Biden is going back to Obama’s relations with Israel, but the Middle East has changed for good. He would do well to realize that. Op-ed.
Since Biden has stacked his inner circle with ministers and consiglieri mostly hostile to Israel, we shouldn’t be surprised at what’s coming.
Some of it has arrived already.
One of Biden’s first phone calls was not to Benjamin Netanyahu, but to the Palestinian Authority to assure the boys that everything is back to normal, yes, as it was under Obama. This means the PLO eyesore, that is, the PLO office in DC is okay to reopen.
The funds that Trump took away from the PA are being returned … the “two-state solution” is back on the table…and Abbas is back in the saddle.
Some days it is good to be a terrorist. Be patient, and await the American voters to vote low for the highest office.
Abbas, no doubt, expressed his gratitude, and both he and Biden agreed that Trump was terrible…but hey, happy days are here again.
Trump had consigned the Palestinian Arabs to the far corners of the earth. For four years, sucking their thumbs, hardly a peep out of them.
Result? The entire Middle East changed…for the better. Who knew that it was the Palestinians who were the problem? Trump knew.
The Taylor Force Act, it was understood, still prohibits murdering Jews for money…but
under Biden, that could change if the Israelis don’t behave.
So to what extent do Biden and his team intend to diminish Israel? Of Biden himself, this we know. The man is under the thumb of Obama and his crew. He himself has absolutely no idea what he is doing…but whatever he does do is out of spite.
Trump wanted the Keystone XL Pipeline to flourish – Biden turns the spigots off and shuts it down.
Trump set limits and restrictions to immigration – Biden invites the stampede.
Trump supported Israel – Biden embraces the Palestinian Arabs.
And so on and on and on.
Nearly all of Biden’s executive orders share that trend and have that tone.
We can count on this…concessions, concessions, concessions…all on Israel’s back. From the other side, nothing is expected, except (maybe) promises, which they never keep. And no concessions whatsoever, not even mild compromises.
There will be a summit, as there was for Camp David and Oslo, and Netanyahu (or whoever after the March elections) will be imposed upon to shake hands with Abbas.
Lights. Camera. Action. Biden and Abbas beaming, the Israeli forcing a grim half-smile.
That is, if the Israelis fall for that trap all over again…which would be tripwired by the same old arabists who got everything wrong before and now get still another chance with Biden.
Old maps will be dusted, new maps will be drawn, meticulously setting out how easily hundreds of thousands of Israelis can be uprooted from here to there to implant a Palestinian state.
Yes, we see this coming. The same old formulas from the same old hacks.
But it does not have to end the usual way if the Israelis remember their ace in the hole, four actually…The UAE, Morocco, Sudan, Bahrain.
These new allies give Israel a strong hand to play.
Biden’s arabists can no longer support their central theme, that for there to be peace in the region, Israel must first come to terms with the Palestinian Arabs.
Otherwise no deal.
Now there is a deal…the Abraham Accords…and that’s a winning hand against whatever tricks Biden and company have up their sleeves.
The Biden gang best tread carefully. America will soon need Arab oil again, since Biden suspended so much of our own drillings and pipelines.
It would pay to go gently toward Israel. And her oil rich Arab friends.
