Lucas: Biden could take page out of Afghanistan playbook, and bring in 2 million Palestinians from Gaza
If President Joe Biden wants to help the suffering Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza, he would airlift them to the United States.
Biden could initiate a program like what took place in Kabul when he ordered the precipitous U.S withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
First, he will have to get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to withdraw all his forces from Gaza, which Biden is working on, in exchange for Hamas freeing all remaining hostages, including a handful of Americans. Israel would release its Hamas prisoners.
But Netanyahu is not yet buying into it. He said, “In exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of all the murderers and rapists, and leaving Hamas intact. I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas.”
Netanyahu aside, Biden could take bold action on his own, as he did in Afghanistan.
Experience counts in these sorts of things. And if nothing else, the Biden administration has learned how to abandon an ally or a country, let alone an airport.
It has also learned how to flood the United States with millions of illegal immigrants by opening the southern border with Mexico and waving everybody in.
And, as Afghanistan goes, so (maybe) goes Israel.
Although nobody knows for sure, and Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas won’t tell you anyway, it is estimated some 10 million illegal immigrants from across the world have crossed into the United States under Joe Biden.
So why not bring in two million Palestinians? America is a vast, rich, big-hearted country with an endless supply of money to pay welfare benefits for the needy from around the world.
If MAGA Republicans and other assorted white supremacist groups object to their direct entry into the U.S., Biden could fly them to Mexico first.
Once there they could hook up with the Mexican cartels, who control the U.S. border with Mexico, pay them, and get them into the country that way.
No doubt the U.S. has a program to pay for Palestinian travel expenses before they even arrive and sign up for a host of other free stuff.
And the U.S. needs workers to do the work that Americans no longer want to do, especially if the Americans can live happily off the government.
The idea is not far-fetched.
With the assistance of the Israel Defense Forces, the rescue of the Palestinians would of course be more orderly and less deadly than what took place at the Kabul Airport.
Desperate Afghans surrounding overfilled U.S. aircraft or clinging to planes and then falling out of the sky was not a good look. But Biden called the airlift of desperate Afghan civilians a success anyway.
Now thousands of them are living happily in the United States.
He could do the same for the Palestinians, once the old Yasser Arafat Airport, which has been looted and shutdown for years, is reopened.
It is close to the Egyptian border where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled seeking shelter from the fighting and hopes of crossing into Egypt.
But Israeli’s relentless war against Hamas, which has cost thousands of innocent civilian Palestinian deaths, has followed the refugees south. And there is nowhere left for them to find safety.
Despite urging from the U.S., Egypt will not accept them, nor will any of the other Arab nations.
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While Biden initially came out in strong support of Israel following the Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 Israelis, he has been subjected to extreme pressure by the huge anti-Israeli, pro-Hamas/Palestinian demonstrations that broke out after Israel launched its Gaza invasion. People think he is wavering.
A Palestinian airlift emptying Gaza of Palestinians and Hamas terrorists would turn Biden into a hero among the pro-Hamas, progressives of the Democrat Party who have attacked him for his support of Israel.
The Palestinians would have a new home. The Israelis would like it too.
But please don’t tell Joe. He might do it.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.