All eyes will be on Biden vs. Trump next Tuesday night, but there have been races all over the country where Israel has been a factor this election year. Here is a guide to the results Mondoweiss will be paying close attention to on election night 2020.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US ambassador David Friedman announced amendments to US accords, sought by Trump’s biggest backer, Sheldon Adelson, that will allow US taxpayer money to be spent in Israeli settlements. Adelson seems to want to get as much out of Trump in what time remains.
Some Trump officials are already attempting to stop an incoming Biden administration from returning to the nuclear deal.
Battle for Jewish voters. Trump brags of his “Yiddishkeit.” And on a Biden campaign call, Sarah Hurwitz, former Michelle Obama speechwriter, tells about the day she crunched into a wall at the White House so as not to get in Joe Biden’s way and the vice president said “Kid, you don’t have to do that,” as a demonstration of Jewish values of giving dignity to everyone you meet.
“Unwilling to make territorial, symbolic, or other compromises, Israel has not merely missed but sometimes even deliberately sabotaged repeated opportunities for peace with the Arab states and the Palestinians,” writes Jerome Slater in his forthcoming book.
While the focus remains largely on the presidential election, November brings with it hundreds of local and state races that are equally consequential, and show the rising power of the Palestine movement.
Jen Marlowe’s new film “There is a Field” tells the story about how the killing of a Palestinian teenager has served as a starting point to promote Black-Palestinian solidarity.
The struggle for Palestine is inextricably linked to the struggle against the authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. Recent moves by Gulf monarchies to normalize with Israel will only make their rule more unpopular and empower the BDS movement.
One of Joe Biden’s political achievements this year is that he has taken what seemed to be a big issue for Trump– Israel — out of the campaign. The Israel lobby trusts Biden because he promises to use American force overseas and try to end the politicization of the Israel issue here. Biden and Harris have actually run against their own Democratic base on Palestinian rights.
On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, Tamam Abusalama reflects on Palestinians’ personal and collective trauma: “Nearly 20 years after the eruption of the Second Intifada, I still freak out each time I hear ambulance sirens and thunder, or see a soldier or a helicopter. My heart beats so fast that it takes me back to Gaza, trapped with my people and my family during war.”