A diverse group of more than 100 organizations supporting Palestinian rights announced this week that it sent a message to the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, urging him to adopt policies toward Israel and the Palestinians "on the basis of equality and justice principles" For everyone".
The letter, initiated by the activist Code Pink, calls for a political approach based on "respect for human rights and international law, promoting a peaceful solution to disputes, upgrading diplomacy over military intervention, and using multilateralism and multilateral institutions to settle disputes."
The group calls on Biden not only to adopt these principles in Palestine, but as a basis for American foreign policy in general.
An enduring battle is awaiting this endeavor, given that Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel for a long time, and as Vice President Barack Obama has often been charged with calming the strained relationship between the Obama administration and pro-Israel groups, because of his reputation owed to support the views of the Israeli government.
It is noteworthy that the American Jewish political leader Senator Chuck Schumer, the President of the Democratic Minority in the Senate and close to the "American Israel Public Relations Committee - AIPAC", the powerful Israeli lobby once was "Israel´s best friend in the Obama administration", and Biden boasted repeatedly By supporting Israel on the campaign path. Biden famously told an interviewee on the Israeli Shalom Channel in 2007: "I am a Zionist ... You do not have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."
Even when other Democrats were pledging or at least considering the idea of ​​using US $ 3.8 billion a year in annual aid as military aid to pressure Israel to cooperate on the goal of a two-state solution, Biden flatly rejected any threat to that annual aid.
Biden has indicated that, unlike his former President Obama, any differences between his administration and Israel will be kept out of public opinion. But in his bid to win the White House, Biden also pledged to open up to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and in return he gained a lot of support not only from former progressive rivals such as Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, but also from their employees and volunteers with them. Biden also hopes to win the support of progressive voters who were half-hearted towards him at the beginning of 2020, and whose hatred of Hillary Clinton in 2016 is a reason for her defeat.
These voters are more supportive of Palestinian rights than centrist Democrats. A poll conducted by Gallup in 2019 found that while 58% of liberal democrats have positive views of Israel, among these more liberal democrats, Israel only prefers 3% to the Palestinians, and this is an ongoing trend and is responsible for the growing negative outlook Toward the Israeli occupation among the Democrats.
Most of the major contenders pushed the Democratic nomination to boycott the 2020 AIPAC conference.
The letter addressed to Biden includes a long list of demands describing how US policy should be more positive toward the Palestinians. The demands cover a wide range of issues in support of Palestinian rights, which range from the goals that the current political spectrum supports - such as supporting a bill in the House of Representatives to prevent American funds from supporting Palestinian child abuse at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities - to provisions that require a major shift in state policy United, such as the recognition of the rights of Palestinian refugees.
The diverse group of organizations represented in the "Code Pink" message is remarkable, and includes the "win without war" organization, the "if not now" Jewish organization, the American-Islamic Coordination Council, the American Friends Service Committee, "Friends" and the "Jewish Voice for Peace" And "demand progress" and "move the peace" and many others. All these secular, religious, Jewish, Christian and Muslim organizations all take a unified position calling for a new and different American policy, and this diverse alliance can represent the future of the Democratic Party.
Perhaps the most important proof of this is the defeat of Democratic congressman Elliot Inglis, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the US Congress, who is a Zionist, and the well-known "AIPAC" stepson, after 32 years in Congress, before a black progressive competitor named Jamal Bowman, who fought his battle against Elliot on a progressive ground. At the forefront of the demand for justice and equality for the Palestinians and the need to end the occupation and cut aid to Israel.
The Progressive Party of the Democratic Party believes that if Joe Biden intends to fulfill his promise to open up to progressive Democrats, he should listen to figures such as Dr. Cornell West of the prestigious Princeton University, a supporter of Bernie Sanders in the recent primaries and an ancient advocate of African American solidarity with Palestinians.
West recently stated, "What we have to do is admit that the funeral of George Floyd (the black man killed by a white policeman in Minneapolis last month unleashing the current tumultuous demonstrations), as tears flowed ... they (the Palestinians) have [similar] funerals in West Bank because of American policy [and] American bombs used by the [Israel Defense Forces]. ”
Although the full list of demands in the Coalition of Organizations speech will not be met by the Biden administration, it is likely that policies on Palestine will continue to shift positively under the Biden administration, especially with the growing partisan calls and across the ideological spectrum of the United States military withdrawal from the Middle East. And although he will surely get progressive support in the November elections, despite his conservative pro-Israel policies, he will find that much of this progressive support will quickly turn into an internal opposition if he defeats Trump.
