This week, the Jewish Democratic Council of America held a webinar with Senator (and Joe Biden surrogate) Chris Coons (D-DE) and Biden foreign policy advisor Tony Blinken. Both were asked about Biden’s potential opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan to annex the West Bank. While Biden’s previous stance on the issue was cited, neither of the two men suggested any aggressive response would be coming soon.
In regards to annexation, Coons said it was, “hard to exactly prejudge the circumstances on the ground as of January of next year.” This position was echoed by Blinken, who said that it would be a mistake to “prejudge” what might happen during a Biden administration. He indicated that Biden was, “on the record several times [that] unilateral steps taken by either side that makes the prospect of a negotiated to a two-state outcome less likely is something he opposes, and that includes annexation.”
Netanyahu and former political rival Benny Gantz are in the process of establishing a coalition government in Israel and cabinet discussions about extending the illegal settlements are scheduled to begin in July. Last week, Netanyahu said he was sure that the United States would allow him to begin annexing the West Bank within the next couple months. The Prime Minister told a a European Christian group that President Donald Trump had promised to support such a plan in January. “A couple of months from now I am confident that that pledge will be honored,” said Netanyahu.
As Foundation for Middle East Peace president Lara Friedman tweeted, only two Democratic congress members have spoken out against the plan so far.
It remains unclear how Biden would stop Israel’s government from acting, even if he ends up beating Trump. In November, he made it very clear that he won’t condition military aid to the country if he becomes president.
“Not me. Look, I have been on record from very early on opposed to settlements, and I think it’s a mistake,” Biden told a reporter at the time, “And Netanyahu knows my position. But the idea that we would draw military assistance from Israel, on the condition that they change a specific policy, I find it to be absolutely outrageous.”
“Anyway, no I wouldn’t condition it and I think it’s a gigantic mistake. And I hope some of the candidates who are running with me for the nomination–I hope they misspoke or were taken out of context.”
wrt ‘annexation’, please listen to Gideon Levy (today) on this free podcast:
“Annexation Isn’t the End of the World. Listen to Gideon Levy”…
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/annexation-isn-t-the-end-of-the-world-listen-to-gideon-levy-1.8822273
He and his host also reference one of Levy’s columns about one of their heroes who passed recently:
“A Tribute to a South African Jewish Hero and Freedom Fighter
A Jewish hero died on Independence Day, with his death unmarked here. Denis Goldberg died in Cape Town, the city he was born in, at the age of 87. He was the epitome of struggle, sacrifice, courage and solidarity, all the qualities so lacking in Israel’s left. If he’d immigrated to Israel, he’d be considered a traitor and terrorist here. But Israel never had Jews such as him, willing to sacrifice everything in the struggle for the freedom of the Palestinians.
In South Africa he wasn’t the only Jew who sacrificed all for the struggle for freedom of blacks. Ruth First was killed by a parcel bomb addressed to her, Albie Sachs lost an arm and an eye, later becoming a judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa. There aren’t many Jewish communities that gave rise to such heroes. In Israel, obviously, no one tells their stories.
Goldberg wasn’t an esteemed Jew like Sheldon Adelson or an influential one like Israeli media personality Sivan Rahav Meir, but he and his friends were the heroes history will remember. They didn’t fight for their nation, they fought for others. It’s hard to think of loftier or more courageous conduct. If there is a reason for Jewish pride, it is these Jews who crossed the lines in South Africa, not falling in line with position taken by Jewish leaders in their country and the Jewish Board of Deputies, the biggest collaborator with the apartheid regime and its inveterate ally, the state of Israel. “…