Joe Biden’s love affair with Israel will pick up where it left off

Ali Abunimah Power Suits 8 November 2020

Two men smile and embrace

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has every reason to expect Joe Biden will deliver for Israel, just as the Obama administration did. (US Embassy Jerusalem)

     

With Donald Trump still disputing his loss of the US presidential election, there has been a lot of attention to which foreign leaders congratulated the winners after the race was called on Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his time, waiting until well after other world leaders had recognized Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the victors.

But finally, on Sunday, Netanyahu joined the club.

“Joe, we’ve had a long and warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as a great friend of Israel,” Netanyahu wrote in a tweet addressing President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris.

“I look forward to working with both of you to further strengthen the special alliance between the US and Israel.”

It was undoubtedly another awkward moment for Netanyahu, whose close identification with Trump’s ultra-nationalist, white supremacist populism has been a hallmark of the last few years.

But Netanyahu is right about Biden’s unconditional, career-long commitment to Israel.

Back in 1986, Biden told the Senate that Israel is “the best $3 billion investment we make.”

“Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect our interests in the region,” Biden asserted.

It’s a theme he returns to time and again.

“Israel is the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East,” Biden told an interviewer in 2007.

“When I was a young senator, I’d say, ‘If I were a Jew I’d be a Zionist,’” Biden added. “I am a Zionist, you don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.”

Lovers’ quarrel

Biden’s love for Israel has survived everything that has been thrown at it. This includes the public humiliation Netanyahu’s government inflicted on Biden in 2010, when he was vice president.

Israel apparently timed the announcement of a new colony in occupied East Jerusalem specifically to embarrass Biden, who was visiting Israel in an effort to advance the Obama administration’s “peace” efforts.

Obama had been urging Israel to pause settlement construction to give the initiative a chance.

Yet the lovers’ quarrel was quickly forgotten.

Israel went on to build almost as many settlement homes on occupied Palestinian land during the Obama years as it did during the George W. Bush administration.

Not only that, but as Israel killed an average of 11 children per day during its summer 2014 assault on Gaza, the Obama-Biden administration resupplied Israel with munitions.

True friends don’t let friends run out of missiles when they are bombing an impoverished, defenseless refugee population caged in a ghetto.

During its 51-day assault, Israel killed more than 2,200 Palestinians.

The Obama-Biden administration sprung into action to thwart Palestinians from seeking justice for Israeli war crimes at the International Criminal Court.

Anyone hoping for something different this time around should prepare for quick disappointment.

Biden adopts Trump policies

Biden has already endorsed some of Trump’s signature pro-Israel policies.

He has welcomed the normalization deals the Trump administration brokered between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Biden has pledged not to move the US embassy from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv.

Harris also has her own long history of support for Israel.

Yet there is a slight shift in tone.

In a pre-election interview, Kamala Harris pledged that the Biden administration would restore humanitarian aid for Palestinians cut by Trump, and re-open the US consulate in East Jerusalem.

Restoring aid to East Jerusalem’s hospitals or the refugee agency UNRWA would be welcome – to the extent that it actually helps Palestinians in need.

But at best it would mark a return to a status quo where Palestinians are kept on life support while Israel continues to aggressively steal their land and violate their rights with impunity.

“Joe and I also believe in the worth and value of every Palestinian and every Israeli, and we will work to ensure that Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy,” Harris said.

“We are committed to a two-state solution, and we will oppose any unilateral steps that undermine that goal. We will also oppose annexation and settlement expansion,” she added.

Leaving aside that the two-state solution is dead and buried, there’s no reason to take even these minimal commitments at face value.

Democrats always say they oppose settlements and want to see a two-state solution, but as eight years of the Obama-Biden administration demonstrated, that never translates into action.

In his 2018 memoir, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser under the Obama-Biden administration, staunchly defends his boss against accusations that he was too supportive of Palestinians.

Rhodes writes that the critics who accused Obama of being not sufficiently pro-Israel “ignored the fact that he [Obama] wasn’t doing anything tangible for the Palestinians.”

Record aid package

Indeed, one of the Obama-Biden administration’s final acts was to reward Israel’s settlement spree and massacres with the biggest military aid package in history – a minimum of $38 billion over 10 years.

Now, according to The Jerusalem Post, “Israel plans to reach out to US President-elect Joe Biden’s administration in the coming months to begin discussing the formulation of a new long-term military aid plan.”

“We will want to talk about a new package and program,” a senior Israeli official told the newspaper. “The new plan will need to take into account the changing threats and challenges we face in the Middle East.”

In other words, Israel plans to increase its demands on US taxpayers.

Whenever a new administration comes in, there is a flurry of speculation and misplaced optimism about who it will appoint and what it will do to revive the “peace process.”

No one should be distracted by these parlor games.

Netanyahu’s words of welcome for Biden are sincere, because he knows the incoming American president will do all he can to deliver for Israel, just like every Democrat and every Republican before him.

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Comments

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Squad is back and stronger too tho' replied on

Good article but please don't forget that the famous "squad" of Progressive left-wing politicians - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib got back in and are growing in strength as well. There's a younger, rising new generation of Democratic party progressives who are very pro-Palestinian and will pressure Biden towards being at least a bit more so too. They also will take over and be the future of the party.

Plus Biden is a lot less pro-Israel and more balanced than Trump.

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john m costello replied on

This has long been a contradiction within the DP. Progressive politics, especially advocacy for civil rights has been led at every level by Jewish activists, many of whom have been conflicted about Zionism and they have driven a wedge between Black Americans and their natural common cause with Palestinians . That contradiction is resolving, as the Palestinian's plight is increasingly apparent yes; but more so as Israel moves further and further rightward, with a racist nationalism that is antithetical to everything moral, ethical and political in secular Jewish culture to be sure but also and certainly to religious Judaism. But it's even more in flux than that.
Given the growing nativism in the US and Europe, many Jews are remembering an old lesson and a facing a realization that the Nazis really can return.
It is a time to remember, or perhaps reconsider, who our friends really are.

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john m costello replied on

While I am saddened to admit I agree with Ali about much here, although context for Obama's aid package is missing, I think truth telling is a virtue and surely Biden exhibited that when he said, “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect our interests in the region,” and (it's) “the best $3 billion investment we make.”
Surely, that analysis of the relationship between Zionist Israel and the Hegemonic States of Amerika, is the truth. I think though that despite Biden's blinders, he might be made to see and respect the truth, with continued pressure.
Ali, what chance was there for Palestinians a week ago?

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Frank Dallas replied on

Biden himself offers nothing, but the view that the "Squad" will exert pressure is correct. Sanders too has floated the idea that dollars should be dependent on Israel obeying international law. It's quite right to tone down any idea of a transformation in US policy, but small changes can make a big difference. It is now more difficult for Israel to press ahead with annexation. What needs to happen is momentum like that of BLM; in fact BLM needs to be linked to Palestinians rights: Palestinian Lives Matter. Biden's apologism for Israel was partly calculation, playing to the gallery at a time when no US politician had a chance if they didn't support Israel without question. That is not the case today. The Sanders movement has been remarkable. With little funding ( in US terms) he got close to being the nominee for Presidential candidate. A decade ago that would have been unthinkable. Nor should we dismiss the 2-states solution out-of-hand: if it was offered, would you turn it down? It has worldwide support. We are now at a juncture where US politicians critical of Israel and behind equal rights for the Palestinians have real influence. That is new and we shouldn't pretend it isn't. There will be no sudden revolution in the US stance, but there can be small steps in the right direction. Biden was elected thanks to the work of the "progressives". They can demand their reward and they have spokespeople who will be listened to. The UN has backed a 2-states solution based on the 1967 borders. Make no mistake, international pressure on Israel to pull back that far will cause crisis in the Knesset, Likud etc. It would be irresponsible and disastrous to miss that out of a false belief that a 1-state solution is at hand. Biden can be pushed. He is at the pinnacle but also close to the end of his career, he knows people like the "Squad" have a big role to play in the future of the DP. Push Israel to leave the WB. That would be a great victory.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.