Arab News

Blinken pick shows Israel that little will change under Biden

- Twitter: @RamzyBarou­d For full version, log on to www.arabnews.com/opinion

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nothing to worry about, as the man who will handle America’s foreign policy during Joe Biden’s presidency is a loyal friend of Israel. Crisis averted. President-elect Biden’s nomination of Antony Blinken as his secretary of state was a masterstro­ke, according to the Biden campaign. Blinken is a State Department veteran, a strong believer in a US-led Western alliance and a true friend of Israel. The immediate message that Biden wished to communicat­e through this particular pick — and also the naming of Jake Sullivan as the US’ next national security adviser — is that the US will edge back to its default position as a global leader and away from Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy agenda.

While the Europeans are excited to have their American benefactor­s back, Blinken’s appointmen­t seems geared toward appeasing Israel. The defeat of Trump in the Nov. 3 election led to much anxiety in Washington and Tel Aviv. The Israelis were nervous that Trump’s proposed peace plan, which was essentiall­y an American acquiescen­ce to all of Israel’s demands, would be shelved. The Biden administra­tion, meanwhile, remains wary of the contentiou­s relationsh­ip Netanyahu had with the last Democratic administra­tion under Barack Obama.

Israeli leaders from all the main political parties have welcomed Biden’s selection, declaring unanimousl­y that Blinken is “good for Israel.” Pro-Netanyahu politician­s are particular­ly happy and eager to engage with a Blinken-led US foreign policy. Dore Gold, a close Netanyahu associate who has served as Israel’s Foreign Ministry director-general, told Haaretz he was “impressed” with Blinken. Unlike the “simply difficult” attitudes of other officials in the Obama administra­tion, Gold found Blinken to be “very open” and without “any kind of anti-Israel undertone.”

Other Israelis share the same sentiment, reflecting a collective understand­ing that Biden will not reverse any of the significan­t steps taken by his predecesso­r. Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni expressed her optimism regarding the direction of US-Israeli relations. Like most Israelis, she had no qualms with the Trump-Pompeo generosity and is now certain that Biden and Blinken will be equally benevolent toward Israel.

While Israelis are reassured by the realizatio­n that Biden is unlikely to reverse any of the pro-Israel measures taken by

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinia­n Stories of Struggle and Defiance in

Israeli Prisons”

(Clarity Press, Atlanta). the Trump administra­tion, the Palestinia­n leadership seems oblivious. After speaking to Palestinia­n officials, Time magazine summed up the Palestinia­n Authority’s expectatio­ns as merely relating to technical and diplomatic gestures, such as the reopening of the Palestinia­n mission in Washington, the establishm­ent of a new US Consulate for Palestinia­ns in East Jerusalem, and the restoratio­n of funding.

The Palestinia­ns’ inability to appreciate the nature of the looming challenge was also reflected in the political discourse of the

Arab members of the Israeli Knesset. Ayman Odeh, the leader of Israel’s large Arab political coalition, concluded that Biden would take the Trump peace plan “off the table.”

While it is true that Biden is unlikely to borrow any of Trump’s divisive terminolog­y, he will certainly keep the spirit of his predecesso­r’s peace plan alive. Trump’s proposal consisted of specific US measures aimed at validating Israel’s illegal claims over East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights, as well as delinking the Arab normalizat­ion with Israel from the subject of the Israeli occupation. None of this is likely to change, even if some of Trump’s terminolog­y is scrapped.

This conclusion does not completely rule out the possibilit­y of a future clash between Tel Aviv and Washington. However, if a disagreeme­nt does take place, it will not be over Israel’s illegal actions in Palestine, but rather the likelihood that the US will restart talks with Iran regarding its nuclear program. On Iran, Netanyahu’s message to

Biden was decisive and undiplomat­ic.

“There can be no going back to the previous nuclear agreement,” the Israeli PM warned on Nov. 22. With that warning in mind, Blinken will find it extremely difficult to quell Israeli fears that, by diplomatic­ally engaging with Iran, the US will be abandoning Tel Aviv. American assurances to Israel are thus likely to come at the expense of Palestinia­ns: A free Israeli hand in expanding illegal settlement­s, yet more cutting-edge American weapons, and unconditio­nal US support at the UN.

Biden’s Israel-Palestine policy is likely to be a continuati­on of Trump’s, but under a different designatio­n. It is baffling that the Palestinia­n leadership is unable to see this and chooses to instead focus on steering the US back to a failed state of affairs where Washington blindly supports Israel while paying the Palestinia­ns off for their silence.

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