The President of the United States, Joe Biden, does not want to anger his party’s voters before next year’s elections, says Professor Hannu Juusola.
The Democratic Party of the United States is increasingly critical of Israel’s policy, and it has influenced the Biden administration. This is the opinion of the professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Helsinki Hannu Juusola in Monday’s A studio.
– Biden is afraid that he will lose the left wing of his party.
According to Juusola, Biden’s problem is that there is a lot of criticism of him within the Democrats. The fear is that voters of Arab background will stay home in key states such as Michigan in next year’s elections.
– The situation is problematic for Biden for electoral tactical reasons. That’s why he tries to give the impression that the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza is taken into account even more clearly, says Juusola.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been touring the Middle East in recent days calling for humanitarian breaks in Gaza. The president has expressed the same wish Joe Biden. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu has not agreed to this.
The relationship between the United States and Israel has traditionally been close, but the relationship between Biden and Netanyahu is complicated. Biden has criticized Netanyahu’s political reforms that weaken Israel’s legal system.
The war that started with the October attack by Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza have caused further cracks in the relationship. As everywhere in the world, in the United States, too, Israel and Palestine sharply divide public opinion.
According to Juusola, especially young people in the United States think differently about the crisis than older people.
– The Palestinian narrative is better understood among the young than the old.
Republicans are behind Israel
According to Hannu Juusola, it is not realistic that Israel would completely withdraw its support from Israel. The United States still has a lot of interests in the Middle East, and there is enough sympathy for Israel in the country in both parties, although the Democrats’ understanding of the Palestinian situation has grown in the long term. Republicans are more unitedly behind Israel than Democrats.
According to Juusola, the United States could, in principle, put a lot of pressure on Israel, which is militarily dependent on it, for a humanitarian break, but politicians balance how much political capital they want to put into the pressure.
– Every politician has to take into account the positions he takes. This is an important question for a significant part of the electorate, and it will be so in next year’s elections as well.