There are fears of a series of legal challenges after Biden’s exclusion from the list, because each US state has its own electoral system under the constitution. How this will be resolved is not yet clear,” the newspaper said.
“President Biden’s weakness was obvious to everyone except, it seemed, many in the Democratic Party establishment and parts of the American media,” the newspaper’s editorial said.
“Today’s events are the culmination of an embarrassment that certainly began in February, if not earlier, when special counsel Robert Hur called President Biden “a well-meaning old man with a short memory,” the editorial says. “A series of missteps culminated in last month’s televised debate against Trump that convinced all but his staunchest allies that he should walk away.”
“Even just a day or two ago, the president was insisting that he could continue. His decision to withdraw was the right one. But it should have happened months ago. That would have given Democrats time to choose a candidate who could compete against Trump in the November election. It is not worth the administration and the Democratic Party to make this decision so late,” the paper concluded.
“Treason to America”
Moving on to the Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, and an article titled “Biden’s advisers betrayed America by hiding the truth about his health,” written by Zvika Klein.
“President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race and subsequent endorsement of Kamala Harris has pulled the rug out from under Democrats,” he wrote. “However, the real scandal is not Biden’s decision to step down, but the deceitful cover-up by his advisers that led to this disaster.”
The writer spoke about the last debate between Biden and Trump, saying: “When Biden stumbled in that debate like a drunken boxer, it wasn’t just a stormy night, it was a moment of unmasking… And yet, his advisers continued to evade and lie until the bitter end.”
“The Democratic Party, already navigating turbulent waters, is now rudderless. The last thing they needed was for their leader to collapse at the helm. If Biden’s advisers had any respect or foresight, they would have sounded the alarm months ago, allowing for a smooth transition. Instead, they chose to bluff, letting Biden stumble publicly before finally pulling the plug,” the writer wrote.
“Biden’s staff — the so-called ‘advisers’ — have a lot to answer for. Their job was to advise and protect the president, not prop him up by holding him up like a puppet in a macabre show. They knew his abilities, they saw his suffering, and they hid the truth. Why? To save face? To cling to power? Whatever the reason, it was a grave miscalculation,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
“Kamala Harris now inherits a poisoned chalice,” the writer says. “She must unite a divided party, repair the damage, and run a campaign in record time—all while under the deception that led to this point. The Democratic base feels betrayed, and rightly so. They were sold a lie, and now they are paying the price.”
“Biden’s advisers thought they could deceive the public, but their deception has only led to disaster. The American people deserved to know the truth about their president’s health, and they were denied it. Now Biden’s legacy and the future of the Democratic Party are at stake,” he concluded.
Netanyahu and Biden’s Severance Pay
Image source, AFP
Finally, we conclude our tour from Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper and an article entitled “Netanyahu and Biden’s End of Service Bonus,” written by Palestinian Nabil Amr.
The author discusses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, where he is scheduled to address the US Congress on July 24, and compares it to a similar visit Netanyahu made under former US President Barack Obama in 2015.
He wrote: “The theatrical appearance of the visit and the speech will be repeated verbatim, as long as it is a matter of prior arrangements, the requirements of the election season and the frenzied competition for every vote and for the generous Jewish funding that every candidate for any position seeks… in the great state.”
“However, there is something new behind the theatrical appearance this time, embodied by Netanyahu’s situation between the last speech he gave behind Obama’s back, and the speech he is giving behind Biden’s back,” according to the article.
“It is true that the dying president will pretend to be satisfied with the visit and the speech, and will open the doors of the White House that were closed, but what is more true is that the president who was forced to change his mind will receive from Netanyahu something like a severance package, perhaps in the form of limited flexibility towards Biden’s initiative regarding the Gaza war,” according to the newspaper.
The writer believes that Netanyahu is visiting Washington under different circumstances than his predecessors, “He is visiting Washington while his failed war, in which he has involved America, is entering its tenth month, with no signs that it is on its way to ending.”
“Netanyahu is visiting America this time, and behind him is a burning Middle East. The American administration’s moves to work in it to contain the fires have been of no use, especially since its fires are affecting America’s allies and friends much more than they are affecting its enemies.”
The writer compares Netanyahu’s popularity inside Israel to the time of his last speech before Congress during the Obama era, when “Netanyahu enjoyed popular consensus in Israel,” while now “in Israel, the number of those demonstrating against him is increasing, trying to prevent his plane from taking off, and demanding early elections, in the hope of getting rid of him. And in the world, he and his country are being convicted by the International Court of Justice, and he and his defense minister are being pursued by the International Criminal Court.”
The writer referred to the corruption cases that are pursuing Netanyahu domestically, and concluded, “This is some of the new information surrounding Netanyahu during his current visit to Washington. The carefully prepared arrangements for the production of the play may show a different picture of the man’s condition and status, but the facts that a broad American audience has discovered… seem like a sun that is not blocked by a sieve. This is in America, so what about the situation in the world?”