Last week Israel announced 3000 new settlement units in colonies in the West Bank, and the Biden administration responded that it “strongly” opposes the new settlements, and they are “unacceptable.”
But that’s where it will end, says an Israeli reporter. The settlements will go forward and Biden will do nothing, Tal Shalev of Walla News said, speaking Tuesday to an Israel lobby group, the Israel Policy Forum. Biden doesn’t want Israel-Palestine to become an issue, or to capsize the Israeli government.
It’s really up to the administration and what their tone is going to be? How tough do they want to go on Bennett? Do they want to turn this into a confrontation? Do they want to turn the Middle East and the Israeli Palestinian conflict into an issue? I’m under the impression that they’re not and if they’re not turning it into an issue, then yes we’ll have these Ned Price announcements [as State Department spokesperson] maybe once every two or three weeks or once every month or two but at the end of the day it won’t have a real impact on the relationship…
In Europe as well I sense that no one wants to have this fight any more. Many times it feels like, Yes the State Department is back to putting out condemnations. And yes, that of course inspires other European countries. But at the end of the day– That’s the procedure and we move on and we wake up the next morning and everything’s fine.
No surprise here! It’s like every other American administration since the settlements/colonies began. No one likes the domestic politics of opposing Israel or its lobby. If Biden takes on the settlements, he will give Republicans an issue to use against Democrats.
Yossi Alpher at Americans for Peace Now also says Biden won’t do anything.
Bennet’s assessment [was] that, if timed right, this gesture to the coalition’s right-wing base would not bring about any sort of game-changing American protest.
Shalev concedes that Biden will be under political pressure in the U.S. from progressive Democrats “to reprimand Israel,” but she said Biden favors the new Israeli government and doesn’t want to confront it because Bennett has such a fragile coalition that it could be brought down by international pressure. Bennett is returning the favor by not trying to make Israel an issue in the U.S., as his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu did.
Meantime, Bennett has the very same policy as Netanyahu on the West Bank. Build out settlements in the West Bank. Go slow on some more provocative settlement plans for East Jerusalem.
Bennett is under a lot of pressure to give more to the settlers from his own right wing. And the two new settlement announcements were authorized by two separate ministries of the government– Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked. The leftleaning members of Bennett’s cabinet have been frozen out of Palestinian questions, as ministers of Health and Transport, Shalev explained.
Bennett is very weak because his own party has only six seats in parliament, and Shalev said that he has to fear that Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who pushed the new settlement plan, will use a political crisis to form a new government with the largest party in Israel, Likud, which is now in the opposition.
It is notable that Gantz has not addressed the rise in settler violence against Palestinians, though left wing party Meretz has been demanding that he should criticize the settler violence, Shalev said.
Gantz and Labor Leader Merav Michaeli are fighting over the legacy of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin– who was assassinated on this day in 1995. Gantz is trying to rebrand himself as the new Rabin, Shalev said.
Meantime even more rightwing forces in the Israeli government are pushing new settlements in East Jerusalem that are designed to cut off all contiguity between Palestine and the city: areas known as E-1, Atarot, and Givat Hamatos.
“That is where Bennett is out of control. Because some of these tenders are moving forward under the auspices of the ministries of housing and interior,” Shalev said. While others are being promoted by the Jerusalem Mayor, Moshe Lion, who is from a Likudnik background but associated with Finance Minister and settler-leader Avigdor Lieberman. These settlements could “create a huge international uproar, not necessarily with the Biden administration” but with Europe, Shalev said.
“I think at some point Bennett will come under international pressure to halt all of these initiatives. At some point Bennett will have to stop them.”
Netanyahu knew how to kill such plans quietly, and did for the last 12 years. But it will be more difficult for Bennett to do so because of the propaganda from his right wing that he has caved to the left, Shalev said.
International pressure will become more of a force once the Bennett government is able to pass a budget, and thereby give itself more stability, Shalev said. The Israeli parliament passed a new budget today by a narrow vote.
Treating Israel with kid gloves is what the Whitehouse excels at. They ALWAYS have an excuse for not applying pressure on Israel. Even when Emperor Bibi was in power, for over a decade they had lame excuses like, “…well, you know… there is the potential for Israeli elections this year…. or next year… sometime… maybe… so… you know we don’t want to upset anyone or give the appearance they we are interfering in their “Democratic process” … blah, blah, blah…”
This Israeli coalition is going to implode like ever single other Israeli coalition before it due domestic policies, internal greed, power, and NOT due to any outside pressure or policy changes, The US “playing nice” and kicking the can down the old is going to get them exactly what they got from all of the other previous coalition governments. Bupkis!!!
Besides, the Democrats got a bit a of a shellacking in Tuesday’s elections and will happily retreat back into their various corners, lick their wounds and take all the money and support they can from the pro-Israel lobby and special interest groups that they can. Biden knows this and that poking the bear will only bring them more unnecessary weakness and potential defeats from that front. They’ll look at the primary and election night wins of the likes of Shontel Brown and Eric Adams and draw the conclusion that now is not the time to grow a spine and that their PEP policies are still enough for the average Joe going forward.
When a political horizon for a solution, supported by public opinion in the West develops, one activists can sell to their Members, politicians will muster the courage to venture forward. Until then they will remain wary of the existing uncertain ground. This has been the situation forever now. Currently, two states will not sell but equality under law will. Equality or independence.
On the other hand one might argue that Biden pulled out of Israel’s ME war in Afghanistan, despite the intense pressure to from Israel’s mainstream American media and members of Congress. So perhaps Biden still resents being bullied and humiliated by the Israelis in the past (also over “settlement” thefts), and figures at this point in his career he has nothing to lose from cutting them down to size. And the cheers might be a lot louder than the establishment would expect. Reasonably well explained, it could even boost his poll numbers significantly.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-10-26/us-voices-opposition-to-israels-plans-for-new-west-bank-settlement-homes
U.S. News, Reuters, Oct. 27/21
“Biden Administration Issues Sharpest Rebuke Yet to Israel Over Settlements” By Simon Lewis and Humeyra PamukWASHINGTON (Reuters) -“The United States on Tuesday said it strongly opposed Israel’s plans for Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank as damaging for peace prospects between Israelis and Palestinians, in the Biden administration’s harshest public criticism of Israeli settlement policy to date.
“‘We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government’s plan to advance thousands of settlement units tomorrow, Wednesday, many of them deep in the West Bank,’ State Department spokesperson Ned Price told a briefing.
“‘We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution,’ Price said.
“The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”Israel on Sunday published tenders for about 1,300 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank and authorities are also expected to discuss proposals for another 3,000 homes.
“Washington was continuing to raise its views on the issue directly with senior Israeli officials, Price said.
“U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014. Most countries regard Israel’s West Bank settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.
“Israeli settlement activity is a source of disagreement between Israel and Washington, together with U.S. efforts to revive the international nuclear deal with Iran, Israel’s arch foe.
“Since President Joe Biden took office in January, U.S. officials have emphasized that they oppose further expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied land the Palestinians want for a future state.
“A senior Biden administration official said earlier this month that Israel was aware of the administration’s view of the need to refrain from actions that could be seen as ‘provocative’ and undermine efforts to achieve a long-elusive two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had until Sunday mostly held off announcing new settlement construction since taking office in June, as he sought to ease tensions with Washington.”