When the number of Palestinian deaths exceeded 10,000 in the current war in Gaza, a journalist asked US President Joe Biden about the chances of a ceasefire. The person with the most influence in the world did not hesitate to answer, saying: “Nothing, there is no possibility.”
Thus, the American magazine “Mother Jones” began a lengthy report on Biden’s deep relationship with Israel, in which it recounted many of the events and details in which this relationship is evident.
The “progressive” magazine, which focuses on news and investigative reporting on topics including politics, the environment, and human rights, said in the report written by its correspondent Noah Lanard, that Biden’s unconditional support for Israel in launching its current aggression against Gaza, which is one of the most devastating bombing campaigns in history. Recent history has put him at odds with most of the world and large parts of his political base. However, the president has so far shown little slowness in backing down from his strong support for Israel.
We will continue to defend it
Lanard noted that Biden once said, “It is possible for Israel to enter into a fistfight with America, and yet we will still defend it.”
In another statement, Biden said that he preferred the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state, and he did not forget to affirm his firm support for the “Jewish nation,” saying, “We will not do anything except protect Israel. Nothing, ever.”
The report went on to say that it took a full month from the start of Israel’s sweeping attack on the Gaza Strip for Biden to begin criticizing Israel in a meaningful way, warning that the “indiscriminate bombing” of Israel was costing America international support, but Biden’s own support for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained the same. It was pretty much it.
He added that before and after the attack of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Israel on October 7, the American president did not show any sympathy with the Palestinians.
Regarding this bias towards Israel, the writer quoted Rashid Al-Khalidi, professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, as saying that he does not believe that Biden sees the Palestinians at all, but, on the other hand, he sees the Israelis as they are presented very carefully by their government and their huge media apparatus.
It does not recognize the humanity of all parties
A former Biden administration official also quoted a similar view, saying, “The president does not seem to acknowledge the humanity of all parties affected by this conflict. He has described Israeli suffering in great detail, while remaining vague about Palestinian suffering, if he mentioned it at all.” .
He explained that all of the American, Israeli and Palestinian officials and academics he met revealed that Biden has an instinctive sympathy for Israel in exchange for his lack of interest in the Palestinians, and he has an increasingly outdated view of domestic politics on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is that peace will only come from the absence of disagreement. Between Israel and the United States.
The result is that Biden prioritized providing Israel with largely unconditional support and space to continue the fight in the face of intense international opposition, adding that any US president would have supported Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people, but Biden went further than any of his Democratic colleagues. In defense of Israel.
Lanard recounted that as a senator, Biden supported moving the US embassy to Jerusalem decades before Donald Trump made that a reality, and bragged about attending more fundraisers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) than any other senator. He attacked George H.W. Bush’s attempt to push Israel toward negotiations with the Palestinians.
Undermined Obama’s efforts
As Vice President, Biden undermined former US President Barack Obama’s efforts to push Israel toward peace. As president, before October 7, he continued the policies implemented by Trump, which were based on marginalizing the Palestinians.
Despite Israel ignoring many of its recommendations, the report says, the Biden administration continues to push Congress to provide $14 billion in military aid, mostly without restrictions, after the United States had already provided Israel with thousands of bombs that destroyed large parts of Gaza, displacing more than 80%. of its population, and committed the war crime of using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war, according to a report from Human Rights Watch issued Monday.
Lanard said that in the first days of the war, Biden described the size of the Hamas attack by saying that it was equivalent to 15 times the September 11 attacks for a country the size of Israel, but he forgot to say that the killing of more than 20,000 people so far in Gaza is approximately 900 times the September 11 attacks. September on the same scale.
After that, Lanard explained Biden’s deep relationship with Israel, saying that her motives were completely personal.
Regarding these motives, the report stated that the US President often attributed this to dinner table conversations with his father about the horrors of the Nazi “Holocaust” and to a meeting in 1973 in Israel with Prime Minister Golda Meir during his first year as a member of the Senate, and long discussions with Henry. “Scoop” Jackson, the famous hard-line Democratic senator from Washington state.
Under Jackson’s influence, the writer said, Biden appeared as a fanatical supporter of Israel. In 1982, the year Biden and Netanyahu met for the first time, Israel invaded Lebanon, angering people in the Arab world and being opposed by prominent American officials. Biden showed clear support for Israel at the time.
He warmly welcomed Begin
In the first weeks of the war, far-right Prime Minister Menachem Begin came to Washington to shore up support, in the face of intense public criticism. Begin received a warm welcome from Biden.
The New York Times reported at the time that Biden told Begin that he did not criticize the invasion of Lebanon. After his return to Israel, Begin provided more details to the Israeli press and said that a young senator had given an “impassioned speech” during a private meeting with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Begin said that this senator argued that Americans “would not pay attention if America killed men, women or children in retaliation for a similar attack from Canada.”
During a 1992 speech to AIPAC, Biden again expressed strong support for Israel, shouting and beating his chest for emotional effect as he criticized President George H.W. Bush’s unprecedented public campaign to push Israel toward addressing Palestinian demands for sovereignty and ending Israel’s military occupation. For the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and other territories.
Its central idea
The writer said that any thinking leader might change his course, but Biden remained committed to his approach, as he explained in an interview during his candidacy for the presidency, saying, “During my 34-year career, I have never hesitated toward the idea that the only time progress was made in the Middle East was When the Arab countries knew that there was no difference between us and Israel.”
In doing so, Khalidi said Biden was embracing the diplomatic version of the right-wing militaristic outlook set a century ago by Zeev Jabotinsky, the founder of revisionist Zionism that helped shape the Likud Party.
In other words, Khalidi explained, Biden meant “only when the Arabs understand that they have to accept everything Israel is willing to offer, will there be peace.”
He does not care about the presence of Palestinians
Khalidi, one of the world’s most prominent scholars of Palestine, continued, “I think that represents his position to some extent to this day. I honestly don’t think this man has any sense that there is another side to this conflict. I don’t think he understands or cares about humanity, or rights.” Or the mere presence of Palestinians.
After Biden became vice president in 2009, he stuck to his position on the Palestinian issue, and his commitment to protecting Israel from popular pressure undermined Obama’s policy at an important moment when he was trying to revive peace talks.
The writer quoted an article by journalist Peter Beinart that: “During a critical period early in the Obama administration, when the White House considered putting real pressure on Netanyahu to keep the possibility of a viable Palestinian state alive, Biden did more than any other government-level official to protect… Netanyahu from this pressure.”
In 2010, the Netanyahu government angered Obama and his advisors by announcing a major settlement expansion, but Biden, who was in Israel at the time, worked alone on the emerging conflict. The Obama camp took a different path by drawing up a list of demands that must be presented to Netanyahu. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then gave the prime minister 24 hours to respond, warning him, “If you are unable to comply, it could have unprecedented consequences for the bilateral relationship of a kind never seen before.”
Biden was soon in touch with a stunned Netanyahu. A former US administration official said, “Biden completely undermined the Secretary of State’s efforts and gave Netanyahu a strong signal that everything that was planned in Washington was reckless and that he could defuse it when he returned.”
Obama’s bark is much worse than his bite
When Netanyahu and his staff visited the White House shortly after, one of his senior advisers told the New York Times that Biden told Netanyahu, “Just remember that I am your best friend here.”
Thanks in part to Biden’s support, Netanyahu has learned not to worry about Obama’s efforts to push for Palestinian statehood. A senior US official told Israeli journalist Ben Caspit: “Netanyahu is beginning to understand that Obama’s bark is much worse than his bite, and that there is no reason to fear him.”
During Obama’s last days in office, a United Nations resolution was issued demanding a halt to Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and other occupied territories. In an invitation to discuss how the United States would vote at the United Nations, several administration officials said that Biden and then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew were the only ones who supported vetoing the resolution. Unusually, Biden and Liu failed in this effort. Liu is now Biden’s ambassador to Israel.
The writer said that Liu’s return indicates that Biden did not change towards Israel before October 7, as he adhered to Trump’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem, and did not back down from a major announcement by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that reversed decades of American policy by saying that Israeli settlements do not Necessarily violating international law, he failed to reopen a separate consulate for Palestinians that Trump closed.
He did not stand against Netanyahu
Biden did not do much to modify his dealings with Israel after it elected the most right-wing parliament in its history in November 2022, and he did not stand even once against the policies of the extreme right-wing government that resulted from this parliament.
It is certain, the writer says, that the Hamas attack against Israel led to a deepening of Biden’s connection with Israel. Instead of pressing for a ceasefire, the Biden administration transferred weapons, including at least 100 one-ton bombs – munitions that were four times the size of what the United States typically used during its 2017 air battles against ISIS in Mosul, Iraq. .
The writer explained that the political repercussions of Biden’s position have now become global in scope. Shibli Telhami, a professor of peace and development at the University of Maryland, said Biden may now overtake Netanyahu as the most hated leader in the Arab world, adding, “There is a level of shock now in the Arab world that I did not see even during the Iraq war, when it was absolutely horrific.”
Lanard concluded his report by saying that there was no indication that Biden’s support for Israel was declining, but the problem is that many from his party are no longer with him, and therefore perhaps he, a veteran politician, realizes what he must do in the face of international and domestic pressure. He may soon try to stop the current war, or he may resist for as long as possible.
