U.S. and Israeli flags during Austere Challenge 2012 in Israel —a three-week bilateral exercise to increase air defense interoperability between the two countries. / Maj Stephanie Addison, defenseimagery.mil
As far back as I can remember, Israel has been able to rely on one constant in its engagements with the rest of the world — the unassailable support of the United States of America.
When Donald Trump was elected, he elevated the Middle East to the top of his agenda:
- Trump courted the Saudis in his first official engagement abroad.
- Trump unilaterally shut down the Iran Nuclear Deal.
- Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
- Trump recognized Israel sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967.
- Trump brokered the Abraham Accords which saw the opening up of diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
- Trump then brokered the normalizing of diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain , between Israel and Sudan , and between Israel and Morocco .
- While Israel’s relationship with Saudi Arabia was not normalized, Trump did establish détente between the two countries. A visible symbol is that Israel flights now traverse Saudi airspace.
Then, Joe Biden was elected, and the Middle East fell off the radar. There was not so much as a phone call between Biden and then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu when Biden was sworn in.
So when violence erupted at the al-Aqsa mosque on Jerusalem Day 2021, and the Biden administration tried to intervene, they were told by Israel to stay out .
What’s going on now, you may ask? Here’s my take on it.
The conversation in the Democratic Party is increasingly being dominated by their socialist fringe. New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib have both publicly criticized the Biden administration for not supporting Palestine.
“I think it’s really important to understand Israel is a racist state and that they would deny Palestinians like my grandmother access to a vaccine, that they don’t believe that she’s an equal human being that deserves to live, deserves to be able to be protected by this global pandemic. And it’s really hard to watch as this apartheid state continues to deny their own neighbors, the people that breathe the same air that they breathe, that live in the same communities … a free life, free from these oppressive policies, these racist policies that deny them access to public health, deny them access to freedom of travel, deny them access to academic opportunities.” — quote from Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D. Michigan)
It's my view that Joe Biden is seeing an acceleration of the process to restore the Iran Nuclear Deal as a way to stabilise oil prices. But it's also my view that the Iranians will expect a lot more this time around; and that none of what they are asking suits Israel's agenda.
Pro-Israel lobby groups are concerned. Here's a sample:
"The US Biden Administration seems.... at a time finally of peace, deliberately acting to destabilize not only Israel's new coalition government but, more importantly, the entire region. The United States seems once again to be igniting, on the heels of its failure in Afghanistan, yet a second, unnecessary disruption, with all the carnage, global damage and pandemonium that will result. Those two historic upheavals will be the legacies of the Biden Administration. If Biden is looking for yet another disaster to notch on his belt, this is it." — Guy Millière, Gatestone Institure
So, if I were in Israel’s leadership right now, I would be kind of nervous. I would have seen how Ukraine was lured into war by Biden who then refused military aid.
If I were Israel, I would be making alternative plans to secure my country’s future. I believe that's exactly what they are doing.
