Chronic. How to counter Joe Biden in the Middle East? A meeting was held on Sunday evening, November 22, at the edge of the Red Sea. The host city, which is not yet a city, is called Neom, in the north-west of Saudi Arabia, promised by the crown prince, Mohammed Ben Salman (“MBS”), to become a megalopolis. % digital – in other words a nightmare.
There, if we believe the Israeli site Walla News, three men met briefly, no doubt to discuss the strategic disaster that falls on their heads: the defeat of a godfather, Donald Trump, and the arrival of Democrat, Joe Biden, at the White House. There are a few weeks left before the latter takes office, but the case is as inevitable as a nasty wind of sand from the desert of Hedjaz.
So gathered, in this strange place, the prince, known as “MBS”, the Trumpist secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the head of the Israeli government, Benyamin Netanyahu. The former is accused by the CIA of having ordered the assassination of Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Kashoggi. The American is one of the leaders of the fundamentalist Republican right, convinced, in his words, that Trump’s Middle East policies are “Dictated by God”. The Israeli, tireless leader of the nationalist right in his country, accumulates legal setbacks, for corruption, and polls in free fall, for miserable management of the Covid-19 epidemic.
By January 20, 2021, the date of the arrival of the new president at the White House, we must act quickly. As an old political professional, Netanyahu was the first to take action. His government rushed the opening and closing date of a tender for the construction of a new settlement. The file, opened on November 15, must be completed on January 18, two days before the handover in Washington.
Said colony, Givat Hamatos, is an old project which the United States of Barack Obama opposed for eight years, but which has the imprimatur of the Trump team. Between Jerusalem and the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, Givat Hamatos will further break the territorial continuity of the occupied West Bank. This colony “Will deal a mortal blow” to the possibility of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, says the Peace Now movement.
Undoing Trump’s Legacy
The Trump team has no complaints. It has worked to legitimize Israeli colonization in the West Bank – and even gave the green light for the partial annexation by Israel of this Palestinian territory. It has shown radical hostility towards the Palestinians. Biden said he would not reverse moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On the other hand, he will denounce the continuation of Israeli colonization, he could reopen the “mission” of representing the Palestinians in Washington and restore American financial aid to them – in short, undo the legacy of Trump.
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