Joe Biden’s upcoming trip to Palestine in July will serve as yet another message to the Palestinian people that Israel is working hand in hand with the U.S.
Being better than Trump, is an extremely low standard, and while Biden has met it, he has been better than Trump only by the thinnest of margins. In fact, Biden has managed to fail to meet even the lowered expectations he himself set. While he has not taken major steps in Israel’s favor as Trump did, the day to day lives of Palestinians continue to deteriorate under his watch.
His upcoming trip to Israel and the West Bank in July is unlikely to change that.
In trying to repair the relationship between Washington and Ramallah, Biden initially promised three measures. One was the restoration of funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which had been halted by the Donald Trump administration. This was the one thing Biden accomplished as Israel did not oppose it and he didn’t need congressional cooperation to do it.
Biden’s other two commitments—reopening the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem and allowing the PLO to reopen their Washington office—have not been fulfilled, and there is no reason to believe they ever will be. Both of those commitments require significant cooperation from Israel or Congress, and that, as expected, has not been forthcoming. The fact that the Biden administration has made no serious effort to persuade either of those entities to change their stance is what is most notable.
These promises were made to the Palestinians and it strains credibility to believe the Biden team was unaware that there were steps that needed to be taken with Israel and Congress to fulfill them. They must have known, yet they don’t seem to have ever been prepared to exert any political effort to convince a recalcitrant Congress and a rejectionist Israel to accommodate these commitments. The message this sends to the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people is clear.
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