Middle East: Palestinians eagerly await a forceful shift in Washington

Almost two weeks after entering the White House, the President Joe Biden He has not contacted any leader in the Middle East, an unusual behavior among the leaders of that country who tend to call in a hurry to their Israeli counterparts and those of other countries allied to Washington.

During the presidential campaign, Biden and several of his Democratic advisers indicated implicitly or explicitly that one of their priorities will be to regularize relations with the Palestinians, who suffered severe punishment after severe punishment during Donald Trump’s tenure.

But Biden will have to be very careful if he doesn’t want to enrage to the mighty American Jewish lobby, Always attentive to the instructions he receives from Tel Aviv and for whom Trump has been a true blessing from God, having promptly and blindly obeyed each of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s orders.

Several senior Israeli civilian and military officials have leaked to the media that Biden’s target must be Iran, forgetting about the brutal military occupation of the Palestinian territories, that is, he must ignore the growing Jewish colonial expansion that is making the occupation irreversible. .
In relation to the Palestinians, the president Mahmoud Abbas has ordered the reopening of diplomatic representation in Washington, closed during the Trump era, to be prepared. In addition, he expects the United States to resume financial aid interrupted by the Republican administration.

In the framework of this preparation, Abás recently issued a decree calling parliamentary elections for the month of May and presidential elections for the month of July, after a hiatus of more than a decade, and constant confrontations and frictions between the two main Palestinian forces. , Fatah and Hamas.

Palestinian sources cited by Arab media have confirmed that in recent weeks the Palestinian leadership has tried to contact the new administration, and that it has received guarantees from the Democratic Party that Biden will rectify some of the controversial decisions made by Trump.

For the Palestinians, the most important thing is to undo the so-called deal of the century, which in practice consisted of a pact that allows the continuity of Jewish colonial expansion and eliminates any possibility of creating a state in the territories occupied in the war of 1967.

For the Palestinians, the most important thing is that the so-called deal of the century be undone

The Palestinians are naturally aware that Biden will have to walk with all possible precautions, especially now that Israel is campaigning for the March elections, the fourth in two years, an election in which according to polls Netanyahu’s bloc could obtain an absolute majority in the Knesset that would reinforce the prime minister’s intransigent positions.

However, Washington should consider that at some point it will have to exert all the influence possible to bring to the waist an Israel that has been ignoring international laws and conventions for decades without paying any price, and that the sooner it does so the better to bring peace and stability to Middle east, as well as to block a good part of the bad consequences that this conflict has for the West as a whole.

Waiting for the elections to be held on May 24, is not a good option, as it means continuing to postpone the resolution of a problem that must be above the conjunctures. The tale of the Israeli elections, like the story of stability in Israel, used for decades by the leaders of that country, it should pass away, and the sooner the better.

Furthermore, the fact that the “opposition” of Yair Lapid, Gideon Saar y Nafatalí Bennett he thinks exactly the same as Netanyahu about the Palestinian question. Most likely, Biden will wait for after the elections, and then for the formation of the government, and then for the summer to pass, and this is not a good idea if it is to resolve the conflict, that is, get Israel out of the occupied territories.

Resume the peace process

Palestinian sources cited by the Arab press indicate that the Foreign Ministry has already requested the discussion of the “peace process”, although for now there has been no response from Washington. It is important that the dialogue is resumed soon since reopening the representation of the PLO in the American capital and resuming financial aid to the Palestinians will not be enough to correct the evils caused by Trump.

According to those sources, the new administration has made no commitment to return the embassy to Tel Aviv. nor to recognize Jerusalem as capital of the future state to which the Palestinians aspire, but it has indicated that it intends to resume the peace process “soon”, without specifying what it means by that word.

Apart from the Israeli elections, another circumstance that could delay the American intervention is the Palestinian elections called for May and July. But if, for one reason or another, the core of the problem is being postponed, you must be aware that each month that passes it will be more difficult to solve And that Biden only has four years to do it.

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