President Biden's Visit to "East Jerusalem" Evokes Fears of a New Betrayal of Israel on the Horizon

President Joe Biden is planning his first visit as President to the Holy Land and – in sharp contrast to the excitement, gratitude, and celebration that accompanied the last American President, Donald Trump’s visits – the profoundly apprehensive mood here from the halls of power to chatter on the streets ranges between cynical, frustrated, and ominous.

The deep concern accompanying the news of President Biden’s visit stems in part from the news that he has selected as his most public face a new White House Press Secretary who has a history of slandering Israel and Americans who support the Jewish State and who was the spokeswoman for an extremist organization that proudly endorsed openly anti-Israel and antisemitic radicals like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for Congress.

Even more directly concerning is news that the President is considering an unprecedented assault on Israel’s sovereignty over its own capital city of Jerusalem. Based on information provided by an Israeli official (a report that apparently has not been denied by the White House), the news is reporting that President Biden is contemplating a trip to an Arab site located in what this Administration refers to as “East Jerusalem” – in other words, a large segment of the city of Jerusalem that they would like to see severed from Israel’s capital and placed instead under Arab sovereignty.

It is being reported that this trip would be taken without Israeli officials – barring Israel’s own government from being present at events in their own capital city. Israeli papers are reporting that the seismic aftershocks of such an event could even break apart the diverse coalition that now forms Israel’s government, something United States officials no doubt understand. Of course, such a visit also sends a message to the belligerents of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas that their continued refusal to accept the Jewish State’s existence, their refusal to negotiate in good faith, and their terror, violence, and war against Israel’s civilians are to be rewarded by this Administration.

Despite President Biden’s continuing rhetoric that he is supportive of Israel and wants peace, his actions – intentional or not – seem more supportive of Israel’s enemies and their ongoing terror war.

Israel is one of the United States’ greatest and most loyal allies, and this globally visible assault on the Jewish State’s sovereignty would represent an attack that is unique – unprecedented with literally any other sovereign state in the world.

While, diplomatically, Israel is of course doing its best to avoid open conflict with an American Administration, there is, unfortunately, reason for profound pessimism when viewed in the context of this Administration’s geo-political machinations apparently calculated to harm Israel and Joe Biden’s long history of hostility to Israeli sovereignty and to the presence of Jews in Jerusalem.

Just this week, the Biden White House launched a vicious attack against Jews simply being allowed to live in Judea and Samaria.

Last year, Biden threatened to open a “consulate” in “East Jerusalem” that would reward Israel’s enemies and challenge Israel’s sovereignty, and another Biden spokeswoman stunned even the State Department by employing the inaccurate, contentious label “Palestine,” as though there were such a sovereign nation.

Few here can forget how, in 2010, then-Vice President Biden attacked a municipality of Jerusalem's announcement of permits that would allow Jews to build more homes in this country’s capital.

And, of course, as President Obama was about to leave office, he launched an international attack on Jewish rights in Israel, backing a notorious United Nations Security Council resolution that literally criminalized Jews for just living in Judea and Samaria, including Jerusalem. It is almost impossible to imagine the United States promoting a ban on any other individuals living anywhere on the planet based on their ethnic or religious identity – yet in 2016, Joe Biden himself reportedly played a crucial and very active role in pressuring Ukraine to support the anti-Israel, even antisemitic, resolution.

Biden’s apparent antipathy to Israel goes back much further than the Obama-Biden Administration. As a young United States Senator, Biden engaged in an infamous clash with then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Senator Biden stunningly threatened Israel with loss of U.S. support over Operation Peace for Galilee, Israel’s defensive war against the PLO terrorists who had been using South Lebanon to wage war against Israel’s civilians. As described by fellow Democrat, Senator Paul Tsongas (D-MA), “I’ve never seen such an angry session with a foreign head of state.” 

Prime Minister Begin’s legendary response to Joe Biden is worth remembering. Confronting a United States President is far more dangerous than one U.S. Senator, but the stakes today also are far higher than a threat against foreign aid. If this White House indeed launches an attack on the integrity, security, and sovereignty of Jerusalem itself, today’s Israeli leadership may have no choice but to recall Begin’s message:

Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.

The ACLJ is monitoring this situation closely and continuing our work both in Washington and Jerusalem to help repair, restore, and strengthen the increasingly strained U.S.-Israel relationship.

We hope and pray that this White House might still reconsider any such immoral and dangerous assault on Jerusalem and Israel. Thank you, always, for your support for our work and, please – Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.