We rolled our eyes at the news, reminiscent of the Obama years, that the Biden Administration has successfully pressured Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to scrap plans to construct a new neighborhood in east Jerusalem. According to the Jerusalem Post, this episode marks the first time since Bennett took office in June that he appears to have given in to U.S. pressure to hold off on Jewish construction over the pre-1967 lines.
Apparently, the Biden team knew which buttons to press to persuade Bennett, a heretofore ardent supporter of settlement expansion. Doubtless, however, the latter was especially vulnerable now because not enough of the parties in his splintered coalition government have a common stance on Jerusalem.
The Biden team has made no secret of its support for a two-state solution – one Jewish and one Palestinian – with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. Nor that it views new Israeli construction in east Jerusalem as undermining that possibility. Yet it is sad that, once again, a corrupt and undemocratic Palestinian leadership with an unrealistic wish list and a delusory refusal to acknowledge the enormous geographic consequences that necessarily came with Israel’s historic military victories in the 1967 Six Day War has been empowered by an American president to get in the way of real progress towards a peaceful Middle East. And this is to say nothing about the substantial furtherance of American security interests in that part of the world that would result as well, should the U.S. get in on the ground floor.
This is all especially so in light of The Abraham Accords which have revolutionized the facts on the ground and demonstrated quite clearly that the future of the Middle East will not be driven by any resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Rather, it will be the fruits of the emerging political, economic, technological and military consortium that the nascent Abraham Accords suggest and which will be defining. Plainly, Israel’s remarkable success in these areas are and will continue to be the draw. And this will only become more pronounced for these Arab states as they continue to confront the threat posed by their predator neighbor, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In a very real sense, Israel’s successes are their successes as well. It’s time the Biden Administration got with the program.