Flashback: Biden Said Israel Would Be “Ill Advised” To Attack Iran
Yesterday Joe Biden seemed to suggest that the United States wouldn’t interfere if Israel decided it had to attack Iran. Biden said the U.S. couldn’t “dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do.”
There’s some question over whether this represents a ratcheting up of pressure on Iran by the White House.
So it’s worth recalling that in an interview back in April, Biden was far more willing to warn against an attack, calling it “ill advised”:
Biden said in a CNN interview that he does not believe newly installed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would take such a step. Even so, his comment underscored a gap between the conservative new Israeli government and the Obama White House on a series of questions, including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Iran…
With his brief comment Tuesday, Biden became the highest-ranking administration official to caution the Jewish state against a military strike. In the interview, Biden was asked whether he was concerned that Netanyahu might strike Iranian nuclear facilities.
“I don’t believe Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that. I think he would be ill advised to do that,” Biden said.
This does seem to show a bit more clearly that Biden’s statement yesterday was a hardening of the White House position towards Iran, or at least a hardening of Biden’s position towards Iran.
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Greg, you know I love you man, but this is beyond a stretch. VP Biden was responding to a directed question.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/07/sitroom.03.html
Mind you this wasn’t long after the elections even took place in Israel. Sorry man but I just can’t ride with this meme.
I think you are looking for an issue. No politician can deal with an issue without nuance. Netanyahu had just become PM and Biden was responding and sending a signalat that time. Mitchell has been hard at work and reporting back. Iran has shown volatility. Biden is reflecting the “shifting sands” nature of ME diplomacy. What analysts love to do is look for inconsistencies as if all political decisions are carved in stone.You could see that at the Press Conference in Moscow today. Both sides modified positions. It is a fact of life. My take: journalists love to show Biden as being too talkative and somewhat inconsistent pol. Its become a game. But I would stack up his experience against a fp analyst any day of the week.
SG — tone matters, and yesterday Biden clearly sounded a different tone…In response to yesterday’s question, Biden clearly could have said something similar to what he said in April: We can’t tell a sovereign nation what to do, but we think it would be ill advised.” He stopped short of that. And alan, no one is questioning Biden’s fp expertise…
Are you getting a tad picky? Remember the guys who know it all are op-ed writers. The lads who have to do it get elected and find that “compromise” and Nuance” are the things that matter.
Greg
I love you like a play brother so Im going to post this and then hopefully it will be the end of it ok?
http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2008/09/03/999557/biden-on-the-line
Deal?
SG — that was before the dude was in charge, bro…
LOL ok I give up then because I would think what is said on the campaign trail would be pretty significant, especially at a time when EVERYBODY was trying to catch him in a gaffe.
So: you are saying “that was before…” If he changes his position would you not say: ” He told us one thing during the campaign and now….” Where are you going with this Greg?
vic, come on, Stephanopoulos and the NY Times both reported that Biden has been privately urging a harder line on Iran. Is it really that surprising that he would let this hang out there? We’re not saying this was some big flip flop. We’re saying that he’s clearly hardening his line…or, if it wasn’t intentional, he spoke a bit recklessly. It wouldn’t even be that surprising for Biden to harden his line given recent events.
It’s stupid for Israel to try and attack Iran at this point. Crazy.
Greg, I am sorry but the facts don’t support the NYTimes, GS, or unfortunately you this time. They just don’t.
SG, what I mean is, the NYTimes and Steph both also reported that Biden was privately urging a tougher line. No one to my knowledge has disputed this, and no facts that I’m aware of disprove it
Greg but that doesn’t really mean anything does it? What does what he said privately have to do with the merits of what he ACTUALLY said publicly?
SG — because if he’s privately pushing for a harder line on Iran, he’d be more likely to let something publicly hang out there on purpose. Biden could have said this yesterday: “We can’t tell a sovereign nation what to do and what not to do. But we think such an attack would be ill-advised.” He chose not to. My basic point is that I don’t think my read is such a stretch, given what we know, or at least think we know.
Greg: I have got to hand it to you; you are defending a position/interpretation. I guess I don’t take the NYT or GS at their word anymore. Its scepticism time all round. I can see Biden bobbing and weaving. But the one thing US pols have found easy in being consistent on Israel. AIPAC is too close to home.
Im going to leave it alone with this last quote from yesterday on TWWGS:
To me that is a pretty clear statement that Biden believes our approach is the right one. It is what it is.
Re: “Yesterday Joe Biden seemed to suggest that the United States wouldn’t interfere if Israel decided it had to attack Iran. Biden said the U.S. couldn’t “dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do.”
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There’s some question over whether this represents a ratcheting up of pressure on Iran by the White House.”
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Actually, I think this latest statement from Biden simultaneously puts pressure on Israel while removing culpability from the US – domestic political culpability for Israel NOT acting for its safety.
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As Andrea suggested above, it would be crazy for Israel to bomb Iran. With the more diplomatic and moderate Obama Admin, Israel threatening to bomb Iran and the Obama Admin applying high pressure to thwart it would serve two purposes for Israeli hardliners – 1)it allows them to appear tougher despite not acting, and 2) it creates a space for Obama political opponents (right wing) to cast him as politically/militarily weak wrt Iran and Israeli security.
I am fine with this latest statement from Biden.
Just a suggestion — if you are going to make a point by plucking two statements by the same person to suggest that they represent a change in position, please give some context, like the question to which they were responding, the complete statement they made, any follow-up clarification. As someone above pointed out, Biden has also made the same statement about a sovereign nation’s right to act own its own before.
Rather than seeing these statements as contradictory, I think that if they were set out in context it would be clear that Biden, as a spokesperson of Obama and the administration, has taken and continues to take a very consistent position: (1) Israel (and any sovereign nation) has the right to act in its own best interest; we don’t call the shots *and* (2) an attack by Israel on Iran would be ill-advised and something the US might no/would not view at all favorably.
In yesterday’s interview the second point was conveyed when he said, and the manner in which he said, that Israel would have to act in its own best interest while the US would have to act in OUR own best interest: in other words, we aren’t in your back pocket and may not back you up if you do something foolish. In truth, while I was listening to it, I thought THAT was the most startling statement, not the rather banal and irrefutable statement that we aren’t in control of what Israel may decide to do.
Very much on point: Juan Cole’s blog today
http://www.juancole.com/
Conclusion: “So what Biden was really saying is that the Obama administration intends to engage Iran diplomatically, and that if anyone wants Iran attacked they will have to do it themselves. This is not a green light to the Israelis, who hardly need one. It is a tough message to the right wing of the Israel lobbies that the Obama administration is not going to launch any hostilities with Iran, even after the hard line power grab of three weeks ago.”