THERE was a television news clip the other day in which US President Joe Biden was shown test driving a new electric car at a manufacturing plant in Michigan.
Asked by a reporter whether they could ask him a question about Israel before driving off in the Ford truck, Biden said, “No, you can’t”.
“Not unless you get in front of the car as I step on it. I’m only teasing,” said the president, moments before speeding away.
It was not a good look for the normally cautious Biden but went to the very heart of how touchy the US president is over America’s diplomatic role in helping bring about a ceasefire in the current round of hostilities in the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Administration officials, too, rallied around the president with the formidable White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, telling reporters in no uncertain terms that Biden’s reticent response to date is born out of years of foreign policy experience.
READ MORE: US official reaches out to Palestinian and Arab leaders as conflict rages on
“He’s been doing this long enough to know that the best way to end an international conflict is typically not to debate it in public,” Psaki told reporters abruptly earlier this week.
To be fair few are party to the private conversations Biden is having with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by all accounts he has been more forthright on a one-to-one basis with the Israeli leader.
But even so, given the boldness in some quarters to date of Biden’s policies, if would perhaps not have been unreasonable to expect a different tack from the US President by at least sending Israel a clear message that Washington might do things differently from now on.
Then again, few hold their breath when it comes to Washington’s positioning, regarding its “trusted ally” in the Middle East.
Over the years most Palestinians I’ve spoken with have long held the view that America has Israel’s back no matter what and it would take a seismic shift in geo-political thinking for it to be otherwise.
While US presidents of various political stripes have come and gone, in the end when the chips are down their reluctance to criticise Israel let alone act against it has always ruled the day.
So far Biden has “expressed his support for a ceasefire” while also insisting that Israel “has a right to defend itself”.
Many are aghast that he didn’t ask for an immediate halt to the eight days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket barrages that have left hundreds dead, the great majority Palestinians.
Even more significantly perhaps the US for the third time in a week blocked the adoption of a joint UN Security Council statement calling for an end to the violence between Israel and the Palestinians. Biden has even refused to say that Israel is overreacting.
DURING his presidential election campaign Biden made much of America being “back,” as a leader in the world and fighting the good fight. Human rights both home and away were meant to be a central plank of this approach. At home so far there is some evidence of this but in terms of foreign policy it’s a different story not least when it comes to Israel.
READ MORE: Thousands of Palestinians flee heavy Israeli fire in Gaza Strip
Tallying the Palestinian children killed this week, Ilhan Omar, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, mocked Biden’s claims to be putting human rights at the centre of his foreign policy.
“You aren’t prioritising human rights,” she tweeted. “You’re siding with an oppressive occupation.”
For his part Biden is of course also looking at the wider diplomatic arena. Iran especially.
“Biden wants to support Israel,” said Leila Farsakh, a University of Massachusetts, Boston, expert on the Middle East. “But he also wants to reopen the nuclear negotiations with Iran. That’s a difficult line to walk,” she told the Globe and Mail newspaper this week.
If a shift in policy does come from Washington over Israel it could very well have its trigger within Biden’s own administration.
Right now, is all a far cry from when during the 2020 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders, who became Biden’s principal rival, set out a redline for Israel.
“You get US$3.8-billion every year. If you want military aid, you’re going to have to fundamentally change your relationship to the people of Gaza,’’ insisted Sanders. This week the Democrats progressive wing again made their voice heard proving that they have not gone away.
MOST likely it’s from within the ranks of this domestic political front that any meaningful future pressure might grow for Biden to rethink his policies. The days when the US Democratic Party was once Israel’s most stalwart friend have to some extent gone.
Polls show Democrats no longer uniformly view Israel as the good guys in the struggle with the Palestinians. A 2019 Pew poll found that 35% of Democrats viewed Israelis unfavourably, compared to 18% of Republicans. Democrats were also more likely to view Palestinians favourably (58%, vs. 32% of Republicans). As a headline in the Washington Post pointed out this week; The US conversation on Israel is changing, no matter Biden’s stance.
READ MORE: What is happening in Israel and Palestine at the Al Aqsa Mosque?
Encouraging as this is, it will come as little consolation to those Palestinians under bombardment again Gaza or those forcibly removed from their home in the illegal expansion of the Jewish settlement programme in east Jerusalem neighbourhoods like Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and elsewhere.
These seemingly perennial challenges will only go unaddressed right now in an Israeli political system dominated by ultra-nationalists and absorbed by its own party politics and electoral machinations.
Netanyahu, whose political neck was on the line only a week ago, sees the opportunity for a get out of jail card and be in no doubt he will use it as Israel likely heads for a fifth consecutive election.
As for Biden, it’s hard to see how his timidity in dealing with Israel can be anything but bad for the Palestinians... again.
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