The arrival of Donald Trump to the White House is setting off alarms in spaces that demand restraint from the president-elect, but that forget the responsibility of still-president Joe Biden in important issues. Between now and January 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration, it is the Biden-Harris Administration that must still be asked for measures to stop the massacre in Gaza and hinder some plans of the future American president.
An analysis of the facts shows Washington’s position. The United States continues to send weapons to Israel and maintains its political and diplomatic support, of which the planet has been able to observe evident features this last week.
Four events in the last 10 days
1.- A week ago, Biden received Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House, to whom he conveyed his “strong commitment” to Israel. He did so when there are more than 44,000 dead in Gaza, at least 17,000 of them children, and while the extermination campaign against the north of the Strip continues, with massacres of civilians and the systematic blockade of the entry of the aid necessary for survival. , which has been designated as war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
2.- The Biden Government once again vetoed a resolution in the United Nations Council this week for a ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages. The result was one vote against and fourteen in favor. It is the fourth US veto on the possibility of ending the massacres of civilians in the Strip.
3.- In an attempt to save lives in Gaza – and his party’s own image – the Democratic senator Bernie Sanders pushed a resolution in the Senate to block a new shipment of US weapons to Israel. In the proposal, Sanders also demanded an end to the US Government’s complicity with Israeli military actions in Gaza.
Only 19 Democratic senators voted this week to suspend a new arms shipment to Israel
This week the vote took place: only nineteen Democratic senators supported the initiative. “We are facing AIPAC, the Democratic leadership of the Senate and the Biden Administration,” Sanders commented, referring to the pressures from the White House for make sure that the Democratic majority voted against.
“No one is going to take what you say seriously. [dirigiéndose al Senado]. You cannot condemn the violation of human rights in various places around the world and then turn a blind eye given what the US Government finances in Israel,” he added.
The active and continued support of the American Democratic Party for the atrocities perpetrated by Israel is public. Those nineteen votes in favor of the suspension of this arms shipment – and a radical change in US policy towards the genocide – will be written in the pages of History as the expression of decency in the face of the normalization of barbarism.
4.- The reaction of the US Government to the arrest warrants announced on Thursday by the International Criminal Court against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant rounded off the week. Biden described the measure as “scandalous”the White House spokeswoman denied the jurisdiction of the Court and the Security spokesman, John Kirby, rejected the orders and cited “troubling process errors.”
This position of Washington before international courts is not new. The traditional position of the US is against the intervention of the UN and the Courts of The Hague in the Israeli case. In 2002 the US passed a law that allows the use “of all necessary means” to free officials from the United States and allied countries – among which he names Israel – who are accused, detained and tried by the International Criminal Court.
How has denounced According to the organization Human Rights Watch, the nature of that release can include the use of military force, which is why the law is known by the nickname “Act of Invasion of The Hague”. Its promulgation provoked a public outcry from the Netherlands, the seat of the international courts.
US denies Court’s jurisdiction over Israel and calls arrest warrant against Netanyahu ‘scandalous’
The rule was promoted by the George W. Bush Government, but also received the support of several Democrats, such as Hillary Clinton or Chusck Schumer, Senate majority leader since 2021. This law also contemplates the possibility of suspending or denying US aid to countries that ratify the Statute of the International Court.
The US also reserves the possibility of punishing the Criminal Court in The Hague if it promotes investigations into American or allied crimes. This happened in 2020, when the Trump Government sanctioned the then prosecutor of that court, Fatou Bensouda, within the framework of a process into crimes by the US Army committed in Afghanistan.
Last May, when the Court’s current chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the possibility of sanctioning the Hague Court.
Washington reserves by law the “use of all means” to free allies detained by the International Court
What Biden can do that he’s not doing
In December 2016, Barack Obama took an unusual position in Washington. Four weeks after his departure, the outgoing president decided to abstain – instead of vetoing, as the US usually does on this matter – in the vote on a resolution of the UN condemning illegal Israeli settlements. He did so with opposition from his team and his vice president, Joe Biden. When the press asked an Obama advisor for the reasons for this abstention, he explained that the president no longer had anything to lose.
Kamala Harris, then a senator, campaigned against this abstention promoted by the leader of her own party, and co-sponsored from the Senate an initiative against any intervention by the United Nations in Israeli issues. Later he would also sign a letter against any investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court.
Like his predecessors, Obama was a pro-Israel president, facilitating the extension of the illegal occupation and maintaining annual US military aid to Israel, the largest contribution the US gives to a country each year. But he had that gesture in his farewell, allowing the first condemnation resolution in almost forty years against illegal Israeli settlements to go forward.
One month after Trump’s inauguration, the outgoing Obama administration abstained from a resolution against illegal Israeli colonies
Biden and Harris could let their allies know that they would now be willing not to veto a UN resolution of these characteristics. They could also defend a arms embargo to Israel, interrupt its shipments of military material and suspend its political and diplomatic protection to Tel Aviv. They have time to convey that, this time, they would accept an immediate ceasefire for Gaza.
They could even promote the suspension Israel’s temporary membership in the UN General Assembly, a measure that was adopted in the past against apartheid South Africa. If they wanted to avoid the perpetuation of Israeli crimes, the still leaders of the United States would promote avenues for negotiation and peace. Or they would invest “in the right to housing and not in the genocide in Gaza,” as they asked a few days ago protesters in front of Congress.
Obviously, none of this is going to happen, because the objectives of this US Government go elsewhere. Biden and his team remain committed to allowing the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the annexation of more territory in the West Bank, the extension of the illegal occupation and apartheid. They leave the way paved for Trump for further growth and acceleration of Israeli impunity, at a time when Tel Aviv has also just prohibit the presence of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), an order that will come into force in a few weeks.
The facilitation of the massacre of children wears a suit or tie, votes in the US Congress and Senate, presents itself as the good and civilized side of the planet and is covered up by a significant part of the Western narrative, which depicts the crimes as necessary and frees Washington, a key actor in this story, from demands.
The Biden-Harris Administration paves the way for Trump for further growth and acceleration of Israeli impunity
The importance of an accurate diagnosis
USA just appeal to international standards when it seeks to apply them to its adversaries. The Biden Government respects the judicial processes on Sudan, Darfur or Vladimir Putin but despises and stigmatizes investigations of Israeli crimes. Their position damages international law and contributes to the construction of a more ruthless world order, in which Europe is placed in a scenario of greater fragility.
The presentation of war as a necessary and inevitable option marks the global present, also in Ukraine, where the United States has for the first time allowed the use of long-range American missiles against Russian soil, which increases the risk of the perpetuation of the conflict or its escalation. Washington has also announced that it will send anti-personnel mines to kyiv. The geographical remoteness of the US does not expose it to the risks that Europe does face in this matter.
All of this is the legacy of the Democratic Administration that is still in the White House. Far from holding accountable the facilitators of the genocide against Palestine, much of the Western political and media discourse focuses on recounting all the evil that Trump will do, while hiding the responsibility of the Biden-Harris Government in the Israeli massacres and in the obstacles to international law.
If in Europe there is still a lack of understanding of what is happening in the United States, it is because an unrealistic narrative persists that presents Washington as the champion of human rights. We should not forget that, without an accurate diagnosis, it is not possible to make good decisions.
It is likely that when Trump takes power, criticism of the US’s active complicity with Israeli impunity will arise in sectors that have not reproached Biden for the same. It will be a less than honest exercise, because the position of the outgoing Democratic Government has already changed the Middle East and the world, further normalizing the path of brute force and the use of intimidation, which will also take its toll on this intervened Europe.
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