Gaza Genocide: After Biden and Towards Trump’s Sequel

14 November 2024

"Approaching Bill Clinton’s presidential run in 1992, they reached out to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and AIPAC helped set up a meeting with Martin Indyk, a former staffer who founded the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank. The trio hit it off — the meeting ran hours overtime as both Clintons peppered Indyk with questions, according to a source who was present. Indyk went on to become the U.S. ambassador to Israel and Clinton’s top Middle East peace negotiator."

Ron Kampeas, “Hillary Clinton and her Enduring Ties to Jews”, The Forward, 24 June 2015.

One of the most traditional American politicians Biden is ending his career in Washington, DC after 51 years of employment. Fervent ideological supporter of Zionism and Israel who consistently led the list of pro-Israel recipients of political donations,[1] Biden and his administration engaged in wilful complicity in Israel’s genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Gaza. The individual criminal responsibility attached to him and to senior officials in his administration is beyond doubt encompassing Secretary of State Blinken, National Security Adviser Sullivan, Secretary of Defence Austin, and his national security fellows.

Biden supported Israel with an unprecedented amount of weaponry costing more than $17 billion throughout its onslaught against Gaza despite his awareness of its ruthless tactics and abhorrent strategy.[2] Alongside Britain, the United States aired weapons to Israel[3] and opposed Yemen’s humanitarian intervention in the Red Sea.[4] Israel’s vicious attack against Lebanon the source of Hezbollah’s limited but heroic assistance against Israeli military bases seeking the end of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza was coordinated with CENTCOM’s commander Michael Kurilla.[5]

American diplomacy continued its unfettered shielding of Israel at the United Nations Security Council vetoing proposals for ceasefire resolutions notwithstanding mass global protests that also engulfed the United States. The most powerful country in the world abandoned its purported claim for upholding international law vehemently opposing South Africa’s case against Israel before the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention. Any intervention by the International Criminal Court’s Prosecution was publicly denounced by the reform oriented American statecraft soliciting its G7 allies to file motions before this Court objecting to its jurisdiction over Palestine.

Since the inception of Israel’s unjustified and illegal war against Gaza Biden gleefully reiterated Israel’s lies. Israel’s war followed an armed resistance operation against the system of occupying and enclaving Gaza. Israeli military censorship and government prevent to this day disclosing that at least most of the Israeli civilians who died on 7 October 2023 were killed by Israeli forces gunfire. Israeli officials’ claims about raping women during the audacious defiant operation were false. Nevertheless, Biden exuberantly uttered Israel’s delusions.    

Biden’s allegation concerning mediating negotiations about Israeli captives has been conniving. He authorized a mutual Israeli–American assault in this regard that resulted in the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.[6] The Murder of Palestinian political leader Ismail Haniyeh who was visiting Tehran is most probably a joint Israeli–American crime authorised by Biden to his subordinates at the CIA who the NSA usually informs.[7] Haniyeh’s assassination followed a pattern of killing civilians in Iran, particularly scientists. The plan is American–Israeli, the methodology is exploiting vulnerabilities and satellite monitoring, and the execution is by crime or paramilitary units.

Biden’s terms of reference were an American political system dominated by the Israeli lobby and much of the American media’s sports-minded chanting. Congressional progressives were crippled by Bernie Sanders’ tormented character, conflicting loyalties, and terrible strategic partnerial advice that he has been receiving for decades.

Biden’s commitment towards Israel might seem hyper, but it is nevertheless the norm in terms of the close affinity that the superpower projects towards its apartheid and colonial ally. Not lacking in its own mythologies and aggressive pursuit of its energy interests in the Gulf states region, the dominance of the Israel lobby has shaped American policy towards Palestine and its people. Since supporting the United Nations' 1947 unjustified partition plan of Palestine under domestic political pressure of American Jewish organizations, United States foreign policy did not consider the Palestinians as a worthy political issue conceding to Palestine’s ethnic cleansing, erasure, and eradication by Zionist forces. Immediate domestic survivalist political aspects subjugated American policy-making to the supremacy of Israel’s stature.

Behemoth Kissinger comforted Israel’s supporters in America in 1975 that the Palestinians would be sidelined[8] even after the 1973 Egypt - Israel war which in Israeli understanding is a tremendous failure. The consequence of this war was Egypt’s restoration of sovereignty over the Sinai desert occupied by Israel in 1967. 1978 Camp David Accords under American patronage disregarded Palestinians’ rights and their legitimate representative at the time the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The 1987 – 1992 Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation in the 1967 occupied territories (East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza) and its brutal crushing by Israel provided the Palestinian cause with renewed stamina. However, the subsequent 1993 Oslo documents between Israel and the PLO that was distant from its liberation objective were a result of a weakened Palestinian anti-colonial movement bypassing Palestinian negotiators at the Madrid process which originated from America’s first Iraq war. According to the New York Times this delegation “could not deliver the goods”.[9] The late Heidar Abdel Shafi, a leading figure of the ‘unproductive’ Palestinian delegation at the Madrid process had confided to an American international law academic that the American administration was exercising exceptional pressure against the Palestinians to obtain concessions.                  

Not long after the inception of the Oslo process between Israel and the Palestinians, American Jewish control of its path and outcome in the best tradition of the American political system was put in place. The opening quote is of course demonstrative as is Samuel Lewis's 1999 essay.[10]

Adelsonian in its character, nature, and wealth[11]  with a large base of Robertsonian mythological endorsement of Israel,[12] the Trump administration maintained the custom of producing a blisteringly hostile approach to Palestinians and their rights. Three American Jewish supremacists headed the effort: Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, American ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and international negotiator Jason Greenblatt. Humanitarian aid to Palestinians was cut.[13] The American embassy to Israel relocated to Jerusalem after recognizing it as Israel’s capital.[14] Peace deals between Israel and four Middle Eastern countries were struck under American economic and political shoving. The agreement between Iran, members of the U.N. Security Council, Germany, and the European Union regarding the country’s nuclear program was cancelled.[15] Trump almost started a war with Iran having ordered the killing of one of its generals.[16] And last but not least the occupied Syrian Golan Heights was declared as part of Israel’s sovereignty.[17]

The American-brokered peace agreements between Israel and four Middle Eastern countries while intentionally avoiding the pretense of relating to the rights of Palestinians genuinely demonstrate an abuse of foreign policy in favor of domestic Israel-centred politics. Part of the Gulf countries under U.S. military protection, the United Arab Emirates merely externalized already existing security cooperation with Israel[18] followed by its similarly tiny neighbor Bahrain.[19] The other two countries sought American dividends in exchange for public mingling at the White House lawn. Morocco received economic benefits as well as illegal American acknowledgment of its claims in the Western Sahara.[20] Immense American pressure on Sudan resulted in a public pronouncement that fell short of establishing diplomatic ties.[21] Public opinion in these countries remains oppositional to Israel because of the pre-eminence of the question of Palestine.

These agreements are incomparable to and are no less than a parody of the Egypt – Israel Camp David treaty of 1978. In the case of Egypt, the accords followed a war that Israel felt it had lost, gained the entirety of its territory back, and received economic dividends from the United States. Nevertheless, Egypt could not promote the agreement to its population as a genuine achievement because of the importance of the Palestinian cause. From Egypt’s standpoint, the relations with Israel are neither war nor peace. In the case of the Gulf states the opportunistic covert security alliance demonstrates a grave sense of lack of self-confidence and total reliance on foreign forces in security matters.

Biden’s theory towards the Palestinians before Israel’s mindless violence against Gaza was to continue the Trump approach seeking to expand the agreements with Israel to include Saudi Arabia.[22] Carrying a history of unjustifiable preaching for Israel in American politics, Biden did not refrain from pursuing this path also during Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.[23]      

The main obstacle for peace in Palestine / Israel is Zionism’s sovereignty in the entirety of historic Palestine. Zionism’s coloniality and apartheid were and remain a natural outcome of its political objectives. Dismantling Zionism’s sovereignty in Palestine is required to begin a genuine road towards peace and prosperity. The following steps are mandatory for realizing the noble purpose:

-          Evacuate all settlers from all 1967-occupied Palestinian territories (East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza).

-          Establish a sovereign Palestinian state on all of these territories.

-          Implement the right of return for the 1948 Palestine refugees to their original location of residence justly and genuinely, as opposed to symbolically.

-          A Special tribunal should be formed to prosecute Israel’s senior political and military leadership for their crimes in the recent war against Gaza: genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

-          Israel should pay appropriate reparations for its heinous injustices against Palestinians throughout the years, including the recent genocide in Gaza.

-          Israel should pay appropriate compensation for confiscating and illegal use of land after 1948 and after 1967.

-          Israel should immediately end its domestic[24] and regional[25] blaming terrorism that constitutes one of the clearest indicators of its unwillingness to live in peace with itself and in the region.

Palestinians in Israel, who form about 20 % of the population, are entitled to full political, cultural, economic, and geographical autonomy and self–determination. They should be able to form their own legislative assembly and control their education, geography, and economy. The free flow of people and goods between them and the region should not be hampered.

-          All of Israel’s apartheid and dominating laws and policies should be abolished.

-          Israel should apologize to the Palestinians for its decades-long demonic human rights violations.

-          The United States government should not take any part in this process.   

Biden and his Foreign Policy Team. Source: ABC News, 25 November 2020.

[1] According to the website Open Secrets in 2023 - 2024 there are at least 150 U.S. Representatives in Congress from both parties who received more than $50,000 in pro–Israel donations. The donations for the top 50 ranges between $1 million and $130,000. 30 Senators recipients of the highest such donations obtained $1 million to $20,000.    

[2] Linda Belmis et al, United States Spending on Military Operations and Related Operations in the Region, October 7, 2023 – September 30, 2024, Brown University - Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs, 7 October 2024.

[3] Alex Gatopoulos, “How US and UK military airlifts have supported Israel’s war on Gaza”, Al-Jazeera, 27 October 2024.

[4] See Stacey Philbrick Yadav, “The Houthis’ ‘Sovereign Solidarity’ with Palestine”, 309 MERIP, 24 January 2024.   

[5] Emanuel Fabian, “US CENTCOM chief meets IDF generals, presented with plans for Lebanon operation”, Times of Israel, 9 September 2024.

[6] See White House, Statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the Israeli Hostage Rescue Operation, 8 June 2024; Imogen Piper et al, “How an Israeli hostage rescue that left scores of Palestinians dead unfolded”, Washington Post, 13 August 2024.   

[7] Ronen Bergman et al, “Bomb Smuggled Into Tehran Guesthouse Months Ago Killed Hamas Leader”, New York Times, 1 August 2024; Ronen Bergman et al, “The Scientist and the A.I.-Assisted, Remote–Control Killing Machine”, New York Times, 18 September 2021 (“Preparations for the assassination began after a series of meetings toward the end of 2019 and in early 2020 between Israeli officials, led by the Mossad director, Yossi Cohen, and high-ranking American officials, including President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel.”).

[8] Kissinger Memorandum – 15 June 1975: “To Isolate the Palestinians”, 96 MERIP (1981).

[9] Clyde Haberman, “Mideast Accord: The Secret Peace / A special report; How Oslo Helped Mold the Mideast Pact”, New York Times, 5 September 1993.  

[10] Samuel Lewis, “The United States and Israel: Evolution of an Unwritten Alliance”, 53(3) Middle East Journal, p.364 – 378 (1999).

[11] Justin Elliot, “Trump’s Patron-in-Chief”, ProPublica, 10 October 2018; Jeremy Peters, “Sheldon Adelson Sees a Lot to Like in Trump’s Washington”, New York Times, 22 September 2018. Adelson family s a major force in the Republican family also after the death of the casino mogul: Talia Lakritz, “Meet Miriam Adelson, the billionaire GOP donor who’s given $100 million to support Trump’s campaign”, Business Insider, 29 October 2024; Asaf Elia – Shalev, “Miriam Adelson gives $100 million to Trump campaign, making good on reported pledge”, Times of Israel, 17 October 2024.   

[12] David Pilgrim, “Pat Robertson and the Oval Office”, 22(2) Journal of American Studies, pp.258-262 (1988); Ronald Stockton, “Christian Zionism: Prophecy and Public Opinion”, 41(2) Middle East Journal, pp.243 – 253 (1987); Yakov Ariel, “An Unexpected Alliance: Christian Zionism and Its Historical Significance”, 26(1) Modern Judaism, pp.74 – 100 (2006); Lawrence Davidson, “Review: Christian Zionism and the Formulation of Foreign Policy”, 34(3) Diplomatic History, pp.305 – 309 (2010); Daphna Berman, “Robertson: If Bush ‘Touches’ Jerusalem We’ll Form 3rd Party”, Haaretz, 4 October 2004; Ron Kampeas, “The pastor who personified US Jews’ dilemma with evangelicals”, Times of Israel, 9 June 2023; Jonathan Tobin, “Pat Robertson: The problematic but essential friend of the Jews”, Israel Ha-Yom, 11 June 2023.     

[13] David Brunnstorm, “Trump cuts more than $200 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians”, Reuters, 25 August 2018.

[14] Mark Landler, “Trump Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s Capitol and Orders U.S. Embassy to Move”, New York Times, 6 December 2017; Julie Hirschfeld, “Jerusalem Embassy Is a Victory for Trump, and a Complication for Middle East Peace”, New York Times, 14 May 2018.

[15] Mark Landler, “Trump Abandons Iran Nuclear Deal He Long Scorned”, New York Times, 8 May 2015. Contrary to Iran, Israel already has nuclear facilities for military purposes that are not subject to any monitoring and review. While Iran ratified the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons decades ago, Israel never did.      

[16] Peter Baker et al, “Seven Days in January: How Trump Pushed U.S. and Iran to the Brink of War”, New York Times, 11 January 2020.

[17] Mark Landler et al, “In Golan Heights, Trump Bolsters Israel’s Netanyahu but Risks Roiling Middle East”. New York Times, 21 March 2019.

[18] Noa Landau, “Israel – UAE Deal Brings 25 Years of Covert Diplomacy Out of the Shadows”, Haaretz, 4 September 2020.

[19] Michael Crowley et al, “Bahrain will Normalize Relations With Israel, in Deal Brokered by Trump”, New York Times, 1 September 2020.

[20] Matthew Lee, “Israel, Morrocco to normalize ties; US shifts W Sahara policy”, Associated Press, 10 December 2020.

[21] Lara Jakes et al, “Trump Announces Sudan Will Move to Normalize Relations with Israel”, New York Times, 23 October 2020.

[22] Lazar Berman et al, “Blinken pledges US backing to expand Abraham accords between Israel, Arab states”, Times of Israel, 17 September 2021; Edward Wong et al, “Biden Aids and Saudis Explore Defense Treaty Modeled After Asian Pact”, New York Times, 19 September 2023.

[23] Humeyra Pamuk et al, “US and Saudi Arabia nearing agreement on security pact, sources say”, Reuters, 3 May 2024.

[24] Joel Brinkley, “Bomb Kills At Least 19 in Israel as Arabs Meet Over Peace Plan”, New York Times, 28 March 2002.

[25] Tom Segev, “Now it Can be Told”, Haaretz, 6 April 2006; Zvi Bar’el, “Ankara Car Bombing Could Lead to Collapse of Syria Ceasefire”, Haaretz, 14 March 2016; Tom Segev, “Benyamin Gilbi: 1919 – 2008 Shameful Business Constant Danger”, Haaretz, 20 August 2008.