George W. Bush, who was considered a strong pro-Israel president, condemned Israel for “heavy-handed” action in 2002, when it launched a Gaza strike that targeted a Hamas leader, but also killed 14 others, including children; this came at a time when Hamas was carrying out horrific suicide bombings that killed many more Israelis than the rockets fired on Israel in the past week. In contrast, Biden, who aspires to be a “beacon for the globe,” couldn’t bring himself to condemn planned Israeli evictions of Palestinians from their Jerusalem homes, an act that the United Nations said could constitute a war crime, or criticize Israeli bombings that killed more than 200 Palestinians, including scores of children, and brought down many high-rise buildings, including one housing the Associated Press and other media outlets.
The net result is that Biden has badly damaged his credibility. But that’s only part of the story. The United States is not a bystander in Israeli-Palestinian conflict; it is part and parcel of the overwhelming asymmetry of power favoring Israel.
[ Shibley Telhami, Boston Globe ]
For contemporary Zionism’s early emissaries to Palestine accurately reported the ‘bethrothal of this Maiden, to another’. (I don’t have my hand on that specific reference at the moment.)