By Hamid Javadi  /  PRESS TV

While Palestinians and people of conscience everywhere have legitimate reasons to be worried about the return of Donald Trump – “the greatest friend Israel has ever had” – to the White House, they are equally relieved to see the back of Joe Biden – the self-proclaimed "Zionist."

When Biden took office in January 2021 after the tumultuous tenure of Trump, he positioned himself as someone tasked with cleaning up the mess left by his megalomaniac predecessor.

He made his “mission” clear: to undo the colossal damage caused by Trump and re-position the United States as an important, or perhaps the most important, international protagonist.

While Biden tried to cloak his foreign policy agenda in the rhetoric of democracy and order, it has in fact been steeped in imperial ambition. He oversaw the expansion of the NATO military alliance, used Ukraine as a strategic pawn to counter arch-foe Russia, scaled up military presence in the Indo-Pacific region to keep China in check, and took US military support for the Israeli regime to a whole new level.

Biden’s decision to hastily withdraw troops from Afghanistan in August 2021—driven by a desire to make up for his failure to convince Barack Obama to end the “longest war”—resulted in a chaotic and embarrassing exit that drew sharp criticism from foes and friends alike.

Republicans, who had previously struggled to find a foothold in their attacks on Democrats, seized the moment to paint Biden as incompetent.

As Biden’s approval ratings continued to nosedive, other political headaches began to emerge for the ailing old ruler: a surge in illegal immigration, soaring inflation, and, by late 2023, the genocidal war on Gaza, waged largely with his administration’s political and military support.

The genocidal war that has so far claimed nearly 43,800 lives in Gaza has in recent months spread to Lebanon and other parts of the region as well, splitting the nation’s opinion on Biden and adding more layers of complicity in genocide and ethnic cleansing to his inglorious legacy.

For over half a century, Biden has been a steadfast supporter of Israel, doing everything in his power—as a senator, vice president, and currently as president—to facilitate violence by the occupying regime armed to the teeth against the indigenous people who have been robbed of everything.

Biden frequently calls himself a Zionist and believes that the Israeli regime is the guarantor of safety and security for Jews across the world. He happily put that viewpoint into policy when he became president.

Biden’s support for Israel reached a boiling point amid the devastating war on Gaza. Despite lip service to civilian lives and the supply of humanitarian aid, the outgoing US president has ensured that there is no disruption in the steady flow of weapons, intelligence, and political support to the Tel Aviv regime.

Since the genocidal aggression was launched by Israel in October last year, the Biden administration has funneled more than $17.9 billion in U.S. taxpayer money as military aid to Tel Aviv, a figure that accounts for the cost of replenishing weapons and ammunition the Israeli military is fast depleting in Gaza and Lebanon.

Under U.S. law, Washington is prohibited from providing military assistance to foreign entities or groups involved in gross human rights violations. The Biden administration has woefully turned a blind eye to this US redline—enshrined in the so-called Leahy Law—when it comes to the Israeli regime.

Of course, Israel has agreed to use U.S. weapons only in “self-defense.” The Biden administration, like those before it, has made the U.S. position clear: collectively punishing defenseless Palestinians falls under the doctrine of “self-defense.”

As Gaza continues to smolder under relentless Israeli bombings, Biden is overseeing the final act in his devotion to Israel’s most extreme agenda: the extermination of Palestinians through genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Even as the world capitals erupted in mass protests on a scale not seen since the worldwide rallies against the US invasion of Iraq, the Biden administration has remained entrenched in its international isolation, voting against umpteen UN resolutions on the Gaza ceasefire, illegal Israeli settlements, and full Palestinian membership in the United Nations.

In doing so, Biden is guilty of ignoring the demands of American voters, who have made their voices clear through frequent street rallies, urging their president to stop the transfer of arms to Israel and end US complicity in genocide.

Keenly aware of the growing opposition to Israel’s war crimes at home and abroad—especially in an election season—Biden and his inner circle have attempted to peddle a narrative that they are pressuring Netanyahu to ensure the protection of civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza.

Frequent appearances by Biden officials and advisors on US talk shows, urging Israel to protect Palestinian civilians and propose “humanitarian pauses,” have been nothing more than a grotesque sideshow to conceal the administration’s role in enabling its “greatest ally” to massacre defenseless Palestinian women and children on an industrial scale.  This would work if history didn’t exist. In Biden’s case, history is loud and clear.

Some would argue that Biden still has an opportunity, before his term officially ends, to pressure Israel to cease its aggression on Gaza, where over two million Palestinian civilians have been killed, wounded, or displaced in more than a year of relentless genocidal campaign.

However, it is very unlikely that Biden will act on the moral imperative and execute a major policy shift by backtracking on his commitment to multibillion-dollar military aid to Israel.

So far, mass protests, student activism, and internal dissent within the U.S. State Department and other federal agencies regarding the administration’s complicity in the Gaza genocide have all failed to rekindle a reckoning for Biden.

His historical allegiance to the illegitimate Zionist entity will constrain his ability to do the right thing in the remaining days of his lame-duck presidency.

Biden’s legacy will forever be defined and remembered for thousands of Palestinian children torn to pieces by US-manufactured bombs in the largest genocide in modern history.   He will forever be remembered for genocide that continues to claim innocent lives as I write this.

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Hamid Javadi is a senior Iranian journalist and commentator based in Tehran.

[ SOURCE:  AL JAZEERA ]