The progressive base of the Democratic Party was completely dissed yesterday by the White House in President Biden’s meeting with rightwing Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. The president said he and the PM are “close friends,” he sounded a hawkish note on Iran, and he mentioned Palestine only in passing.
Bennett and Israel got everything that they wanted, observers said. The Israel lobby group AIPAC celebrated the leaders’ comments. “Israel and America will always stand together,” the American Jewish Committee exulted. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Orgs “applaud”-ed the meeting.
“Prime Minister Bennett is right… Biden loves Israel,” crows the Democratic Majority for Israel, citing a report that Bennett formed that impression from their exchange.
Biden said in the leaders’ public meeting that he is pursuing diplomacy to make sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. “But if diplomacy fails, we’re ready to turn to other options.”
The president spoke of his “unwavering, unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security, and said he “fully, fully, fully” supports spending to replenish an Israeli military defense program to stop Palestinian rockets. He had only this to say about Palestine:
“We also are going to discuss ways to advance peace and security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians.”
Then Biden sat through Bennett’s long discussion about “the toughest neighborhood in the world” that Israel lives in, which includes threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. Israel and the U.S. are “a lighthouse in a very very stormy world,” Bennett said.
Israeli observers and the Israel lobby are over the moon from the meeting as it cements Bennett’s hold on power and lessens friction between the U.S. and Israel. “A great achievement for Bennett,” says Jacques Neriah of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, on i24 News. “It’s been a very good meeting for Bennett,” former ambassador Danny Ayalon agreed.
Speaking to the New York Times, Aaron David Miller emphasizes the usefulness of Bennett to Biden, because he won’t politicize support for Israel in the U.S. “He’s Biden’s guy…. He has offered him a huge respite from what would have been Netanyahu’s highly partisan, politicized courting of Republicans.” (And why is the shoe on Bennett’s foot, a rightwing pro-settlement leader? Because the Democrats are afraid to stand up to Israel because they don’t want to lose the Israel lobby, a vital component of the Dem establishment that supports everything Israel does.)
Axios reports that Bennett told Biden not to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria and Iraq and asked for support in his pursuit of a “death by 1000 cuts” policy towards Iran, which he likened to the Cold War rivalry of the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. (As if the U.S. should be a docile ally of Israel on such a policy; as if only one side in the Cold War had nukes.)
Again it must be emphasized that the base of the Democratic Party, which by two-to-one supports restricting military aid to Israel because of its treatment of Palestinians, has nothing to show from this meeting.
Jewish Voice for Peace Action:
When your new bestie is the ruler of a violent apartheid regime.
The BDS movement issued an angry statement:
“We condemn the hypocritical messaging of empty concern for Palestinians and unbridled, unconditional support for apartheid Israel issued at today’s meeting between U.S. President Biden and far-right Israeli Prime Minister Bennett. In contrast, U.S. public opinion is rapidly shifting towards holding Israel accountable for its brutal regime of siege, massacres and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians….
“We agree with the growing majority of Democrats who want to see their tax dollars used not for apartheid, siege and occupation, but for healthcare, racial justice and education.”
IMEU on twitter:
Biden is saying he and Bennett have become “close friends.” Washington was wholly aware that Netanyahu was a staunch advocate of violent & racist policies towards Palestinians. But new Prime Minister Bennett is even worse, & Biden is cozying up to him
Jacob Kornbluh reports that Bennett told Biden he is pursuing a “no drama” policy with respect to Palestinians. No big headlines (yes, only routine abuses) — and that Biden brought up the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah as a problem. IfNotNow responds:
The Biden administration — and these Jewish leaders — must start seeing settlement expansion, killing Palestinian children, demolishing Palestinian homes, shooting Palestinian protesters, and continuing an inhumane blockade on Gaza for what they are: dramatic and violent actions.
Haaretz says the Israel lobby is pleased:
U.S. Jewish groups roundly praised the improved tone surrounding U.S.-Israel ties following the Bennett-Biden meeting. Reactions, however, are a bit more varied concerning their willingness to engage on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
You can see from the White House readout of the meeting that Palestinians were a low priority. “The President conveyed his ironclad support for Israel’s security and right to self-defense” is the top line, then Iran and the Israeli deals with Arab monarchies follows, and finally this vagueness:
The President underscored the importance of steps to improve the lives of Palestinians and support greater economic opportunities for them. He also noted the importance of refraining from actions that could exacerbate tensions, contribute to a sense of unfairness, and undermine efforts to build trust. President Biden reaffirmed his view that a negotiated two-state solution is the only viable path to achieving a lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Occupier has a new Prime Minister, who has boasted he has killed Arabs, and does not want a two state solution, the US has a new President, and what we can gauge from this meeting, the heaping of praise for Biden and the US by Bennet, and Biden once again proclaiming his devotion to Israel, and promising to protect it no matter what, is that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Unfortunately the progressives are fighting a losing battle, and despite their efforts, we will have to resign ourselves to the fact that the US will continue, without hesitation, to aid, arm, and protect the occupier, and be complicit in all its war crimes.
Didn’t Biden say his policies will be based on human rights? What a joke.
Let us examine this moment in time from a few perspectives. To the Zionist center that opposes Bibi and worries about him lurking in the wings, the stability of the lapid/Bennett coalition is the primary concern. To the zionist left there is a realization that what comes after bibi (when Bibi’s presence is a memory rather than a lurking threat) will be a right wing govt. The current govt is “neutral” vis a vis the 2 state solution, half in favor, half opposed. The next government, once the fear of bibi recedes in the rear view mirror, will be opposed to the 2 state solution. This does not increase hope about the potential breakthrough towards peace, but merely realizes the calm before the storm aspect of the current coalition. Palestinians seem to have the following take on the current moment- 1. The loss of faith in Fatah led by Abbas is nearly total. 2.The long term intransigence of israel must be countered by sumud. 3. The anti Israel sentiments expressed by the Democratic progressives in America is encouraging. 4. Hamas is the resistance front whereas Abbas is the Quisling. 5. Iran’s ascendance defying biden, the defeat of America in Kabul increase the hope of the shift against America’s proxy.
By supporting Zionist genocide directed at Palestinians, Biden has made the US government a lawbreaker of the US federal criminal code, for such support violates US federal statutes that criminalize both genocide and also material or financial support of genocide, which is defined to be a form of terrorism.
In Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961) (citations omitted) SCOTUS pointed out the following.
«As Mr. Justice Brandeis, dissenting, said in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U. S. 438, 485 (1928): “Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. . . . If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”»
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Meanwhile:
Israeli settlers abduct, brutally assault 15-year-old Palestinian boy | Defense for Children Palestine (dci-palestine.org)
Includes a must watch video: 15-year-old Palestinian boy brutally attacked by Israeli settlers – YouTube
EXCERPT:
Ramallah, August 27, 2021— “Israeli settlers abducted and physically assaulted a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in the northern West Bank last week.”
“Israeli settlers abducted and assaulted 15-year-old Tareq Z. on August 17 near Homesh, an evacuated Israeli settlement located south of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. The settlers pursued and struck Tareq with their car, tied him to the vehicle’s hood, hung him by his arms from a tree, and beat him until he lost consciousness, according to information collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. He awoke inside an Israeli military vehicle and was subsequently taken by a Palestinian ambulance to the Jenin governmental hospital where he was treated for his injuries including a fractured knee, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
“Tareq and five friends set off around 9 a.m. to picnic in an area of their village, Silat Ad-Dhaher, adjacent to Homesh, a former Israeli settlement that was evacuated in 2005. Shortly after the boys’ arrival, they heard voices speaking in Hebrew and saw two Israeli settlers in civilian clothes walking nearby. One of the settlers was armed with a handgun, according to information gathered by DCIP. Frightened, the boys fled. Tareq’s friends managed to escape through nearby fields, but the settlers chased Tareq in their car down an agricultural road and abducted and physically assaulted him.
“’We have documented a sharp increase in the number of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian children this year, and attacks are increasingly severe,’ said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. ‘Israeli authorities persistently fail to investigate settler violence against Palestinian children, and that lack of accountability has undoubtedly led to Israeli settlers becoming more brazen and brutal in their attacks.’ (cont’d)
i agree with Kay that the likes of us have made almost no impression on the political class in the Anglo world. We haven’t been able to change the incantations of ‘negotiation between the parties, economic peace meanwhile’ which I remember from the Netanyahu years long ago. The point I want to emphasise is that it is a human right, which it should not need negotiations to attain. to be an enfranchised citizen in a sovereign state.