Longtime Israel lobbyist Martin Indyk says Joe Biden’s rebuke of Benjamin Netanyahu last month will have dramatic consequences on the Israeli leader’s ability to influence US politics.
Israel’s openly-fascistic move of shutting down seven Palestinian human rights groups in occupied territory was widely condemned by American progressives who demanded that the Biden administration take action against Israel. But rightwing Israel lobby groups were silent on the crackdown, J Street expressed “deep concern,” not condemnation. Though Americans for Peace now denounced the “persecution” of the Palestinian groups.
Seven U.S. foreign policy hawks, with decades of disaster behind them, are urging the Biden administration to threaten a military attack on Iran.
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.
Dennis Ross says Netanyahu is deluded about Joe Biden’s potential support for annexation. “[Netanyahu’s] view of the gains unfortunately is not very real. You only establish an international baseline if in fact everyone is prepared to adjust to it. Now maybe if Trump has a second term, there is more of an impulse to adjust to it. But if Trump doesn’t have a second term, no one else internationally of any meaning is going to recognize this new baseline. And if Joe Biden comes in and says, ‘I was opposed to it, I still believe in the two-state outcome, I want negotiations, I saw what Trump did was antithetical to achieving that, so we’re not recognizing that as a baseline…”
From Ramzy Baroud’s groundbreaking book on Palestinian prisoners: “I have nothing to apologize for,” Mohammed al-Deirawi told the Israeli judge who sentenced him. “I will never apologize for resisting the occupation, defending my people, fighting for my stolen rights. But you need to apologize, and those who demolish homes while their owners are still inside are the ones who must apologize.”