Michael Beschloss: Israel Is There Because of the Holocaust and Now Innocent Civilians in Gaza Are Dying

BESCHLOSS: “Well, I think you’ve got it exactly right. You know, I’m sure that Joe Biden and his people do not look at this primarily through a domestic election political lens, but you know, the Democratic Convention is going to be in Chicago this summer. There was a pretty rocky Democratic Convention that came apart over a war in Vietnam, in 1968. The last thing they want to see is crowds outside the conventional hall, protesting a war that’s still going on, and a president that doesn’t seem to have managed it. So you go back to history. You know, Israel is there because of the Holocaust. Let’s remember that. On the seventh of October was the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. And at the same time since then, tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza who did not need to die, and a prime minister who has stayed on against most expectations in Israel after his own failures. So what does that mean? What that means, I think historically, go back to history, almost every single Israeli conflict the Americans have been strong allies of Israel in most cases, but also strong critics and your critic is your friend. 1956, Suez. 1967, the Six Day War, 1973, the Yom Kippur War, the late 1970s, Mika’s dad, Dr. Brzezinski and Jimmy Carter brilliantly, both encouraged and, you know, applied, you know, very strict pressure on the Israelis to say, ‘We think you need a Camp David peace treaty that will lead to peace in the Middle East. Without the American influence, that peace which the Israelis have benefited from for over 40 years, never would have happened. So I think what you’re —“
SCARBOROUGH: “Right.”
BESCHLOSS: “— seeing is a president who is acting in the way that Americans have American presidents in the context of past history, and at the same time, knows that you can’t get into a fall election where something like this is so much in play and international actors know that they can mess around with the American campaign by causing trouble.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Yeah.”