Biden administration has drawn the line by not meeting with the most extreme cabinet members and representatives of this Israeli government. And last month, the US said it was “deeply troubled” by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s announcement of 5,000 new settlements in the West Bank. But even as US public opinion has begun to shift toward a more favorable view of Palestinians, that level of forthright condemnation has been lacking with respect to Jenin, with the exception of a few members of Congress.
“We support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups,” the White House said. And a State Department spokesperson said, “It is imperative to take all possible precautions to prevent the loss of civilian lives.”
“Because an operation like Jenin doesn’t get any condemnation, it basically gives a passive green light to the government to continue with such operations,” says Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a victory lap praising US support amid bombing of Jenin and rumors of frayed ties
Bottom of Form
“The US clearly has no red lines when it comes to Israel’s use of force,” Marwa Maziad, an expert on US-Arab-Israeli relations at the University of Maryland, told Middle East Eye.
Some experts have said the US is concerned that Israel’s introduction of armed drones into the occupied West Bank has the potential to loosen rules of engagement and inflame tensions further, but analysts tell MEE that Israel’s deadly raid on Jenin where about 1,100 troops are supported by armed drones shows its a muted issue for the Biden administration.
Last Monday, a National Security Council spokesperson expressed US support for “Israel’s security and right to defend its people saying “The US is completely going with Israel’s flow of events,”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has wasted no time trumpeting US support as a counter to domestic opponents who say his far-right government has imperiled relations with Israel’s closest ally.
“America has provided Israel with moral and political backing,” Netanyahu said. “Security cooperation [with the US] has never been better, intelligence sharing has never been deeper.”
“If Netanyahu said tomorrow the judicial overhaul is dead, the Biden administration would schedule a visit for him,” Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East adviser, told MEE. “The reason he isn’t coming isn’t attached specifically to the Palestinians.”
The Biden administration has backed Israel, when some hoped it would call for stronger support for Palestinians.
“The US knows well that the Israeli operation in the Jenin refugee camp should be seen in the context of Israel’s future plans to take over more Palestinian land and squeeze Palestinians out,” Nadim Rouhana, from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told MEE.
Those thoughts have been echoed by progressive members of Biden’s party.
On Monday, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib tweeted footage from Jenin saying: “Israeli forces are now blocking ambulances from reaching the dozens of wounded Palestinians… Congress must stop funding this violent Israeli apartheid regime.”
But other Democratic lawmakers, who have previously urged the Biden administration to take a tougher stance against Israel, have been quiet during the Jenin raid. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, who once criticised the administration’s “tepid statement” in support of Palestinians during Israel’s May 2021 war on Gaza, hasn’t issued a comment on Jenin.
“We told our friends and allies in Israel that if there’s a fire burning in their backyard, it’s going to be a lot tougher, if not impossible, to actually both deepen the existing agreements, as well as to expand them, to include potentially Saudi Arabia,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week.
The fact of the matter is that all US administrations are unlikely to ever consider withholding American support from Israel. The Biden administration’s response to the rising tensions is especially complicated by the 2024 presidential elections. “The administration is not interested in giving the Republicans any edge in creating the impression that it is pursuing an adversarial policy towards Israel. A lot of it has to do with fundraising,”.
Israel’s “right to defend itself” is invoked constantly by its supporters, as American policy makers continue to reiterate, but international law says Israel cannot simultaneously occupy Palestinian land and attack it as a “foreign” threat, or treat those resisting as enemy combatants. Israel does not have a right to self-defense for its occupation.