In what sounded like an audition for secretary of state, Sen. Chris Murphy tells an Israel lobby group Joe Biden will restore a “decision” the two parties made long before Trump came along not to argue about Israel. He said Donald Trump’s “anti-Muslim” actions had the unfortunate effect of making Netanyahu’s policies toward Palestinians look racist to some Democrats, but those days will end under Biden.
Trump will push annexation of West Bank, and if Netanyahu sees it as in his political interest to be antagonistic to Biden, he will accede, say two prominent Israel lobbyists. The issue could be Trump’s way of sowing difficulties for Biden.
US election showed that American Jews and Israeli Jews could not be more different, American Jews dislike Netanyahu two-to-one, and so the Israel lobby is divided forever, because the Jewish community is divided on the Israel question, with many young Jews supporting boycott. And that divide will continue to spur political debate.
Palestinians say that while Trump has been one of, if not the worst, US presidents ever when it comes to Palestine, they don’t really expect things to get much better under Biden.
In a fiery speech in 1986 then Senator Joe Biden said he would “be on the ramparts” in South Africa if he were a black leader there, and justifed armed resistance to apartheid. “Hell they’ve tried to compromise for twenty years. They’ve tried everything. Everything in their power! And look what’s happened to them. They’re being crushed.”
Benjamin Netanyahu wants as much as he can from the last weeks of the Donald Trump presidency, so he took his time to congratulate Joe Biden– waiting till after midnight last night, many hours after other world leaders had sent Biden their best wishes– then lavishly thanked Trump too.
Don’t blame the Cubans! Trump’s 43 percent of Florida Jews shows influence of orthodox in Miami and turned the state for him, Israel lobbyist Mark Mellman says. Oh and Joe Biden will use “pressure” and “sanctions” to get a “stronger, better, longer” deal from Iran than President Obama got, Mellman says.
Despite predictions 30% of Jews would vote for Trump, the number was 21% to Biden’s 77 in exit polling– the mirror opposite of Israel, where Jews overwhelmingly support Trump. Only 5% listed Israel as their most important issue, down nearly 100 percent since 2016, which is bad news for the Israel lobby.
Israeli leaders believe that Donald Trump has set the new normal for US-Israel relations: total acceptance of Israeli expansion. And if Joe Biden is elected president today, Israelis will expect compliance from him; and Biden will likely do little to take Netanyahu on. That’s the view of Israel lobbyists as the pageant of democracy unfolds in the U.S.
Yumna Patel, Michael Arria, and Phil Weiss discuss Palestinian views of the U.S. election from the West Bank, what the Palestine solidarity movement should expect under a second Trump term or a Biden presidency, and what to look for on election night and beyond.