i appreciate your comment and thinking -- a good exploration of the conflict. though i think it's still compatible with not unreasonable, incredibly cynical political calculation. by coming out strongly for israel, biden shores up the suburbs and donors (yes, at the risk of progressive enthusiasm), and he hopes the conflict ends soon. but if it doesn't, public opinion continues to shift, he can pin the blunders/horrors on bibi and counsel moderation on the issue going forward (trump, even the maverick that he is, will not be able to outflank him; the GOP is too thoroughly invested in the cultural atmospherics of the zionist project). middle east catastrophe doesn't matter to voters, just as ukraine/russian catastrophe doesn't matter; these are complicated, intractable issues of alien, inscrutable peoples, and as long as american boys aren't over there, and as long as americans aren't fleeing in choppers, no one cares, and Biden will not be seen as holding the bag.

really, by giving bibi a blank cheque for terror-violence, biden's allowed public opinion to shift in such a way that the GOP will not be able to take advantage; had Biden positioned himself such that he tempered Israeli objectives and prevented much of the indiscriminate terror-violence, then Biden takes the heat for being squishy and a bad friend to jews, and israeli isn't empowered to incredible evil and the public-opinion on zionism remains at status quo ante. i think biden's polling is a disaster there, and calls to replace him become seriously considered.