Shibley Telhami writes:

The United States is not a bystander in Israeli-Palestinian conflict; it is part and parcel of the overwhelming asymmetry of power favoring Israel. When the United States does nothing, it is further implicated in what Israel does, which is directly enabled by decades of American support.

When thinking about US clout with Israel, most analysts, and an increasing number of critics within the halls of Congress, focus on the quantity of financial aid to Israel, now amounting to $3.8 billion a year, making Israel the largest cumulative recipient of US assistance since WWII. That’s a lot, but that’s not what enables Israel the most. Three other American gifts are more central to Israeli superiority.

The first is shielding Israel at the United Nations, by discouraging, often vetoing, UN action against Israeli occupation. It is fair to say, that this shielding of Israel is one important reason that Israel has been able to maintain its 54-year-occupation of Palestinian territory. Even in this crisis, we saw elements of this as Biden moved to prevent even UN Security Council statements calling for a cease-fire.

Second, a principal reason that Israel maintains military superiority, not only in relation to occupied Palestinian residents of occupied land, but in relation to any other regional power, is that it has been US policy to uniquely provide Israel with qualitative military edge to maintain its supremacy.

A third reason for the imbalance of power is that the United States has used its clout and resources with Arab countries to make deals with Israel, without serious concessions on Palestine, from the Camp David Accords to the Abraham Accords — taking key Arab states out of the equation of Israel’s confrontation with the Palestinians.

If an American president cannot leverage this extraordinary and unprecedented support to advance core American values, what hope is there for succeeding anywhere else?

At home, Biden has also badly misread his own Democratic constituency, taking an approach that’s been a throwback to another era of Democratic culture, seemingly disconnected from the dramatic shift that has taken hold in Democrats’ attitudes on Israel/Palestine.

Contrary to prevailing views, this shift is not only among progressives; it’s far more pervasive. [Continue reading…]