By ignoring Palestinian cause, Biden has lost trust of people: analysts

RAMALLAH/GAZA－US President Joe Biden ignoring the Palestinian-Israeli issue has lost him the last chance for the Palestinians to trust him, forcing the Palestinian leadership to search for a new international sponsor, analysts say.

Biden visited the West Bank city of Bethlehem for a short visit to meet his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, after a 40-hour visit to Israel.

At a joint news conference following the meeting, Biden said "the US commitment to the goal of a two-state solution has not changed", but added that the goal may seem unattainable.

The United States would provide $200 million in funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees for its critical role in the region, he said.

During a trip to a local hospital, he also pledged to provide $100 million to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, which includes six health institutions and works to serve the Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Mohammed Hijazi, a Gaza political analyst, said: "Biden is just offering Palestinians money in exchange for not demanding any political move.

"Previous US administrations, despite their failure to do so, were seeking to put forward a complete project to settle the Palestinian issue, but the Biden administration deliberately marginalized the issue and made it an internal Israeli affair."

This would allow the Israelis to expand settlement activities and commit more political, economic, and field violations against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Hijazi said.

Adel Samara, a political analyst in the city of Ramallah, said, "Biden is doing his best to transform the Palestinian cause from a political issue into humanitarian and economic issues by coming to the region to provide financial aid to a group of starving poor."

Samara cast doubt on the possibility of Biden fulfilling his economic promises to the Palestinians, saying the US "is facing a major economic crisis".

Hani al-Masri, another analyst in Ramallah, said Biden's visit gave nothing new to the Palestinians.

Biden wanted to "integrate Israel into the Arab region at the expense of the Palestinian cause", he said, adding that "he tried to silence the Palestinians by providing only some financial aid".

'A real crisis'

"Although the main goal of Biden's visit is to secure Israel and protect it from the surrounding dangers, whether Iran or others, and make Israel a dominant state in the region, the United States is experiencing a real crisis which lies at the beginning of the formation of a bipolar world," al-Masri said.

Hijazi said the Palestinians have two main paths that they could pursue, internationally and locally, in order to get rid of the US hegemony and Israeli intransigence regarding the Palestinian issue.

Locally, it is important for the Palestinians to present the Palestinian cause to the world to pressure Israel to find a solution to the conflict, he said.

Internationally, "the Palestinian leadership will be forced to search for a new sponsor of the peace process with the Israelis instead of the US", he said.

Xinhua