Palestinians didn’t even get lip service from Joe Biden in his meeting with Netanyahu, promising a White House visit. Biden threw liberal Zionists and Israeli protesters under the bus to keep AIPAC’s support.
Even as several U.S. senators press Joe Biden to address Israel’s killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May on his trip to Israel, experts at an Israel lobby organization say the matter is a “domestic issue” in the United States and not an issue for Israel. While Neri Zilber, an Israeli journalist, laments that Palestinians will hold up photos of Abu Akleh in demonstrations– “not a terribly helpful visual.”
More than 2000 Israeli Jews in the settler movement prayed on the Haram al-Sharif in recent weeks in violation of international agreements, and the government turned a blind eye. Because it is beholden to the right wing. And Labor and Meretz members of the coalition will stomach it all because they are finally in power and when Netanyahu disappears, they will be “in the desert again for God knows how long,” Michael Koplow says.
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza is a p.r. disaster, with broadcast hosts accusing the country of war crimes. Reform Jewish leader Rabbi Rick Jacobs says it’s time for American Jews to stand up for their Israeli siblings and counter the bad press and “raise the voice of solidarity and love.”
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.