A self-proclaimed Zionist, President Joe Biden is often quoted by his main aides as saying that if there were no Israel, the United States would have to create one.
Thus, when Biden took over the White House, Palestinian rights defenders and Arab-American voters who supported him did not set high expectations for a change in the U.S. stance toward Israel under his leadership.
Still, amid promises of the Biden campaign and an early presidency to pursue a human rights-focused foreign policy, many had hoped the president would at least reverse some of the moves of his predecessor Donald Trump that had still lined up. plus the US with Israel.
But rights activists say the Democratic president has so far failed to deliver on his modest promises to the Palestinians with the current U.S. position closer to what it was under Trump than to what it had been under Barack Obama.
When Biden addresses Israel for the first time as president, Al Jazeera looks at what policies Trump has changed Biden and which ones he has kept in place:
US Embassy in Jerusalem
Of all Trump’s pro-Israel policy changes, the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv was perhaps the most consistent. The 2018 measure gave practical support from the United States to Israel’s claims over the entire holy city as its capital.
Israel had illegally annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 after capturing it in 1967.
While the Palestinians expressed outrage over the measure and the United Nations overwhelmingly declared it “null”, the decision was applauded by politicians from the two main parties in Washington.
With a silent Arab response, Trump declared Jerusalem “off the table” before moving the embassy.
For Biden, returning the embassy to Jerusalem was never a serious consideration. Under his administration, the United States has treated Jerusalem as the capital of Israel while using ambiguous language to describe how East Jerusalem looks.
For example, the U.S. State Department’s annual report on human rights includes East Jerusalem in the section on Israel. But he adds a warning: “The language of this report is not intended to convey a position on any issue of final status to be negotiated between the conflicting parties, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem or the borders between Israel and any future. Palestinian state.
Consulate of Jerusalem for the Palestinians
In 2019, Trump closed a consulate for Palestinian affairs in Jerusalem, folding his duties at the Israeli embassy in the holy city.
The move broke ties with the Palestinians and expressed a U.S. rejection of its demands in Jerusalem.
As a candidate, Biden promised to reopen the consulate, but in addition to a year and a half of his administration, the measure has not materialized.
While U.S. officials say they are still committed to re-establishing diplomatic office, Biden and his top aides have been reluctant to publicly confront Israel, which opposes the reopening of the consulate.
“As President, Biden will take immediate steps to restore economic and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, in accordance with US law, including refugee assistance, will work to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, will reopen the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem and will work to reopen the PLO’s mission in Washington, ”Biden’s campaign said on a platform for Arab-American voters in 2020.
The Palestine Liberation Organization’s mission in Washington, closed by Trump in 2018, has also not reopened under Biden, amid bipartisan internal pressure against the measure.
Settlements
As a candidate, Biden pledged to oppose the annexation and expansion of settlements. And in contrast to Trump, who has never publicly opposed Israeli actions, the Biden administration has verbally criticized the approval of new settlements in the occupied West Bank from time to time.
But these muffled criticisms often come in vague statements that draw parallels between Israeli and Palestinian actions and claim that the U.S. rejects escalating movements on both sides.
On a rare occasion last October, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price was outspoken with his criticism of Israel after announcing a major settlement expansion plan.
“We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely incompatible with efforts to reduce tensions and ensure calm,” Price said at the time.
But that direct language quickly faded.
Asked last week whether the United States has pressured Israel to stop a settlement project that would separate Palestinian communities in the West Bank from East Jerusalem, Price said: “We have constantly spoken to both sides to encourage them not to take aggravating measures. tensions in the West Bank. that, in the event of such a thing, would put a two-state solution out of reach. “
Maya Berry, executive director of the American Arab Institute (AAI), a Washington-based think tank, told Al Jazeera last week that the administration continues to create exceptions to justify Israeli abuses against Palestinians.
“It has been the continuation of a politicized approach,” he said of Biden’s policies on the conflict.
“Whether the Biden administration or specific members of Congress are creating an exception for Israel. No other country will be able to do what Israel does without the political repercussions it would have to face on the world stage. And the main protector in this meaning is the United States. “
The Biden administration has expressed opposition to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, largely through vague statements. [File: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP]
Help Israel
Despite growing calls to condition or restrict U.S. aid to Israel, Biden has increased Washington’s assistance to its main ally in the region since the days of Obama and Trump.
Israel receives $ 3.8 billion a year in U.S. aid, and this year was given an additional $ 1 billion to “replenish the Iron Dome’s missile defense system” after the Gaza war in May 2021.
In a Washington Post column published last week, Biden was proud to approve “the largest support package for Israel” in history.
Help the Palestinians
While Trump virtually ended all U.S. assistance to the Palestinians, completely cutting off funding from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Biden has recovered some of the assistance.
Since taking office in 2021, Biden says his administration has restored $ 500 million in aid to the Palestinians, including funding for UNRWA, which had received about $ 350 million a year during the Obama era.
Normalization
The Biden administration is fully committed to the normalization push between Israel and the Arab countries that began under Trump, known as the Abraham Accords.
The State Department says Arab-Israeli normalization does not meet the need for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But analysts say Biden has championed the same normalization of the Trump era that the Palestinians overlook.
In fact, before his trip to the Middle East, Biden repeatedly invoked normalization as the reason for his visit.
“Part of the purpose [for] the trip to the Middle East is to delve deeper into Israel’s integration into the region, which I think we will be able to do, and which is good for peace and good for Israeli security. And that’s why Israel’s leaders have shown so much strength to go to Saudi Arabia, ”Biden said late last month.
Golan Heights
When Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights in Syria, many experts in international law warned that the measure undermines the ban on land acquisition by force.
Although Biden defends the concept of territorial integrity in Ukraine, his administration has maintained the status of the Golan Heights as belonging to Israel.
Although U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously used ambiguous language to describe Syrian territory, no change in U.S. policy on the issue has ever been announced since Biden took office.
“U.S. policy regarding the Golan has not changed, and contrary reports are false,” the State Department’s Middle East Office said on Twitter last year.
Ties with Palestinians
Although Trump had almost rejected the Palestinians in his policies for the region, the Biden administration has been trying to re-establish U.S. relations with the Palestinian leadership.
There have been several calls between senior US and Palestinian officials, including between Biden and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Last month, the U.S. administration announced that the Palestinian Affairs Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem would begin reporting directly to the U.S. State Department’s Office of Middle East Affairs. ” on substantive issues “.
The diplomatic update caused the Palestinian Affairs Unit (PAU) to change its brand as the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA).
But experts rejected the measure as mostly aesthetic, stressing that it is not a suitable substitute for pushing for a real consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem.
“In the current circumstances, I am very comfortable stating that this is simply an attempt at public relations to try to appease the frustration of the Palestinian side, especially in view of the President’s next visit to the region,” Khalil Jahshan said. executive. director of the Washington DC Arab Center, he told Al Jazeera at the time.
Still, the administration has been credited with what it describes as repairing relations with the Palestinian Authority.
“We have worked with Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan to keep the peace without allowing terrorists to rearm. We have also rebuilt U.S. ties with the Palestinians,” Biden wrote in the Washington Post.
U.S. President Joe Biden has been a staunch supporter of Israel throughout his 49-year career in Washington. [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]
International organizations
Biden has reconnected with multiple international and UN agencies that Trump …