Even as the Israeli government pushes Palestinians out of large portions of the West Bank, Joe Biden seeks to normalize Netanyahu. He is sure to meet with him later this month at the U.N. Lauding Israeli “democracy” is the Democratic Party line in defiance of its own base. And liberal Zionists go along.
It has never been politically safer to be “tough” on Israel, but so far the Biden administration is working overtime to avoid a diplomatic crisis with Israel.
The Chinese-brokered deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore relations has the potential to shake up regional and global politics for the Palestinians’ benefit.
The condemnation of Bezalel Smotrich by the pro-Israeli establishment in the US should not lead us to see Netanyahu as the lesser evil: it is he who brought us to this point in the first place.
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.
Speaking from Jerusalem following a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reiterated calls for a two-state solution and promoting the normalization of relations with Israel across the Middle East. Palestinians say the visit shows the United States remains biased towards Israel.
“When the U.S. draws an equivalence between the butcher and the butchered, then it is necessarily on the side of the butcher,” Ubai Aboudi, Executive Director at Bisan Center for Research and Development, tells Mondoweiss.
The Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli military outfit housed at Tel Aviv University, just delivered its strategic assessment report, and the main takeaway is that Israel’s “special relationship” with the US is in danger.
The change is attributed to a generational shift in American politics due to “the influence that the progressive young generation has had in denying the legitimacy of Israel and Zionism, which they see as expressions of white-colonialist supremacy.”
The Biden administration has pressed forward with the military aspects of the Abraham Accords’ vision, letting it be known at the end of 2022 that Israel, as part of its new position in CENTCOM, had been elevated to “full military partner” in terms of strategizing and planning with the United States.
The move sets a dangerous precedent, which if it results in an official alliance, runs the risk of an American commitment to Israel’s defense that could easily drag the U.S. into more fighting in the Middle East, even if that’s not Washington’s intention. And it would mean that commitment happens without any kind of public debate.
Palestinians with American citizenship are calling for an investigation of discriminatory treatment by the State Department, as well as violations of US laws in service of the Israeli occupation.
Protests greeted US President Joe Biden as his motorcade passed along the main road of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank on Friday. Palestinians chanted “America is a terrorist state,” and held signs saying “Zionists are not welcome,” along with photos of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.