Dragging Them Across The Finish Line: Cunningham, Biden And Abbas (Daled Amos)

A couple of weeks ago, Stacey Matthews -- who also writes under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah-- wrote a post for Legal Insurrection, NC Gov. Roy Cooper Caught on Hot Mic Telling Joe Biden They’ll Drag Cal Cunningham Over Finish Line. Cunningham is the Democratic Senate nominee for North Carolina who, despite a scandal, may win his election anyway.

That is the opinion of North Carolina's Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who was overheard on a hot mic as he assured Joe Biden:

“I think we’re gonna all get across the line. I think Cal’s gonna get across the line, too. I know that’s frustrating. We’ll get him across.” [emphasis added]

There was a time when scandals had consequences, but Cunningham is laying low for the duration of his campaign and may just win.

Speaking of Joe Biden, there is no clear indication of what effect the questions surrounding his son Hunter will have on the presidential election. Like Cunningham, Joe Biden has not mounted a counter-attack against the accusations.

Then again, why should he?

The only thing getting more attention than the apparent scandal surrounding Biden's son, is the transparent attempt of the media -- both social and mainstream -- to bury the issue.

Writing last week about Glenn Greenwald's resignation from The Intercept, which Greenwald helped found, Matt Taibi reports on pressure for journalists to help the Democrats cross the finish line:

In the last few weeks I’ve heard from multiple well-known journalists going through struggles in their newsrooms, with pressure to avoid certain themes in campaign coverage often central to their worries. There are many reporters out there — most of them quite personally hostile to Donald Trump — who are grating under what they perceive as relentless pressure to publish material favorable to the Democratic Party cause.

We'll soon see how successful that pressure has been.

Putting domestic politics aside, there is an apparent effort, on an international level, to help an old favorite finally cross the finish line.

Al-Monitor is reporting that Palestinian international peace conference gaining traction

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, sounded upbeat about the interest of the world community in participating in the suggested conference due to take place after the inauguration of a new US president in 2021.

The Security Council discussions revealed near-unanimous support for the initiative presented by Abbas at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 25. [emphasis added]

France has come out in support of The Abraham Accords, saying that while preferring a two-state solution, they are open to other possibilities, if both sides agree.

Germany hosted a meeting between Israeli and Emirati diplomats last month and pledged its continued support.

The US of course is fully in support of The Abraham Accords and has made a point of letting Abbas know that the Palestinian Authority is no longer going to get a free ride.

Nevertheless, according to Al-Monitor:

Comments at the Security Council session showed that France, Germany, Belgium, China and others all spoke in support of the conference. Even the United States and Israel, who are opposed to the idea, were forced to engage with the concept and take it seriously in their deliberation.

Just what "forced to engage" means is not clear.

If you follow the link, it is clear the US and Israel are not 'forced' -- they are clearly and justifiably skeptical:

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft was skeptical that a conference would produce results, but said the Trump administration, Israel’s closest and most important ally, was open to the possibility raised by Abbas.

“We have no objection to meeting with international partners to discuss the issue. But I have to ask, how is this different than every other meeting convened on this issue over the past 60 years?” she asked the council.

Israel’s new U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan opposed the Palestinian call, accusing Abbas of refusing “every peace offer made by the state of Israel” and attacking Israel’s recent agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan instead of viewing them as “a new opportunity to kick-start negotiations.”

The fact is that there is no indication that there is anything new being offered here. 

Is this a serious attempt to achieve a two-state solution or just an attempt to help Abbas out of a jam, 'saving' him from having to make the kinds of concessions required for peace, and failing to do so -- proving how irrelevant he really is?

What makes all of this possible of course are the presidential elections this week.

This conference is only feasible if Biden becomes president, since he would be expected to support this old, failed approach to peace.

Joe Biden, as Obama's vice president, would never have seen the potential of diplomacy that would focus on the benefits of normalizing relations between Israel and Arab countries. During the Obama administration, their foreign policy achievements were restoring diplomatic relations with Myanmar and Cuba while strengthening Iran.

As president, Biden (and Kamala Harris) would be amenable to the insistence of the progressive wing of the Democratic party to take up the cause of the Palestinian Arabs -- something not at the top of the agenda of the Gulf states.

Also, there is every reason to believe that Biden, and Harris would push for relaxing sanctions on Iran and for the re-establishment of the Iran deal in one form or another which would only set much of the Arab world on edge and help to push many of those Arab countries into the arms of Israel, to begin with.

The future of the Middle East will depend to a great extent on this week's elections and on Europe's old habits and knee-jerk response to the region, as it attempts to save Abbas and the Palestinian Authority from the changing Arab world.

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