Biden's visit...sprinkle salt on the wound

Written by: Dr. Mustafa Barghouti

The US President, Joe Biden, began his visit to the region by announcing that he is a Zionist, and the Acting Prime Minister of Israel, Yar Lapid, told him: Rather, you are a great Zionist.

Then came the Israeli-American statement, which was provocatively called the "Jerusalem Statement," a Zionist par excellence, and fully adopting the Israeli vision. Biden did not hide that the most important and first goal of his visit was to support Israel politically, economically, militarily, and technologically, and to work not only to achieve normalization for it, but also to integrate it into the region.

When reading the joint American-Israeli statement, it is difficult for a person to find a big difference between the Israeli and American positions, as if he wanted to say that Israel is America, and America is Israel.

Biden's visit to Palestine, the Israeli entity and Jeddah can be summarized in the following points:

First - Absolute support for Israel, confirmation of the strategic alliance between the United States and Israel, and readiness to increase military support, which amounts to about four billion dollars annually, by another billion.

Secondly, the only thing that those who insisted on clinging to the illusion of American intervention to launch a political process were able to find was his indication that he supports the "two-state solution". However, this "something" needs scrutiny. The American-Israeli statement spoke in the form of two parties agreeing on all points, except for the point of the "two-state solution", where the two parties did not support this matter. Rather, the statement said that only Biden "supports that solution." This means that Biden could not force the Israeli government to merely mention the "two-state solution" and apologized for the impossibility of a political process.

But is there an actual political value to what Biden announced his support for the "two-state solution"? Absolutely not, because every time he mentioned the "two-state solution" he insisted on pointing out that this is a far-fetched goal that cannot be implemented anytime soon.

And if we combine this open postponement with the fact that Biden did not exercise, and did not want to exert any pressure on Israel to stop the settlements that devour every hour, every day, the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state, preying on the heads of witnesses, the “two-state solution”, then the real conclusion of the policy Biden and his administration give Israel free hand, and give it all the time it needs, to perpetuate the occupation and apartheid system in Palestine, and to cover it up with the illusion of a political process that will not take place, and an American intervention that will not take place.

Third - Biden tried to replace the rights of the Palestinians as a people seeking freedom and self-determination, and an end to occupation and racial discrimination, with daily life issues, which represent basic human rights, and do not need the effort of the head of a major country like the United States, such as the right of the Palestinians to longer working hours to end the deadly congestion at their only outlet. For the world, the bridge leading to Jordan, or their access to a 4G line, as if the American president accepted himself to play the role of a civil administration officer in the apparatus of the military occupation regime, in giving the Palestinians some crumbs, which is their human right. It is as if the Israelis insisted even on insulting Biden, despite his absolute loyalty to them, in the framework of asserting that they are the dominant and controlling force, as the crossing situation on the Jordan Bridge worsened after Biden’s promises of relief, until it suffocated with travelers and closed.

Fourth - The Israeli-American statement was a model of hypocrisy, to the extent that it made us laugh, and the worst misfortune is laughing, as the statement spoke of a commitment to democracy and the rule of law. But where was the rule of law in the American cover-up of the assassination of Sherine Abu Aqleh, and where was the adherence to democracy with the continued opposition of the two parties to the Palestinians' right to free and democratic elections, including in the occupied city of Jerusalem?

And where is the rule of law, in opposing the joint statement of the Palestinians' right to resort to the International Criminal Court and international law?

Fifth - The joint statement continued the method of hypocrisy, when it spoke of Israel's right to use force to protect what it called democracy (i.e. the continuation of occupation and apartheid), but it decided to deprive the Palestinians of their right to resist injustice and persecution' as the statement attacked not only armed struggle, but even more forms of Popular resistance is nonviolent, like the BDS movement, and recourse to international law.

This was not the only sign of American bias. Rather, it was evident in the symbolic significance of allocating three days to the Israeli side, compared to less than an hour and a half for the Palestinian side. It was also evident in refusing to allow journalists to ask any question to Biden on the Palestinian side, in contrast to what happened in the press conference with the Israeli prime minister.

Sixth - As the events confirmed, the central goals of Biden's visit were not achieving peace, but rather supporting Israel first, implementing (and expanding) what former US President Donald Trump started, with normalization and integration, with the Arab community at the expense of the Palestinian people's cause, and in an attempt to isolate and liquidate it. As part of the implementation of the "Deal of the Century".

Building a military + intelligence alliance, second, that includes countries in the Arab Gulf and Israel and pushes these countries into a clash with Iran, destroys their capabilities, makes them captive to Israeli security and military domination, and adds new billions to the profits of the military-industrial complex in the United States and its junior partner Israel, and attempts to limit From the relations of the Gulf states with other parties such as China and Russia.

And ensuring an additional flow of oil from the region, thirdly, helps solve Biden's economic crisis, with rising energy prices and rising inflation in the United States in an unprecedented manner since the 1980s, to remove the risk of the expected fall of Biden's party in the upcoming midterm congressional elections, and perhaps the presidential elections as well.

These goals were not achieved as Israel wanted, and as Biden wanted, with the exception of opening the airspace of the Arabian Peninsula to Israel, within the equation of Tiran Island – in exchange for aviation. With Iran, to serve Israel, and they did not seem willing to stop diversifying its economic relations with countries such as China.

In contrast to the expanded normalization and the expected programs, Palestine imposed itself on the summit, without attending, so the words were clear in affirming that ending the occupation and establishing an independent state is a precondition for all normalization. Rather, adherence to the Arab initiative reappeared, after some countries squandered it by entering into normalization with Israel, and all of this was a reflection of the realization of most of the gathered leaders and rulers of the feelings of solidarity in the hearts of their peoples with the Palestinian people and their just struggle.

On the issue of oil flows, Biden only obtained ambiguous positions that linked any increase in production to the approval of “OPEC +” countries, including Russia.

Unfortunately, the American president seemed weak, without a vision for his country, in the context of his rushing behind the Israeli vision and plans, and seemed weak in his absolute bias towards Israel, and its free hand to continue the occupation and apartheid, and seemed more than weak in his inability to impose American goals in the region, which the Israeli writer described Zvi Barel, in his article in Haaretz newspaper, entitled "Biden discovers that the rules of the regional game have changed, they are listening but not being implemented."

And the Palestinian people did not see in Biden’s behavior and positions anything but a sprinkling of salt on their open wound seventy-four years ago, and a useful dispelling of the illusion of betting on an American role to launch a “political process”, and an end to the dream of those who are still living in the hope of “negotiations” that will not materialize, after the failure of projects Settlement and compromise, at the hands of the monster of Israeli arrogance and racial expansion.