[During] a critical period early in the Obama administration, when the White House contemplated exerting real pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to keep the possibility of a Palestinian state alive, Biden did more than any other cabinet-level official to shield Netanyahu from that pressure... When it came to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Michael Oren notes in his memoir, Biden sometimes employed an uncomfortable analogy: “Never crucify yourself on a small cross.” The message: The Palestinians aren’t pliable or important enough to be worth the trouble, given the political cost domestically.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "[During] a critical period early in the Obama administration, when the White House contemplated exerting real pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to keep the possibility of a Palestinian state alive, Biden did more than any other cabinet-level official to shield Netanyahu from that pressure... When it came to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Michael Oren notes in his memoir, Biden sometimes employed an uncomfortable analogy: “Never crucify yourself on a small cross.” The message: The Palestinians aren’t pliable or important enough to be worth the trouble, given the political cost domestically." in the context of "Peter Beinart "Joe Biden’s Alarming Record on Israel: No one in the Obama administration did more to shield Netanyahu from consequences."in Jewish Currents (2020)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.