This week the Israeli government made a dangerous move that makes annexation of the West Bank an even closer reality, analysts say.
While the Biden administration claims to oppose “unilateral steps that make a two-state solution harder to achieve,” Israel has already crossed the “red line” of annexation.
What is happening in Masafer Yatta is not only the largest ethnic cleansing scheme to be carried out by Israel since 1967, but the move should be considered a first step in a much larger scheme of illegal land appropriation, ethnic cleansing and official mass annexation.
If there ever was a year in recent history that was truly unforgettable, 2020 is it. In Palestine, COVID-19 did not stop the occupation, and in many cases exacerbated the devastating effects of 53 years under Israeli military rule. On top of the pandemic, we witnessed major shifts in global politics with widespread regional normalization, and the defeat of US President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, global movements for justice like Black Lives Matter, and the fight for justice in Palestine continued to transcend borders, thrusting marginalized voices into the mainstream in ways that were once unimaginable.
At 30 years old, Joe Biden told Israeli PM Golda Meir “there is no debate in the Senate about the ME [Middle East] because the Senators are ‘afraid’ to say things that Jewish voters will dislike,” according to an Israeli document. The report shows Biden twice angrily took on Israeli prime ministers over illegal settlements, when he was young. Though his surrogates have sought to deny this.
The “biggest thing you did for Israel” was breaking the Iran deal, Sheldon Adelson reportedly told Donald Trump, but the media can’t even mention Adelson’s interest in reporting his and his Israeli wife’s $75 million gift to a Trump super PAC in September.
Friedman has written 19 opinion pieces in the New York Times since June, but only two about the Mideast, where he made his reputation, and then ruined it by enthusiastically supporting Iraq war. So he has avoided the pressing issues of Israel’s annexation and Trump/Pompeo’s threats to goad Iran into a conflict in the middle of the presidential race.
The Netanyahu government has advanced plans for 4,948 new settlement units in the West Bank, signalling an end to the pretense that Israel halted its annexation plans in exchange for normalization with Arab countries. Analysts suggest the slate of approvals are part of a larger effort to take advantage of US support while Donald Trump is still in power.
Nearly 70 percent of Palestinians say US policy will be the same or worse under a President Biden, and just 21 percent think he will improve matters. A new survey shows widespread rejection of Israel’s normalization deals, 90 percent calling the Gulf States’ recognition “betrayal,” “abandonment,” “insult” or “sadness,” while only 1 percent used words like “joy.”