The new Joe Biden administration has begun issuing policy statements about the Middle East and the clear signs are that it will do nothing to try to revive the so-called peace process, and it’s not going to try all that hard on the Iran deal either. Biden obviously has a lot on his plate. But it appears he has told his State Department staff, I’m not spending any political capital to fight the Israel lobby, or the centrist branch of it that wields influence inside the Democratic Party.
On Wednesday, acting-US ambassador Richard Mills spoke to the United Nations Security Council and said Yes we’re all for the two-state solution (because it ensures “Israel’s future as a democratic and Jewish state, while upholding the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations”– whatever that means) but two states won’t happen any time soon so, We are for a managed conflict. No negotiations.
Unfortunately, as I think we’ve heard, the respective leaderships are far apart on final-status issues, Israeli and Palestinian politics are fraught, and trust between the two sides is at a nadir. However, these realities do not relieve Member States of the responsibility of trying to preserve the viability of a two-state solution.
That’s managed conflict, keeping the status quo on a back burner.
In this vein, the United States will urge Israel’s government and the Palestinian Authority to avoid unilateral steps that make a two-state solution more difficult, such as annexation of territory, settlement activity, demolitions, incitement to violence, and providing compensation for individuals imprisoned for acts of terrorism.
The State Department is being purposely vague about settlements. And Mills promised that the U.S. would continue to defend Israel in international fora such as the U.N. and ICC.
At the centrist Israel lobby group Israel Policy Forum, Michael Koplow justly takes credit for the Biden approach (based on a paper he wrote with Ilan Goldenberg and Israel lobbyist Tamara Cofman Wittes) and notes the departure from even lip service to negotiations:
Nowhere in Mills’s comments did he say that the U.S. seeks to conduct or oversee talks between the two sides, nor did he call for the parties to return to the negotiating table… it marks a significant shift from the approach taken by the Trump, Obama, Bush, and Clinton administrations. It also does away with standard talking points on the conflict that everyone knows by heart as they have been at the center of presidential and Congressional statements for years.
The only win for Palestinians here is that the U.S. will work to reopen the U.S. Consulate-General in Jerusalem and the PLO mission in Washington.
Iran deal
The news on the Iran deal isn’t much better. Don’t hold your breath.
Biden has of course vowed to reenter the deal, and to his credit, he named Rob Malley as special Iran envoy. The right-wing Israel lobby is enraged. Malley served as a national security aide to Barack Obama, and the lobby thinks they have moved the goalposts under Trump, and the Iran deal is off limits. It tried to crush/discredit Malley’s appointment.
The left-center bloc in the Democratic Party — liberal Zionists and Realists — supported Malley in a strong letter. “Those who accuse Malley of sympathy for the Islamic Republic have no grasp of – or no interest in– true diplomacy, which requires a level-headed understanding of the other side’s motivations..”
They’re right, but it’s sad that this is even necessary. It shows how much political capital Biden will have to spend to get the Iran deal back. The signs from Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s first press conference yesterday are not all that encouraging. He put the onus on Iran. Even though the U.S. broke the deal in 2018, Blinken says we can’t trust the Iranians to comply with the deal.
[I]f Iran comes back into full compliance with its obligations under the JCPOA, the United States would do the same thing and then we would use that as a platform to build, with our allies and partners, what we called a longer and stronger agreement and to deal with a number of other issues that are deeply problematic in the relationship with Iran.
But we are a long ways from that point. Iran is out of compliance on a number of fronts. And it would take some time, should it make the decision to do so, for it to come back into compliance in time for us then to assess whether it was meeting its obligations. So we’re not – we’re not there yet to say the least.
Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, sought to correct Blinken on who needs to take first step.
Justin Logan at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship at Catholic University endorses the Iranian narrative here.
“This is dumb from Blinken. The reason Iran is out of compliance is because the US left the deal in May 2018. Iran slowly walked out of the deal, abjuring its obligations in January 2020 after the US assassinated an Iranian general…If you want to make an argument that the Trump administration’s moves won you leverage, which you now would like to use, make that argument. But Blinken issued pablum from his first press conference. Not encouraging.
My impression of Blinken’s remarks is that the right-wing Israel lobby is winning. They’ve said, You take on the Iran deal, we’re going to make life difficult for you. Sen. Robert Menendez made that clear at Blinken’s confirmation hearing. So did the Democratic Majority for Israel group, Don’t jump back into the deal.
Yes, J Street is doing great work to try to revive the deal, and telling Biden that Jews have your back. But Biden saw how much political capital Barack Obama had to spend to get the deal in the second term of his administration, and he can’t spend that right now.
This is just part of the pattern: I’m about halfway through Jerome Slater’s new book “Mythologies Without End” and one theme that runs through the book is that Israel has pissed off just about every administration since Eisenhower (Trump may have been the exception) and not matter what they do, no matter how much the U.S. stamps its feet in protest, we STILL give them whatever they want – money, weapons, running interference for them at the U.N, whatever. I don’t know Slater’s conclusion yet, but I think the only conclusion we can come to is that it’s all Holocaust guilt, which Israel has very competently turned into Holocaust gelt.
Meanwhile, “Israel,” a “Light unto Nations [NOT]” continues its rampage against the indigenous Palestinians:
Israel destroys nature reserve, uproots 10,000 trees – Middle East Monitor
“Israel destroys nature reserve, uproots 10,000 trees” Middle East Monitor, Jan. 28/21
“The Israeli army yesterday destroyed a natural reserve and uprooted at least 10,000 trees in a military campaign in the northern West Bank in a move that Palestinians termed a ‘crime’.
“Moataz Bisharat, who is responsible for monitoring Israeli settlement activity in the Jordan Valley, told Anadolu Agency that the occupation army pushed military vehicles and dozens of soldiers into the Ainun area in Tubas city in the morning and destroyed a nature reserve built on an area of about 400 dunums (98 acres).
“The occupation army ‘chopped down and destroyed about 10,000 forest trees and about 300 olive trees,’ he said.
“Trees were planted in the nature reserve eight years ago as part of the Greening Palestine project supervised by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture and funded by the Venezuelan consulate in Palestine.
“Bisharat stressed that the occupation alleged that the destruction of the reserve came as it was classed as a military zone even though it was not more than 300 metres away from residential areas and it served as an ‘outlet’ for residents.
“In a statement, the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission said Israel ‘has formed a special unit whose mission is to wage war on the Jordan Valley.’
“‘A security apparatus has been formed to oversee construction and agriculture in Area C and it has undertaken to wipe out the Palestinian presence,’ the statement read.
“The commission described the incident as ‘a crime and a campaign of eliminating trees, buildings, livestock and sources of income.’
“What is happening, it added, is ‘part of a war waged by a terrorist state [Israel] that is burning green areas.’
“The Palestinian commission called for ‘international protection for the Palestinian presence in Area C,’ calling on the international community to stop discrimination in dealing with the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”
I beg to differ, Phil. Why would Biden go to the trouble of appointing Malley if he wasn’t, at least, somewhat serious about trying to revive the Iran deal? It makes no sense to me that he would appoint Malley, piss off the lobby and then just abandon it altogether. What does he gain politically by doing that?
I’ve been assuming that Biden, facing more crises than any president than I can remember, would not want to unnecessarily add to his already daunting array of challenges.
No surprise!!
Increasingly Bold Israel Begins Building Settlements In Downtown Albuquerque (theonion.com)
“Increasingly Bold Israel Begins Building Settlements In Downtown Albuquerque” The Onion, Jan. 27/21ALBUQUERQUE, NM— “In a move that shocked and angered city residents, including families that have called the area home for centuries, an increasingly bold Israel announced Tuesday that it had begun building settlements for its citizens in downtown Albuquerque, NM. ‘Our High Planning Committee has approved 1,200 new Israeli homes in Albuquerque’s central business district and will soon move forward with plans to expand into the nearby Old Town and Nob Hill neighborhoods as well,’ said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who confirmed Albuquerque Plaza, the Metropolitan Courthouse, and the historic Ki Mo Theatre were just a few among many of the city’s buildings that would soon be demolished to make way for brand-new Israeli subdivisions. ‘We will also be taking measures to protect these new settlements by building a barrier wall along the Santa Fe border, which can only be crossed by those holding an Israeli passport. In addition, we’ll have IDF troops patrolling all of Albuquerque to keep the peace, and any American resident charged with a crime will be tried in our military courts. Naturally, these measures are necessary to ensure Israel’s security interests.’ At press time, the U.S. government had pledged to provide Israel with an additional $3 billion in military aid to help the nation defend its new territory.”
Biden will be going back to the Obama times, and before the criminal who came afterwards was bought for over $25 million by a casino owner. He is going to resume sending the aid to the Palestinians, and maybe allow them to open their representative offices in Washington DC. Not much else will happen, because we have to keep the occupier happy and content with our unwavering love and aid. Forget about stopping the billions of dollars, and endless weapons, going to zionist hands, and using it as a condition, that they end the occupation, land grabs, and killing of civilians….ain’t going to happen.