President Biden’s Dangerous Initiative Must Be Confronted

Ma’ariv, Israel, August 16

As a countermove to former US President Donald Trump, who moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem and thus recognized it as the capital of the Jewish State of Israel, President Joe Biden is going in the opposite direction: he wants to reestablish the Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem, a move that means recognizing the Arabs’ political interest in the city itself. This is a foolish attempt to turn history back and push Israel into a state of eternal war over its capital city. This is what Biden, a member of the Democratic Party and who served as Obama’s vice president, is doing. In my view, Biden is another version of Obama, the man who trampled on true American liberalism and sanctified the slogan “political correctness” that gives preference to those who did not really build America, but to immigrants. This put an end to the innocent liberalism that focused on freedom of opinion and religion, and launched a shocking takeover of so-called “progressive” opinions. It reminds me of Lenin and Stalin’s Communist Party practices, when thinking differently from the regime’s political views became a criminal offense. The world today is amazed at the new America, which seems to be punishing those who dare to express positions that are different from the political correctness dictated by the left. The depletion of the spirit in America – as Professor Allan Bloom defined it – endangers freedom of opinion and speech, and Zionism is the first to suffer, as always happens with global antisemitism that pervades and takes shape, but remains antisemitic. This is what is happening now with regard to Jerusalem. As we all know, Democratic President Harry Truman was the first to recognize the State of Israel as the state of the Jews returning to their ancestral homeland after 2000 years of forced exile. When, in 1956, Nasser closed the Suez Canal and declared its nationalization, the State of Israel was forced to join forces with France and Britain in a war to reopen the canal. In his memoir published many years later, Truman recounted the war and claimed that President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles’ decision to ignore Israel’s security was a “scam.” He concluded by saying: “George Marshall and I didn’t care what the Arabs would think or say. Unlike the Democrat Harry Truman, who saw the return of the Jewish people to their homeland as binding to America, Biden is moving in the direction of Obama’s legacy toward Israel. Biden seeks to send a message to the world that Jerusalem is not Israel’s capital. What would the great Democrat Biden have said if Israel had opened an embassy or consulate in Washington, designated specifically for the Mexican or Cuban population living in the United States? Wouldn’t the New York Times immediately attack the Israeli government for provoking the United States? The intention of the Biden administration is clearly a provocation against the State of Israel. In pursuing this decision, Biden is proving that he is following in the footsteps of his predecessor. It seems that Biden’s intention is to Arabize Jerusalem by demanding that a Palestinian mission be opened within it. This is an intention that is not appropriate for a historical and strategic ally of the State of Israel. It is to be hoped that our prime minister and foreign minister will succeed in convincing Biden to abandon the idea. If they fail to do so, they must immediately resign and announce new elections to give Netanyahu a chance to succeed, as he has previously succeeded in convincing President Trump and Congress. – Aharon Papu (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)