Barack Obama put off his first trip to Israel till his second term and took a lot of flak for that from Israel’s supporters. So Joe Biden isn’t making that mistake: he’s going to Israel and Palestine next week, and ahead of the midterm elections.
But the trip may pose political liabilities for Biden.
New polling shows that more Democrats disapprove of the trip than approve of it– and that Democrats under-35 want the U.S. to lean toward Palestine not Israel by nearly three-to-one.
And today the family of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist killed in the occupied territories by Israel on May 11, released a letter to Biden seeking a meeting while he’s in Palestine to “hear directly from us about our… demands for justice.”
While Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan Congressperson, demanded that Biden obtain the names of the soldiers responsible for Abu Akleh’s killing when he meets the Israeli prime minister.
Tlaib’s statement on the Biden administration’s refusal to get accountability says that the State Department has “comprehensively failed its mission” to follow up on the murders of U.S. citizens and the failure is “devastating and unacceptable.”
In its statement, Shireen Abu Akleh’s family described Abu Akleh as “a role model and a mentor to aspiring Palestinian female journalists.” And it said Biden’s efforts to sweep the “extrajudicial killing” under the rug amount to expressing “acceptance for Shireen’s killing.”
[T]he United States has been skulking toward the erasure of any wrongdoing by Israeli forces…. It is as if you expect the world and us to now just move on… your administration’s engagement has served to whitewash Shireen’s killing and perpetuate impunity.
The letter scalds the State Department for failing to have a family representative present during the famous examination of the bullet that killed Abu Akleh, and dismisses State’s finding that if an Israeli soldier killed her he had no “intention” to kill Abu Akleh.
Now let’s look at the polling that Shibley Telhami published in the Washington Post today showing that the trip is “risky” politically.
Overall, nearly 24 percent of Americans approved, and 25 percent disapproved of Biden’s trip to “the Middle East.” But when Telhami said it was a trip to Israel, the disapproval shot up to 31 percent. And mentioning Saudi Arabia put the disapproval up to 33 percent.
Among young Democrats the disapproval of Israel was pronounced. Only 8 percent of Dems under 35 disapproved of the trip when it was described as a trip to the Middle East. But that number shot up to 30 percent when it was described as a trip to Israel. Among all Dems, disapproval went from 10 to 17 percent when Israel was invoked.
Telhami also reported that while 59 percent of Republicans want the U.S. to lean toward Israel, only 13 percent of Dems want the U.S. to lean toward Israel. And 19 percent want the U.S. to lean toward Palestine (68 percent say lean neither way).
Again, the young are leading the way.
Young Democrats (under 35) tilted heavily toward support for Palestinians — nearly 27 percent want the U.S. to lean toward the Palestinians compared to around 10 percent who want to lean toward Israel.
The Abu Akleh family is clearly trying to use the Biden trip as a “teachable moment” despite their enormous grief.
The letter, signed by Shireen’s brother Anton on behalf of the entire family, puts the killing of “our Shireen” in the context of boundless Israeli impunity guaranteed by the U.S. — and growing Democratic impatience with that impunity.
Israeli forces have for long known no bounds, perpetrating war crimes and killing Palestinian civilians with impunity, including those clearly identifiable as children, medical personnel and journalists. Israeli officials and armed forces are enabled and empowered by unconditional U.S.-sourced weapons and financial assistance and then provided with near absolute diplomatic support to shield Israeli officials from any accountability.
Since Israeli forces killed our Shireen, lawmakers have pressed you to deliver on the strong condemnation and call for “full accountability” concerning Shireen’s death…
Your administration’s actions can only be seen as an attempt to erase the extrajudicial killing of Shireen and further entrench the systemic impunity enjoyed by Israeli forces and officials for unlawfully killing Palestinians.
The Biden administration seemed to be pitted against the Abu Akleh family during a State Department briefing on July 5 in which reporters hammered a spokesperson over how State could have reached conclusions about the killer’s intention without interviewing Israeli soldiers.
During that briefing, Ned Price said that “Senior American officials have been in close touch with the Abu Akleh family,” but a reporter said that the Abu Akleh family was “blindsided” by the American findings in the case.
This story is not going away during Biden’s trip. We can be pretty sure he won’t meet the Abu Akleh family, that reporters will ask him about that, and his eagerness to meet Israeli leaders could (finally) hurt the White House among Democrats.
Thx to Adam Horowitz, Dave Reed, Michael Arria.
The U.S. “investigation” was carried out by the “USSC.” That stands for United States Security Coordinator, a highly partisan outfit whose main purpose is to further the Israeli regime’s interests in Palestine. Those interests coincide with the domestic interests of both the Democratic and Republican party leaderships, who are constrained by a ruthless Zionist lobby and the political commitments of their major donors. The USSC has the same degree of credibility here as an IDF spokesman.
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To encourage Saudi co-operation, he will promise stronger US military defence guarantees, &, after months of dithering, quietly put to one side his refusal to meet the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto leader, on account of the latter’s alleged connection with the murder in Turkey of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi (Comment, 26 October 2018).
“For Palestinians, Israel’s inclusion in a coalition with nine Arab states represents further regional marginalisation. International diplomatic intervention seems to have run out of steam, leaving Palestinians feeling increasingly isolated & cynical. They have learned to be cautious even when American presidents promise results.
“Barack Obama, in 2009, called the Palestinians’ situation ‘intolerable’, & said that his administration would back their demand for ‘a state of their own’. Donald Trump proposed the bizarrely unrealistic creation of a Palestinian state somehow wedged in around the border fences of dominant Jewish settlements in the West Bank. If previous presidential promises rang hollow, President Biden has yet to make one.
“Aside from the trend of Arab states formally recognising Israel, Israeli domestic politics could further spike Palestinian interests. Israel remains in political crisis, with the strong possibility of Benjamin Netanyahu’s returning as Prime Minister: a trigger for further settlement expansion & diplomatic paralysis.
“At the same time, the US Republican Party, looking ahead to the 2024 elections, continues to rally around Mr. Trump’s policies, if not necessarily the man himself. The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, is referred to as a possible contender to carry forward the Trump flag. In contrast to what The New Yorker calls Mr. Trump’s ‘lazy Barnumesque persona’, Mr. DeSantis has an intense work ethic & ‘a granular understanding of policy’.
“But, in the event of a Republican victory, only a rash punter would bet on the party’s ‘America First’ policy sheet’s including a commitment to searching for an honourable & enduring solution to the Israel-Palestine crisis.”
‘in which reporters hammered a spokesperson’
NONSENSE!!
Hammered a spokesperson — they all played their little roles. “We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us” the Cubans say.
We pretend to ask questions, they pretend to answer us, those pathetic hacks known as the State Department press corps should say. Year after year after year after year — most especially Matt Lee, the Bernie Sanders of journalism — they sit at their desks and ask stupid questions and are lied to. Year after year after year — and they don’t have the self-respect to RESIGN! And that vile twit Ned Price — every single one of those spokesmen, going back decades, it is so obvious their first rule is: NEVER BLAME ISRAEL.
The question should have been: if all investigations concur there were no Palestinian militants in the area at the time of the shooting, there was no Palestinian gunfire: who was the IDF sniper shooting at?
The White House has confirmed that Joe Biden will make his first visit to Israel as POTUS, but the timing of this visit is unpropitious in the extreme. The timing is inauspicious because the U.S. State Department has in recent days bungled its inquiry into the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh by pretending to act as an impartial investigator in a matter in which one party, Israel, has Biden’s unqualified support. This is a public relations nightmare for the president because Shireen was not only a U.S. citizen but a well-known journalist and role model for young Palestinian girls. Biden has become entangled in what must seem to him a mortifying predicament, but as a staunch supporter of the Jewish State, he and his advisors can see no way out of this dilemma.
The State Dept. had the U.S. Security Coordinator (USSC) speak with both the IDF investigators and the Palestinian Authority investigators, but this was a mere pretext. It had already concluded that an independent investigation will not be conducted by the U.S. because Israel had previously informed the USSC that 1) it will not allow the U.S. to question the IDF soldiers operating in the vicinity of the killing, and 2) it will not under any circumstances assign guilt to the IDF soldier who fired the bullet. The necessary outcome: the U.S. State Dept. rubber-stamps the conclusion reached by the IDF.
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Palestinian interests in Biden’s Middle East visit remain low (churchtimes.co.uk)
Church Times, July 8/22, by Gerald Butt
“The US President has so far failed to win hearts & minds, say commentators”
“When Joe Biden makes his first visit as President of the United States to the Middle East this month, the Palestinians that he will meet seem less likely than any other party to see short- or long-term benefits from his brief presence there. He has not won their hearts & minds.
“Palestinians have not forgotten that President Biden made no reference to the Israel-Palestine issue when he set out his foreign-policy objectives shortly after his inauguration. Since then, his focus has rarely been on the core crisis in the region.
“The White House says that the President, while in Israel & the West Bank, will express ‘strong support for a two-state solution with equal measures of security, freedom, & opportunity for the Palestinian people’. The pledge has failed to raise Palestinian hopes.
“’We expect little from the meeting with Biden,’ the Bethlehem-born political analyst Daoud Kuttab says. ‘Palestinians would love it if his words had teeth behind them, & violating them would have consequences. But no one believes this will happen.’ Of particular importance from the Palestinian perspective, he says, are ‘the ways to genuinely advance the two-state solution, stop illegal settlements, safeguard lives, & protect the rights of Christians in Jerusalem’.
“After talks in Israel (where he will emphasise the United States’ ‘iron-clad commitment to the country’s security and prosperity’ and the West Bank, President Biden will attend a summit in Saudi Arabia of the six Arab Gulf states, plus Egypt, Iraq, & Jordan. Here, he will seek to build a coalition of Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, to counter regional threats from Iran.
“More important, from the perspective of his own popularity in the US, he hopes that the Saudis will agree to raise oil production to help to bring down the cost of petrol for American motorists. (cont’d)