Donald Trump aims to push Israel-Saudi normalization next week during his meeting with Mohammed bin Salman. MBS favors a weapons deal and a defense pact, while Israel will be in the background, working to ensure its regional dominance remains intact.
“I think without Israel, there’s not a Jew in the world that’s secure. I think Israel is essential,” says Biden.
The New York Times is uncritically promoting the Biden administration’s ill-fated efforts to promote Saudi-Israeli normalization while the rest of the U.S. media rightly ignore it.
Saudi normalization with Israel could be used to press for Palestinian rights, but the Biden Administration will likely squander it for short-term political gain that further entrenches Israeli apartheid and endangers the region.
Palestinian Americans respond with dismay to President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as his embrace of the failed policies of the past. “Through many meetings with our American administration officials we have come to the conclusion that President Biden’s policies regarding Palestinian issues resemble the destructive policies of Trump,” writes Terry Ahwal.
The Biden administration’s effort to sweep Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing under the rug shows its keenness to extend Trump’s “Abraham Accords” in the Mideast. Those deals make war with Iran more likely, and promote Israeli arm sales and impunity for human rights violations. And as for the Palestinians, they will be completely buried by the Gulf Arab leadership in the rush to please Washington.
Joe Biden once vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” but now he is looking to rebuild relations and many expect normalization with Israel to be on the agenda.
Dropping bombs on the Middle East is a rite of passage for modern Presidents and last week Joe Biden officially joined the club.
Neera Tanden’s high-level nomination to OMB under Joe Biden is in trouble — partly because her think tank the center for American Progress received UAE millions and then may have toned down its criticism, including of the Saudi murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
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.