BIDEN NETANYAHU
© ISRAELI GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE.JOE BIDEN AND BENJAMIN NETANYAHU IN NEW ORLEANS IN 2010
Just hours before Joe Biden was sworn in 12 days ago, Israel moved ahead with 100s of new illegal settlement units. That included opening construction bids on 1200 units in the "doomsday settlement" of Givat HaMatos, so-called because putting Jewish-colonist housing on this hill south of Jerusalem would forever separate Bethlehem and the West Bank from Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. So it would doom the "two-state solution," according to liberal Zionsts who fight the settlement project.

Benjamin Netanyahu went ahead with Givat HaMatos five hours before inauguration with "malice aforethought" and "antagonism" for Biden, Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann told the Israel Policy Forum last week.

"He chose the timing. He did it with malice aforethought," Seidemann said.

Netanyahu is wed to the Trump plan that allows Israel to annex much of the West Bank, Seidemann says, and so he sought to "stick it to a Democratic president," much as he had sought "altercations" with Barack Obama over settlements in 2010-2012 and with Veep Joe Biden in 2010, in Biden's case announcing new settlements as Biden arrived in Israel.

Obama and Biden repeatedly backed down, and there are no signs that Biden is going to battle Netanyahu over Givat HaMatos.

Biden's envoys have issued only vague statements about Israel desisting from "settlement activity." They have not called out the doomsday settlement. And one of his leading national security aides, Anne Neuberger, gave more than half a million dollars to a rightwing Israel lobby group that supports Netanyahu. A resume-builder in the Biden administration.

And meantime Netanyahu is running for reelection by saying there is one state between the river and the sea. So, get used to it, America!

"What has been done by Netanyahu over the past several days indicates an element of antagonism toward the administration, expending precious political capital [on settlements]," Seidemann said. "Netanyahu has chosen to deliver to President Biden a completely gratuitous crisis. It didn't happen by mistake. It happened intentionally."

Seidemann says that Netanyahu is pursuing "de facto annexation" in line with the Trump plan of a year ago. And this precludes any possibility of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu's policy is that "Israel is the sole sovereign in Jerusalem, the Palestinians have no national rights or equities in the city... [The policy] entails the denationalization of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem... There is one collective in Jerusalem, it's Israeli." That means the dehumanization and marginalization and fragmentation of the Palestinian community. In a word, Givat HaMatos.

You'd think Netanyahu would be kissing up to Biden right now. To keep him from reentering the Iran deal. "He's going to clash with Biden over Iran... He's going to need some good will," Seidemann said.

But Netanyahu obviously feels such confidence about his ability to block Biden on the Iran deal that he's spending political capital on Jerusalem.

Liberal Zionists have repeatedly urged Biden to block Netanyahu over Givat HaMatos since the tenders were announced last fall. And of course Biden has shown no inclination to do so. It appears that Netanyahu is in the driver's seat here, though Biden is president of the most powerful country in the world. Not on this question.

Can construction still be halted? Evan Gottesman asked Seidemann. "Regrettably I think it can't be stopped." Once building contractors and developers are contracted under the tenders, Israel would have to cancel private contracts to back out of the plan, and that is "virtually impossible," Seidemann said. "The Rubicon was crossed on January 20, 2021 hours before the inauguration."

Seidemann is a liberal Zionist who wants to block Givat HaMatos as a threat to Israel's legitimacy as a "Jewish democracy."

Last month, a leading Israeli human rights group said the idea of democracy is absurd, Israel is an "apartheid regime." Liberal Zionists have largely ignored the report. That's because acknowledging that there is a "regime of Jewish supremacy," as B'Tselem declared, and not a Jewish democracy, would mean actually taking action against Israel, by endorsing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

Seidemann is eloquent about Israel's power over Biden on settlements (on twitter): "If you don't want Netanyahu to turn you into Joe Hussein Biden, you can make some noises but let us do whatever the fuck we want."

Liberal Zionist orgs continue to issue happy talk statements about a two-state solution, but can't take real action to try to stop Netanyahu- say by joining with the left to threaten suspension of US aid. They are surely registering the attitudes in the American Jewish donor community, which has no problem with Anne Neuberger. No wonder Netanyahu has so much political capital!