U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently affirmed Washington’s support for Israel despite policy differences between the Joe Biden administration and the government of incoming Israeli Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu.
"The United States-Israel partnership – and all that it is produced for the people of our nations and the world – has always been underwritten by the U.S.' ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, a commitment that has never been stronger than it is today,” Blinken said at a conference hosted by J Street, a left-leaning pro-Israel group.
Blinken reaffirmed the Biden administration’s commitment to a close partnership with Israel besides underscoring its continued desire for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We are committed to preserving a horizon of hope. That means holding firm to the values that have anchored the friendship between the U.S. and Israel across countless transitions and governments in both of our countries. We expect the new Israeli government to work with us to advance our shared values,” Blinken said.
Netanyahu is returning to power as prime minister for the third time after pulling together a far-right governing coalition, which could complicate the country’s close ties with the U.S. Many U.S. officials showed concern saying that the Biden administration could boycott right-wing and Jewish supremacists who want to be a part of the new Israeli government, especially Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
On his part, Blinken said that the White House will work with Israel’s policies rather than “personalities.” He noted, “We will gauge the government by the policies it pursues rather than individual personalities. We will hold it to the mutual standards we have established in our relations over the past seven decades.”
Besides, he pointed out that the Biden administration continues to support its predecessor's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is back in power after just 16 months in opposition, at the head of one of the most right-wing governments in Israeli history after their victory in November's Israeli elections.
The next Israeli government includes a large number of politicians known for their racist, misogynistic, ultrareligious, anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Netanyahu has formed the most extreme government in the history of the state, all in an effort to secure legislation to postpone the trial against him or cancel the indictments altogether.
Having brought to life the radical, racist, misogynistic and homophobic far-right parties, Netanyahu is now stuck with them. He has cut a deal with convicted inciter of hatred and violence, Itamar Ben Gvir, and made him minister of national security, with far-reaching authority for the West Bank, Jerusalem and mixed Arab-Jewish cities in Israel proper. Bezalel Smotrich, who has called for the expulsion of Arabs, is in line to run the finance ministry, with additional authority over the civil administration, which governs the West Bank.
Besides, Avi Moaz, who proudly espouses a fierce anti-LGBTQ agenda, has been made a deputy in the prime minister’s office in charge of “Jewish identity.”
Today as this extreme Zionist government takes shape and begins to implement its stated policy goals, we can expect increased settlement activity, land confiscation, settler violence, efforts to change the status quo of the Holy Haram Al Sharif, “legalizing” settlement outposts across the West Bank, building infrastructure for settlers designed to foreclose the possibility of a two-state solution and loosening rules on use of force against Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank besides Arab citizens of Israel.
It may also trigger another serious round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, as occurred in May 2021.
The Biden administration has "more pressing policy priorities" at the moment, and, with a blindly pro-Israel Republican majority soon to control the House, is not looking for a misunderstanding with Netanyahu and we will not expect much to be done although Blinken pointed out that the Biden administration will object to the expansion of settlements, any Israeli annexation steps in the West Bank, any change in the status quo at the Holy Haram al-Sharif and any incitement for violence.
As the new Israeli government is formed, the Biden administration must rethink its messages about Israel and the Palestinians, especially in the absence of a clear path to end their conflict in the near future.
When one thinks of U.S. support for Israel, the focus is usually on military, political and financial aid, of which Israel is the largest cumulative beneficiary since World War II. However, the fact that the U.S. defends Israel’s Jewish identity as a goal of U.S. foreign policy is often overlooked and this advocacy, presented across the American political spectrum, has distorted its discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has emboldened Jewish supremacy. It also encouraged the rise of far-right Jewish groups, now in the new government, actively advocating for the expulsion of Palestinians, including those who are citizens of Israel.
The simple and harsh truth is that without the unwavering support of the U.S., Israel would have compromised and ended its occupation a long time ago.
The unconditional U.S. support for Israel has made, and continues to make, the already bad situation much worse. From vetoing U.N. resolutions condemning Israel and its occupation to blocking any international intervention or fact-finding commissions, the U.S. has consistently ensured Israel a politically cost-free occupation. If one spares the rhetoric of “restraint” and “controlled response,” the U.S. has given Israel the green light to exact revenge collectively from the Palestinian population manifested by house demolitions, endless sieges, inhumane curfews to thousands of arrests and mass killings.
Israeli army raids and killings of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank have increased rapidly and happened on a near-daily basis, besides an increase in settler attacks against Palestinians.
More than 200 Palestinians, including more than 50 children, have been killed by Israel in the occupied territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip this year, which has been the deadliest for Palestinians since 2006.
There is little reason to believe that the U.S. will take significant steps in response to the sort of actions the new Israeli government seems poised to take, but the discomfort that a growing number of Democrats feel with the unlimited support the U.S. increasingly gives to the non-liberal and anti-democratic Israel is only going to expand. That growing discomfort could very well expose the myth that the bond between the U.S. and Israel is “unbreakable.”
*Palestinian author, researcher and freelance journalist; recipient of two prizes from the Palestinian Union of Writers
