If he wins, Israel will feel Biden’s friendship
Cruz warns ‘ antisemitic voices’ play role in party
Despite the popular perception, Israel’s relationship with US President Donald Trump has not come up all roses, former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference.
According to Shapiro, who is campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and is in a strong position to land a foreign policy position in a possible Biden administration, Trump exposed Israeli intelligence against ISIS in an Oval Office conversation with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador in the early days of his presidency; turned US policy “on a dime” by announcing the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, despite reassurances to Israeli leaders that he would not do so; and has made “the US more isolated, Iran closer to a nuclear weapon and more aggressive in the region” by pulling out of the Iranian nuclear agreement. Further, he said, “chances of a two state- solution, which is absolutely essential for Israel in order to retain its Jewish and democratic character,” have been hampered by the Trump administration’s “belittling of any Palestinian role” in the diplomatic process and “putting the terrible idea of unilateral annexation of the West Bank on the table.”
According to Shapiro, a visiting distinguished fellow at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies ( INSS), Biden “speaks about Israel with an emotion and commitment that is unusual in American politics.”
Shapiro said that Biden, over the span of his long years of public service, has been Israel’s “most vocal and proud defender on security assistance and against any attack on its legitimacy.” And as vice president, Shapiro added, he advanced assistance for Iron Dome development, the sale of F- 35s to Israel, and the $ 38 billion Memorandum of Understanding that locked in US military aid to Israel for a decade.
Biden, according to Shapiro, “wears his emotions about Israel on his sleeve,” and as president would be “a strong and reliable friend.”
But Republican US Senator for Texas Ted Cruz, also speaking at the conference, said that “antisemitic voices in the farleft” of the Democratic Party will have a strong role in the party’s agenda with Israel should Biden win the presidential election in November.
Cruz strongly criticized the stance taken by the Obama administration towards Israel, and accused former president Barack Obama and Biden of having orchestrated the UN Security Council Resolution 2334 which stated that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem are illegal. He also asserted that Trump’s decisions to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and to pull out of the Iranian nuclear deal helped spur the recent normalization agreements between the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with Israel.
During his interview, the senator argued that the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015 between Iran, the US and five other world powers had badly politicized the US relationship with Israel.
“When the Obama administration told congressional Democrats you either stand with Israel or you stand with the congressional Democratic Party, far too many democrats chose to stand with their party,” said Cruz.