Hi, this is Phil Weiss filling in again for Michael Arria. What a spectacular and wonderful moment we’re in. Trump is gone. A new administration has taken over Washington with talk of justice, respect and diversity. There is a feeling of renewal around the country and even the left is swept up in it. Hey can’t we dream of fairness and progress for a day?
Of course we have a very narrow beat, the politics of Israel-Palestine in the U.S. And the news here isn’t so encouraging. Biden’s foreign policy team says it wants to return to the Iran deal, but reassures the Israel lobby that that won’t happen any time soon, and when it comes to actual Palestinian rights or freedom (the “peace process”), it clearly wants as little friction with the Israeli government and Israel’s friends in Washington as possible. I watched all 4-1/2 hours of Tony Blinken’s testimony to Senate Foreign Relations (help!), and he never mentioned occupation, Palestinian human rights, or even settlements.
And Blinken spent a lot of time affirming Donald Trump’s policies in Israel! Notably in his very respectful exchanges with Senator Ted Cruz, who you’d think Blinken might treat with some crust because he tried to deny Biden’s victory.
Blinken: Yes and Yes.
Palestinian poet Remi Kanazi responded poetically. “Fuck Joe Biden. Boycott Israel.”
Blinken repeatedly praised Trump policy on normalizing relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and the Sudan as opening a pathway to Palestinian peace.
“I think there are a number of things from where I sat that the Trump administration did beyond our borders that I would applaud…. The Abraham Accords, absolutely… [T]he work that was done to push forward on normalization with Israel, I applaud. It makes Israel safer, it makes the region safer, it’s a good thing. I would hope we can build on that.“
No wonder South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham called Blinken an “outstanding choice.” No wonder Blinken played ball with Graham:
Graham: Do you still consider Iran the largest state sponsor of terrorism?
Blinken: I do.
Graham: Do you consider Israel a racist nation?
Blinken: I do not.
Graham: Good start!
The two men were responding indirectly to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who said that morning on Democracy Now! that Israel is an “apartheid state” and a “racist state” because it had refused to give coronavirus vaccine to occupied Palestinians even as it inoculated the largely-Jewish population in Israel.
Tlaib is of course echoing a couple of new human rights reports labeling Israel an apartheid nation, but Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL and the rest of the Israel lobby are in denial:
describing Israel as “apartheid” is false and hateful, and shuts down constructive engagement. One can be critical of Israel without attacking the Jewish State with incendiary accusations.
Jeremy Slevin of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s staff had a pointed response.
Human rights advocates—from B’Tselem to the UN Human Rights Council to Jimmy fucking Carter—have all used the term apartheid to describe the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Yet somehow the ADL only calls it “incendiary” when it comes from a Muslim woman.
Again, Blinken had nothing to say about Palestinian human rights. He used questions about the peace process to gush about the Jewish democratic state, and say two states is a pipe dream– “however distant it may appear” — but it’s our pipe dream.
Our commitment to Israel’s security is sacrosanct, and this is something that the President elect feels very strongly…
The president-elect believes and I share this conviction, that the best way, and maybe the only way, to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish democratic state and to give the Palestinians the state to which they are entitled is through the so-called two-state solution, obviously a solution that is very challenged at this moment. I think realistically its hard to see near term prospects for moving forward on that.
Blinken said that it was “important to make sure that neither party takes steps” or “unilateral actions” that make the prospect of two states even “more challenging.”
But bear in mind that Israel has announced even more illegal settlements in recent days, and Blinken was careful not to say a word about that. Though he went on and on about Biden’s “resolute” opposition to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. “It unfairly and inappropriately singles out Israel, it creates a double standard, and a standard that we don’t apply to other countries.” (As if the U.S. accords other countries the “special relationship” it has with Israel.)
I continue to hope that Biden is going to take Netanyahu on. The fact that Biden has named three Israel-supporting Jews to top positions at State (Blinken, Wendy Sherman, Victoria Nuland) indicates to me that he wants the liberal Zionist lobby on his side in doing so.
All the same, Blinken’s rhetoric seems a step back from the last Democratic secretary of state, John Kerry, who blamed Israel for making the peace process vanish in 2014 — “Poof” — and in 2016 warned that the U.S. couldn’t continue to give Israel diplomatic cover if it destroyed the prospect of a Palestinian state and blocked a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem. Well Tony Blinken is prepared to give Israel that cover. The clear signal from his hearing is that Biden doesn’t want to tangle with Netanyahu.
The Iran deal and the lobby
Blinken affirmed that the U.S. will return to the Iran deal, that’s only if Iran goes “back into compliance” with a deal that Donald Trump broke nearly three years ago. “I don’t think that’s anything that’s happening tomorrow or the next day,” he assured hawkish senators on both sides of the aisle.
The same message came yesterday from Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, who read directly from a script in answering the Iran question, saying that though Biden wants to reenter the deal, he wants to toughen it to “address other issues of concern”, meaning Iran’s sponsorship of resistance organizations.
Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani has been way more positive. “Trump’s political life ended today. Trump died but JCPOA lives,” Rouhani crowed yesterday, per Farnaz Fassihi of the NYT.
Rouhani says it will be quid pro quo with Biden: If US signs, so will Iran. If US issues order, so will Iran. If US returns to commitments, so will Iran.
Sadly, the political environment in D.C. is not entirely hospitable. Some of the harshest comments on Iran came from Democratic senators, with Ed Markey calling Iran “the single greatest existential threat in the region,” whatever that means. Wait and I thought Markey was the progressive hope in MA?
And the Atlantic has given a ton of support to Biden generally but today it ran a piece condemning the Iran deal by two tools for Israel who grew up in the U.S. and then emigrated, Michael Oren and Yossi Klein Halevi. Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who wanted Obama to bomb Iran, is still lobbying for Israel.
Rand Paul on regime change
The only antiwar comments in the Blinken hearing came from Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who criticized Blinken and other Biden foreign policy brains for their support for “regime change” in the Arab world. Paul said Biden’s people have been “chastened” somewhat by the failure of such interventions, but he’s wary.
I don’t think you have completely gotten the idea that regime change has been a terrible disaster. It has created vacuums, chaos and actually more terrorism throughout the region. And this is not just important philosophically but important to our kids. [These wars] go on forever and ever and ever. … I hope you will be someone brave enough to stand up to that.
Blinken said he “appreciated” Paul’s comments.
Miriam Adelson and Netanyahu and Dershowitz are cited on Trump’s Pardon List
Other news, here is Trump’s list of pardons and commutations released yesterday as he was leaving town. The list includes four criminals supported by Alan Dershowitz. So Dersh seems to have preserved his Trump credentials going forward. And two supported by Lindsey Graham.
And then there’s Aviem Sella, an Israeli colonel who was charged for crimes in recruiting Jonathan Pollard spying operation in the 1980s, as his Israeli handler. Sella was never extradited, and has pursued a business career in Israel. Now he’s pardoned. Miriam Adelson and Netanyahu played a part:
Mr. Sella’s request for clemency is supported by the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, the United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and Miriam Adelson. The State of Israel has issued a full and unequivocal apology, and has requested the pardon in order to close this unfortunate chapter in U.S.-Israel relations.
Never Trumpers turn on Netanyahu
Meanwhile, some of the Republicans who helped get rid of Trump — the Lincoln Project — have signed on as consultants with one of Netanyahu’s rivals, Gideon Sa’ar, for the March 23 election.
Gideon Saar, a onetime Netanyahu protege, has hired four of the founders of the Lincoln Project, which ran a relentless campaign to help defeat President Donald Trump…. Lincoln Project founders Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens and Reed Galen
Haaretz’s Anshel Pfeffer is calling it the “Menachem Begin project.”
Presumably these consultants will attack Netanyahu’s character as they did Trump’s. But the joke here is that Sa’ar is well to the right of Netanyahu. That’s the only political game in Israeli Jewish politics, moving right.
It’s so discouraging to have Blinken as Secretary of State. But, this article seems to confirm my expectations re: Biden’s Israel/Palestine policy at least for now. Biden doesn’t want any distractions while he tackles the many domestic crises he’s inherited. As long as Bibi maintains the status quo without any major settlement expansions, or Gaza massacres, Biden is content to just ignore his ‘friend’ for now. However, if Bibi’s actions cause trouble and create a distraction for Biden from the business at hand, you might see a strong response from Biden.
As usual, it will be up to civil society, along with the few members of congress willing to stand up for Palestinian rights, to at least minimize the damage we can expect Blinken to cause during his tenure. Let’s hope that, at very least, Biden protects our right to support BDS, as he promised during the campaign.
Dateline Washington: One pro-Zionist relinquishes power; another assumes it.
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”*
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(*with sincerest apologies to The Who)