The fact is that Israel has an absolute right to build homes within its legal borders the same way that New Yorkers have a right to build homes in Manhattan or Britons have a right to build homes in London. And, as far as timing is concerned, it would not have mattered whether Israel announced its decision to build homes in East Jerusalem five weeks after Biden's visit, the U.S. would be condemning the decision with as much of an equal furor as they are now in claiming that Israel embarrassed Biden by making this decision to coincide with his visit to the region which the Israelis emphatically deny.
Noticeably absent from Biden's visit was any criticism of the Palestinians. After Biden's botched performance in Israel (See "Biden's Poor Performance in Israel"), Biden went over to Ramallah and hardly made any critical remarks of the Palestinians if he did at all. Instead, he chose to criticize Israel once again for the East Jerusalem Construction Project.
In a joint news conference with Abbas, Biden said: "Yesterday the decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem undermines that very trust, the trust that we need right now in order to begin ... profitable negotiations." According to Biden, Israel's decision to build in East Jerusalem was "undermining the Palestinians faith in new negotiations." In turn, Abbas urged Israel to commit to peace and claimed that the Palestinians are committed to peace as a strategic choice.
Biden went on to say that the Palestinians deserve a "viable independent" Palestinian state with contiguous territory whatever that means.
Now, in that press conference, Biden never once criticized the Palestinians for naming a square after a Palestinian terrorist who killed dozens of Israelis. Biden never criticized the PA for using its media and school system to indoctrinate Palestinian children with vicious anti-semitic blood libels. Biden never raised the issue of a reconciliation with Hamas and the PA. He never discussed the growing influence of Hezbollah in the region or the Iranian threat.
Unfortunately, Biden allowed Abbas to portray Israel as the peace breaker when over the years Israel has gone out on a limb to make peace with the Palestinians only to be rebuffed by two Intifadas, scores of homocide bombings and terrorist attacks, a PLO charter which still rejects Israel's right to exist, a Palestinian media that promotes violence against Israelis, and a Yasser Arafat and now a Mahmoud Abbas who claims to want peace in English but in Arabic who wants the destruction of the State of Israel.
The fact is that there is no feasible way to have a Palestinian state and a Jewish state living side by side with each other in peace. The Palestinians will not accept anything less than Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state, which would also include the Dead Sea and parts of the Negev plus the entry millions of "refugees" to flood the Palestinian state. This proposal is nothing short of the end of Israel as the Jewish state which is exactly what the Palestinians want.
For Biden to assert that the Palestinians deserve a viable Palestinian state with contiguous territory that will in all likelihood undermine the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish State is unacceptable. And for Biden to be complicit in allowing the Palestinians to portray Israel in a negative light while allowing a terrorist-supporting Palestinian entity to be portrayed as being peaceful and positive is also unacceptable.
Remember when Biden said during the 2008 campaign that the Jewish community has nothing to worry about because he was on the ticket with Obama.
Well, that assurance seems to have gone out the window.
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