stan van houcke: Biden won’t confront Netanyahu

maandag 9 januari 2023

Biden won’t confront Netanyahu

‘The Palestinian issue is not ready for prime time’ — or is it?

Photo: Aaron David Miller (Photo: Flickr/New America Foundation)

Dear stan,

We are barely a week into the new Netanyahu government and it is already proving its extremism in provocative and murderous actions against Palestinians.

But look what Aaron David Miller advises at CNN. The former peace processor says that Biden won’t confront Netanyahu because he has bigger fish to fry and he knows that “the Palestinian issue isn’t ready for prime time.”

This is of course what Palestinians have been told for 75 years. It’s not time for the world to take up your case, no matter the injustice. You don’t have the right leadership or tactics. Go to the back of the line! It’s the same signal that the Democratic Party sent this week when it installed Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (“Israel today, Israel tomorrow, Israel forever”) as House leader replacing Nancy Pelosi (if the Capitol “crumbled to the ground,” we’d still be aiding Israel.

We are doing our part to prove Aaron David Miller wrong. Political trends have a habit of changing overnight in the United States: Grassroots support for Palestine is stronger than it’s ever been, and the grassroots will have more to say about the progressive future in this country than the man who famously admitted that he and other government officials served as “Israel’s lawyers.”

There were signs this week that Israel’s radical new government is crystallizing real opposition in the United States. Left-wing politicians and organizations are calling for sanctions. The Israel lobby is in disarray over the new Israel, with Americans for Peace Now and Israel Policy Forum saying Netanyahu’s new ministers must not be normalized.

And Palestinian human rights are getting attention in the U.S. This week it was a major embarrassment when The Nation reported that Harvard’s Kennedy School had withdrawn a fellowship from Ken Roth, the man who directed Human Rights Watch’s 2021 report accusing Israel of apartheid, after the dean objected to Roth’s criticisms of Israel.

There is at least a discussion of Palestinian rights beginning in the mainstream. The political parties fear that, which is why Aaron David Miller issued his curse.

The 231 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces last year– not ready for prime time. The “moving grave” that Israel uses to transfer prisoners— not ready for prime time. Hateful and discriminatory policies against Palestinians — not ready for prime time.

Let’s call Miller’s advice what it is, a rationalization of anti-Palestinian bigotry in the U.S. establishment. And reject it.

Thanks for reading,