Biden’s West Asia policy has been a 'disaster' that will 'haunt his legacy': Activist

By Press TV Website Staff

US President Joe Biden’s foreign policy, particularly in West Asia, has been a “disaster” that will “haunt his legacy,” says a noted American human rights activist and academic.

In an interview with the Press TV website on Monday, Rev. Dr. Donald Wagner, a retired Presbyterian clergyman, professor, and human rights campaigner, said Biden, who will leave the office in January, will be known by progressives as “Genocide Joe.”

Biden, a member of the Democratic Party, defeated Trump in 2021 to become the 46^th president of the US. His party lost the presidential vote earlier this month, paving the way for Trump's return. 

Biden, who frequently spoke about undoing the damage caused by his predecessor, has been involved in the modern era’s worst humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza by enabling the Israeli genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged territory.

Despite vociferous calls inside and outside the US to halt the arms supplies to the Israeli regime, the Biden administration not only sent a record amount of lethal arms to Tel Aviv but also vetoed multiple UN Security Council resolutions that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Dr. Wagner, author of ‘Glory to God in the Lowest: Journeys to an Unholy Land’, said the outgoing American president’s pro-Zionism “blinded him from seeing Palestinians as the victims of a primarily US-financed genocide which is inexcusable.”

“He lost the youth and progressives early on after Oct. 7, 2023, and his fake “red-lines” to Netanyahu were only empty rhetoric as he kept financing the genocide despite polling showing 70 percent of Democrats and even a majority of Republicans wanted the war to end, humanitarian aid increased, and over 50 percent supported stopping aid to Israel,” he told the Press TV website.

“He ended his term a weak, lame duck who allowed Netanyahu to play him at the expense of Palestinian lives who did not seem to matter to him. Biden also failed to keep his campaign pledge to reenter the nuclear treaty with Iran, another concession to Netanyahu and the pro-Israel lobby.”

Biden famously boasted about being a “Zionist” during his visit to Tel Aviv in October 2023 where he met and held talks with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his war cabinet.

“I don't believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist,” he told Netanyahu.

Over the past 13 months of the genocidal war on Gaza, which has claimed nearly 43,900 lives, 70 percent of them children and women, Biden has continued to supply arms to Tel Aviv.

His successor, the megalomaniac real estate tycoon-turned-politician is also known for his close ties with Netanyahu and has already made his intentions clear by nominating pro-war hawks in his cabinet.

“Trump´s first term as President (2016-20) is the best measurement of his M-East policies and what he will do, which is concede to Netanyahu perhaps more than Biden did,” Dr. Wagner said.

He said Trump has already told Netanyahu to “finish the job in Gaza,” which amounts to a “blanket endorsement of genocide.”

“He will lean on his corrupt son-in-law Jared Kushner who loves Netanyahu and will also be “played” by him in terms of the settlements, and Israel expelling or killing the population of Gaza which will be turned over to Israeli real estate developers and recolonized by Israeli settlers,” he told the Press TV website.

Dr. Wagner, who has made several trips to Palestine and Lebanon that led to his embrace of the Palestinian cause, said Netanyahu needs to “satisfy” his cabinet members such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smoltrich or it will “collapse” and he will be convicted of three corruption charges.

“Bibi needs to keep the war going so I expect that is what we will get in a Trump admin.  There may be a brief pause in Lebanon that will make Trump look good but it will not last,” he stated.

“Trump´s goal is similar to Biden´s for the region:  to conclude the disastrous Abraham Accords led by the Saudis that will normalize relations with Israel, ignore Palestinian sovereignty and rights, and create a new economic and security arrangement for US-Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, that will marginalize Iran and keep China (and the Soviets) out or with limited influence in the region.”

However, he hastened to add that it may be a “miscalculation” as the Arab masses are with the people of Palestine now following nearly 410 days of genocide.

“How this will play out is the unknown factor and how much pressure it puts on MBS and the Saudis is a key to watch,” the human rights activist and author noted.

He further said that Trump will “probably” lean on Ukraine to end the war with Russia, which will be a “victory for Putin,” and that he will reduce the US military aid to Kiev and tell Europe and NATO “they need to carry the load from now on.”

“He was ready to do this in 2016-20.  Again this is a new day and it’s a different NATO so Trump may slow-walk this one but my guess is he will remain true to his former bias and reduce the US investment in Ukraine perhaps gradually to test the waters.

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