Big Jew on Campus: Biden's worrying gaffe

The purpose of this entry is purely to reiterate what was pointed out by journalist Michael Totten after the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday. What he wrote in Commentary's blog should have made more headlines and caught the collective attention of the American audience.

Both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama claim to be allies of Israel, and I don't doubt either of their intentions on the matter. However, the Israeli government should probably be extremely worried if Sen. Joe Biden is to be the next American vice president after his fairly confident gaffe on Thursday. Many people lack a deep understanding of the Middle East. However, Sen. Biden's understanding of Lebanon, now one of the key players in the volatile region, is no where near realistic. In the debate he said "we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hizbullah out of Lebanon," and that [he] "said and Barack said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hizbullah will control it.""

Since Thursday no one has been able to locate the exact time when Hizbullah was kicked out of Lebanon. In addition, scholars are still scrambling to locate the time when they moved back into Lebanon and filled the power vacuum.

Sen. Biden cannot be a true ally of Israel if he lacks a basic understanding of Lebanon and Israel's relationship with that country. I would assume he is an ally of Israel because he knows the facts. After Thursday it is hard to tell how many fundamental facts he actually knows. Gov. Sarah Palin was attacked for stating its not important to know the cause of global warming, but rather the cure for it. Global warming is a lot more of a contentious topic than the debate of when Hizbullah left and returned to Lebanon.

The Bush administration has been attacked for its arrogant foreign policy approach, and its lack of understanding of how the rest of the world operates. This has been a major criticism of the Republican Party by the Obama campaign. After Sen. Biden's remarks, the Obama campaign can no longer call others ignorant of reality in the Middle East.

I would hope Sen. Biden was telling a complete lie when he said that he and Sen. Obama discussed moving NATO forces into Lebanon. Not because I disagree with the strategy, which is a completely different discussion, but because if he was telling the truth, that means that he and Sen. Obama actually had that conversation - meaning they both believed that Hizbullah left and returned to Lebanon. If he was telling the truth, our politicians have to start lying more.

Totten deserves credit for picking up Sen. Biden's absurd remarks. Hopefully the rest of the media notices.