If Israel wasn’t there, the US would have to invent it to protect its interests

The Arab rulers are holding their breath, apprehensive of the day that Joe Biden arrives in the White House to the extent that they probably wish that 20 January never comes or a major incident delays or even blocks the US President-elect from taking office. Hence, their pet journalists are promoting the theory that Iran will be attacked in the dying days of Trump’s presidency, which could upset the balance of power. This would necessitate their beloved Trump remaining in the White House.

Meanwhile, ordinary Arabs are looking forward to the Biden presidency. It is as if they are waiting for a saviour to take away their pain, suffering and oppression at the hands of their tyrannical rulers.

This is really surprising. Biden is neither a bogeyman who frightens the Arab rulers and deters them from committing their injustices, nor is he the saviour of humanity from injustice. He is a human being made by America, in America and for America; he is there to manage its affairs according to US interests and colonial goals, not the interests of others. Israel falls under American interests and he will not be allowed to go against the tide.

Forget what was said in the election campaign about freedom, democracy and human rights. They are not given any weight in US politics; they are nothing but a pretty veneer to plaster over America’s ugly colonial face, which was exposed so publicly by Trump. However, we Arabs are a people who hate to see the truth in front of our eyes, and we run away from it, preferring instead to live in a world full of illusions.

The panic among Arab rulers about an unfamiliar newcomer confirmed what we already know; the governments in the Arab region are dependent upon and take their legitimacy from Washington, not from their own people. They should be reassured that the signals from Biden since his election amount to pressure to make more concessions and renew their obedience and loyalty. This they will do, so they do not need to worry about Biden as they will find he is as kind as their beloved Trump and there is no difference between them.

READ: The elections in America and the voters in the Arab world

What really amazes me are the people who are under the illusion that Biden will overthrow their tyrannical rulers and bring them democracy. Washington anointed their rulers, so why expect the US to remove them? America has ensured that successful democratic elections in the Arab world have all been aborted or thwarted. Indeed, post-World War Two it pioneered military coups in the region so that our countries would be ruled by military fascism.

This both guarantees its interests and Israel’s security. The presence of any democratic government in the region is perceived to be a threat to Israel and anyone in the White House, whether Republican or Democrat, who uses Israel’s security as the basis for their foreign policy to preserve the status quo in the Arab world. The July 2013 coup in Egypt happened when Barack Obama was US President, and Biden was his Vice President, and a supporter of the coup.

When America talks about democracy in the Middle East, it must be based on what Washington wants, not what the people want. The ballot box is irrelevant because it will bring Islamists to high office. Any democracy must be subservient to America, which will not accept compromise on religious, cultural and moral constants; indeed, it seeks to erode all such constants in the region.

This was obvious by what senior neoconservatives said during the presidency of George W Bush, who claimed that he went to Iraq to spread democracy and for it to be a democratic model for Arab countries. These neocons said that if they wanted to spread democracy in the Middle East to a degree acceptable and recognised in the West, then the ballot box should not represent the actual convictions of the voters. Instead, they must accept what aligns with the convictions of the so-called free world and the international community. That is why, after the victory of the Islamist movement in the parliamentary elections and the victory of Dr Mohamed Morsi, many members of the Egyptian elite who call for liberalism were saying that the ballot boxes did not represent democracy.

If we assume, for the sake of argument, that Biden responds to the people’s desire for regime change, we can be certain that their replacements would be cast in basically the same mould. They cannot walk another path, because their job is to protect Israel. There would simply be more of the same.

The Arab people should not pin their hopes on Biden. No one will give us freedom; we must take it back from those who seized it, as we did during the Arab Spring revolutions. It’s a long walk to freedom and the way is full of obstacles, requiring a lot of sacrifice.

Israel is a Western colonial project imposed on the Arab world. It is there to make it easier for the West to dominate the people and their lands so that they put Western interests above all else.

“It’s about time we stop apologising for our support for Israel,” Joe Biden told the US Senate in 1986. “There’s no apology to be made. It is the best $3 billion investment we make. If there weren’t an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.”

Biden is a proud Zionist. He will not change the path followed by Trump and will not go against anything that Trump has given Israel, such as recognising Jerusalem as its capital, the annexation of the Golan Heights, or annexing the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. As Obama’s Vice President, he was completely loyalty to Israel and played a role in clearing the air between Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden even succeeded in getting Obama to sign an almost free advanced weapons deal worth $38 billion to be stored in warehouses in Tel Aviv for America’s, and Israel’s, future use.

Only after leaving the White House can US presidents even dare to think about criticising US foreign policy as dictated by the Zionist Lobby in Washington. Barack Obama mentioned this in his recent memoir, A Promised Land.

What really hurts me are the free concessions that the “Oslo Authority” in Ramallah has offered, and its return to security coordination with Israel as soon as Biden was confirmed as the President-elect. Did Mahmoud Abbas do this so that Biden will side with the Palestinians and restore their rights, which this treacherous authority has helped them to lose?

READ: The normalisation plague is deadlier than the Covid-19 pandemic

Although Biden will probably release financial aid to the Palestinians, which Trump has blocked, and is playing the cracked two-state solution record once again, he will not present anything new to the people of occupied Palestine. Nevertheless, the Palestinian Authority is rushing to prepare for direct negotiations once again with Israel and is using Arab and Western countries as mediators. The PA hopes that such talks will be under the auspices of Biden, but they will only bring further losses to the Palestinians.

It is back to the days of negotiations for the sake of negotiations, which both sides have mastered. The Oslo-created PA is trying to justify its existence through these talks. If they are resumed, though, they will simply buy more time for Israel to steal what is left of the occupied West Bank.

Almost three decades have passed since Oslo, and the Palestinians are worse off now than ever before; they have less land and even less of a chance of an independent state. Freedom has been off the agenda for all of those decades. Nobody in the “Security Coordination” PA wants to admit the failure of their chosen path, as they all benefit from the delusion.

Palestinian rights will only be restored through legitimate struggle and resistance; that’s the only way to turn the balance of power and change the international equations. The world does not recognise anything but force, and it does not respect the weak and humble, so do not stand at Biden’s door waiting for him to throw you the crumbs off his table.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.