Is Israel an ally? Biden's administration is unclear on that one
Israel has been America's staunch ally going back to the Cold War. Additionally, as a friendly nation that has been genocidally besieged by the anti-American, anti-Semitic bullies in its neighborhood, America felt the good guy's responsibility to help Israel protect herself. Beginning in 1979 with the Iranian Revolution, Israel and America also shared a common enemy: radical Islam. But none of that matters to Joe Biden, who's long been hostile to Israel and is following Obama's delusional effort to make nice with Iran.
Biden has never liked Israel. Moreover, he shares Obama's dislike for Netanyahu, something demonstrated by his refusing to talk to Netanyahu since entering office.
With Jews who are Democrats showing decreasing support for Israel, that made the campaign easier for Biden. Democrats, rather than supporting the Abraham Accords, which are causing peace to break out across the Middle East, resented the fact that Trump was able to broker the accords by circumventing the totalitarian and genocidal Palestinians rather than pandering to them.
As the election drew near, confident that Democrat Jews' loathing from Trump overrode any residual love for Israel, Biden became more openly hostile to Israel. In August, the Washington Post summed up Biden's Israel policy as a morally muscular opposition to Trump's unwavering support for Israel and the peace deals he was making by ignoring the Palestinians, who have proven themselves incapable of self-governance in both Gaza and the West Bank:
"The new UAE-Israel announcement does not just normalize bilateral relations between the two countries, which have existed barely under the table for many years," wrote Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. "For Palestinians, it also helps to normalize (if not actually reward) Israel's occupation."
The Democrats, led by presidential candidate Joe Biden, are determined to change course should they come to power. There are open discussions within the caucus about conditioning the billions in aid given to Israel on the basis of its actions. Biden and virtually every Democrat in Congress were vocal in their opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's now-stalled plans to start annexing parts of the West Bank.
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"There's a real sense in the Democratic caucus that there's not much time left," said Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) in the J Street webinar, pointing to the steady expansion of settlements and the broader cynicism over the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. Levin added that if Biden were elected, he would have to immediately embark on three years of concerted diplomacy to restart a moribund peace process and cajole the two sides to a meaningful agreement.
The chill toward Israel escalated on Friday when press secretary Jen Psaki could not say whether Israel and Saudi Arabia are still important allies to America:
Biden’s @PressSec refuses to say that Israel is an ally. pic.twitter.com/PdliPtUtHl
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) February 12, 2021
Psaki's wordy non-answer is significant. Since 1979, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. have had a shared enemy in Iran. If Biden distances himself from Israel and Saudi Arabia, he is openly allying himself with a nation that openly seeks Israel's destruction, that has "Death to America" as an official policy, and that funds deadly terrorism around the world.
Image: Biden meets with terrorist-supporter and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. YouTube screen grab.