Just last week, a few representatives in Congress introduced a bill that would require Israel to disclose its operations in the West Bank, along with the intention of U.S. taxpayers' money not being used for assistance in war crimes.
It is absurd that we are still at this stage. It is absurd that this is considered progressive in any way.
Just like every American president since John F. Kennedy declared that Israel had a "special relationship" with the United States, Joe Biden is responsible for the suffering of Palestinians. This is because the U.S. has been committed to, for lack of a better word, the well-being of Israel's military.
By refusing to condemn Israel's war crimes, Biden supports the continuation of Israeli oppression.
No one, not even supporters of the U.S. policy of insisting on intervening in foreign lands, can deny that Israel wouldn't be in the place it is today without the significant help of the Americans.
Of course, a special relationship could very well mean an array of different things. Over the decades that the U.S. has helped Israel, it has done a whole lot of lurking around, for example, the constant vetoes in the U.N. and mandated minimum military aid to the country each year while millions of Americans live well under the poverty line and struggle to make it until the arrival of the next paycheck, if there is a paycheck in the first place.
American intervention has been something of a constant over the last 200 years, but, as with every other type of colonialism, U.S. foreign policy has struggled to make the world a better place. Everywhere it spreads, U.S. foreign policy is followed by suffering.
For someone on the more progressive side of the political axis, or someone who lives in another place in the world, this could seem obvious, but for someone raised on the ideas of Manifest Destiny, the infallibility of the American system, or the American dream, this could come as a shock.
Even if an American president tries to be sympathetic toward Palestinians while actively causing them harm, it doesn't come off as being supportive. This is best exemplified by Biden declaring his support for a two-state solution. When he does that, he isn't backing Palestinians; he does quite the opposite. By refusing to condemn Israel's war crimes, he supports the continuation of Israeli oppression.
I'd compare it to racism and anti-racism. If someone thinks that police shouldn't kill Black people, but refrains from supporting a grand reform of the way the U.S. manages policing, they aren't being impartial. Instead, they are taking a stand on the side of the oppressor, the police.
When Biden is trying to have it both ways, both receiving the support of the progressive vote by supporting a two-state solution and helping Israel continue its despicable treatment of Palestinians, he is simply standing on the side of the tyrant, just like the "anti-racist" who abstains from calling for revolutionary changes to the criminal justice system.
Activists advocating for solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unfortunately aren't making progress. The way things stand as of now, the situation on the ground disallows a solution.
A resolution is currently out of sight.
The most basic favor a Palestinian child could ask for from a superpower like the U.S. is that it maybe not help to cleanse them from their land. But that's too much to ask for.
Because Israel and the United States have a special relationship.
Still. After decades of pain and death.
The history of U.S. intervention in foreign lands is a disgusting one. A short-sided, ill-advised policy filled with malicious intentions. The difference between a hundred years ago and today is the optics. Nowadays, the U.S. insists on looking like the good guy. That's what makes it so horrible that it goes on and on and on and on, supporting some of the worst acts being committed.
By now, Biden should've picked a side. He's had more than enough time.
But, at the end of the day, as everyone for whom it matters knows, by not picking a side he's doing quite the opposite. He's taking the side of the oppressor.
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Fred Hidvegi.
Fred Hidvegi | Radio Free (2023-05-10T18:57:39+00:00) When it Comes to the Suffering of Palestinians, Which Side Is Biden On?. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2023/05/10/when-it-comes-to-the-suffering-of-palestinians-which-side-is-biden-on/
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