Even as the Israeli government pushes Palestinians out of large portions of the West Bank, Joe Biden seeks to normalize Netanyahu. It's the Democratic Party line. And liberal Zionists go along.
Netanyahu meets an AIPAC-sponsored delegation of Democratic U.S. Congress members, Sept. 3, 2023. Group includes Ritchie Torres of NY (2nd from l) and Lucy McBath of GA (to l of Netanyahu).
There is growing pressure on Joe Biden from Israel and its lobby to meet Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister comes to the States later this month. “Netanyahu is trying to con his way into the White House,” writes a Haaretz columnist.
The conventional wisdom today is that Biden will meet Netanyahu at the United Nations, though not invite him to the White House.
Netanyahu and the lobby desperately need a presidential meeting to try make Israel normal again, and get past all the frightful news of the democracy protests and of his fascistic ministers. “He will exploit his meeting with President Biden, he will employ the use of endless lies – All to validate his attempted regime coup,” Israeli journalist Orly Barlev writes.
So, former Israeli intelligence chiefs and the democracy protesters in the U.S. are urging Biden not to meet Netanyahu. In fact, there are a great number of Israelis urging Biden to downgrade Israel, to recognize apartheid, and cut off military aid. Just like the U.S. left has been saying for many years.
The sad part of this story is that Joe Biden also needs the meeting. And what we are seeing today is not Israel’s isolation, but the White House taking one step after another to normalize the fascistic Netanyahu government. To make this government just another face of Israeli “democracy,” as the Israel lobby tells us. And make the Israel issue go away before the 2024 election cycle– in which Biden will depend on pro-Israel donors to fund his campaign.
So Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaches out to Netanyahu and affirms the relationship between the countries as if nothing is going on.
So Biden names a staunch Jewish supporter of Israel as his next ambassador, to the delight of the Israel lobby.
So yet another group of Democratic Congresspeople travels to Jerusalem for a meeting with Netanyahu, paid for by AIPAC, the rightwing Israel lobby group.
So the U.S. advances a visa-waiver program for Israeli travelers, an insult to Palestinians who spend hours at Israeli checkpoints.
So Biden tries to outdo Trump as a friend to Netanyahu, pushing a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel that Jared Kushner calls “a vindication” of Trump’s policy in the Middle East.
All this as Netanyahu makes a deal with the Russians, flouting the U.S. line on sanctions.
“The U.S. is a thing you can move very easily,” Netanyahu said in 2001, and the U.S. proves him right again and again.
Biden’s collapse is tragic for anyone who cares about human rights.
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