It is becoming clear that tone of diplomatic relations between Washington and Jerusalem is a very different today than it was in the Trump years.
If Israel expects the new administration to continue the blanket support it enjoyed during the term of the last GOP president, it will likely be disappointed.
U.S. President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night that he supports a ceasefire to end the eight days of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian terror groups in Gaza.
But even before the two leaders spoke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said both Israel and the Palestinians should seek an end to the violence and "avoid actions that undermine a peaceful future."
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield
This was a very different message to the ones voiced by her Republican predecessor Nikki Haley, who was far more supportive of Israel in previous escalations.
Thomas-Greenfield's statements at a UN Security Council meeting on the fighting on Sunday is a clear signal that Washington is seeking to resume its role as an honest broker in the Middle East.
"The human toll of this past week has been devastating," the ambassador said. "Sadly, these numbers are likely to grow by the end of today's session."
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A young Palestinian girl is pulled out the rubble after an IDF strike in Gaza on Sunday
(Photo: Reuters)
And Thomas-Greenfield did not stop there.
"We also are deeply concerned about the ongoing intercommunal violence within mixed communities in Israel," she said as she urged both sides to observe international humanitarian law.
"This includes avoiding incitement, violent attacks, and terrorist acts, as well as evictions – including in East Jerusalem – demolitions, and settlement construction east of the 1967 lines. And critically, all parties need to uphold and respect the historic status quo at the holy sites."
While the U.S. strategy to regain the trust of Palestinians and Arab nations is understandable, it is undeniable that this position is also motivated by a shift in the Democratic party itself.
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Then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016
(Photo: GPO)
Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats and is very popular with young voters, ended a recent editorial in the New York Times with the words "Palestinians lives matter."
Sanders also called on the administration to stop acting as an apologist for the Netanyahu government,
He highlighted "the rise of a new generation of activists who want to build societies based on human needs and political equality" in Israel, the Palestinian territories and on the streets of the U.S. following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in May 2020.
In the U.S. Senate, 28 of the 50 Democratic senators published a letter in which they called for a ceasefire in Israel. The initiative was headed by Jewish Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff and co-signed by the party's deputy leader Dick Durbin of Illinois.
On the far-left of the party, new lawmakers including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and lhan Omar, have not hesitated to lash out at Israel for what they said was its policy of "apartheid."
The old guard - Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi - have reiterated Biden's position that Israel has the right to defend itself.
But Biden was clear on Monday night that the fighting must stop and has dispatched a diplomat from the State Department to the region to push for a ceasefire. Again, a departure from the Trump administration in 2018, which placed sole blame for the fighting at the time on Hamas and its Iranian sponsors.
Sunday's meeting of the Security Council was already a diplomatic win for Hamas. China, Tunisia and Norway proposed a draft joint statement on Monday that did not condemn the terror group for targeting Israeli civilians and criticized Israel for its policies in East Jerusalem.
The U.S. opposed the wording of the draft, calling it one sided and prevented its publication. But the UN General Assembly, where Palestinians enjoy majority support, is set to convene on Thursday and a resolution to that effect may be forthcoming.
A U.S. abstention on such a resolution, along the lines of then-president Barack Obama's decision to abstain on a 2016 Security Council condemnation of Israel for its settlement policy, could be a bellwether for the future of American policy in the region.