As Joe Biden’s American presidency comes to an end, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and now Mr Biden himself have been making an effort to put a positive spin on their disastrous performance in the Middle East.
While his aides have taken to blaming others for failures in a vain effort to absolve themselves, the President, true to form, attempted to paint a portrait of successes. It was, in a word, exaggerated. Some might even say, delusional.
The focus of this article will be narrower. It will be an assessment of the Biden administration’s performance through the lens of the commitments it made to Arab Americans in 2020.
In the lead-up to the November 2020 election, the Biden campaign issued a document titled Joe Biden and the Arab-American Community: A Plan for Partnership. It demonstrated important outreach to an often-overlooked constituency. There were many promises made in its three pages, only a smattering of which were implemented.
For example, the Biden administration signed the “Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer No Hate Act” that improves hate crime reporting. The act improved race and ethnicity data collection, including a new category that will enable a more accurate count of people of Arab descent. And it ended the “Muslim ban” and extended Temporary Protected Status to various countries in the Arab world, allowing people to remain in the US during the conflicts raging in their home countries.
But aside from these few accomplishments, the story to be told is what the Biden administration did not do.
For starters, it promised a “partnership” with Arab Americans, but nothing of the sort occurred. During the entire four years of his term in office, neither Mr Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris met Arab-American community leaders. There were meetings that community representatives fought for and won with Mr Blinken and Attorney General Merrick Garland, but none with the senior leadership in the White House.
This was primarily because for the first three years, the White House subsumed Arab Americans under the Muslim rubric, effectively erasing Arab Americans as an ethnic community. When the White House first announced its Strategy to Combat Islamophobia, it spoke of concern with bigotry, discrimination and hate crimes that harmed “Muslims, and those perceived to be Muslim”, citing Arabs and Sikhs as examples.
This exclusion had an impact across the government. Arab Americans, who for four decades had to fight for recognition and inclusion, were forced to begin the fight anew just be included in meetings and have their concerns heard.
So, while the Biden campaign document opened saying that “anti-Arab bigotry has been used in attempts to exclude, silence and marginalise an entire community … Biden embraces the partnership of Arab Americans”, in reality, the White House found a new way to exclude, silence and marginalise the community.
Next, the administration rushed through Israel’s admission into the US Visa Waiver Programme, despite documented evidence that Israel had not fulfilled a basic requirement of the programme – that is, to guarantee reciprocity to Arab Americans seeking entry to and exit from Israel.
Past administrations, Republicans and Democrats, had rejected Israel’s entry into the VWP given well-documented evidence of harassment, discrimination and denial of entry to US citizens of Arab descent. The Biden administration knew that these practices continued and yet it trampled on the rights of its own citizens and the statutory requirements of its own laws to grant Israel this undeserved privilege.
In addition, during this administration’s tenure, Arab Americans have been murdered by Israeli forces and had their properties stolen and vandalised. The best the US has done, in response, has been to express concern.
The Biden campaign also promised to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem, and the Palestinian office in Washington. These they haven’t done.
Maybe the most galling failures of this administration are in its handling of the war on Gaza. Granted that this tragedy had not erupted in all its fury when the Biden campaign pledges were made, but there were promises made in the 2020 campaign document that provide a yardstick by which to measure their performance.
One statement says: “Joe Biden believes in the worth and value of every Palestinian and every Israeli. He will work to ensure that Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy.” Here’s another statement: “Biden opposes annexation and settlement … and will work to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
Throughout the entire war on Gaza, other than expressing hollow concern for Palestinian casualties and humanitarian needs, the administration has given Israel blank-cheque support as it has pursued its aims. Lamely claiming that it had limited ability to influence Israel’s behaviour, the US sent tens of billions of dollars in new arms shipments, sent US forces to support Israel, repeatedly vetoed UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire, and condemned the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice efforts to rein in Israel’s actions.
Even now, as Israel is making it clear that it is establishing a permanent presence in Gaza (and in parts of Lebanon and Syria), and Palestinians are being denied food, medicine and shelter in Gaza, and dying from hypothermia and malnutrition, the administration is rushing another $8 billion in arm shipments to Israel. So much for its belief in the equal worth and value of Palestinian and Israeli lives.
While so much more could be said, the bottom line is that for Arab Americans, the Biden administration will be remembered for: its refusal to honour commitments it made; its efforts to effectively erase the community and deny its members their rights; and its wilful enabling of Israel’s war in Gaza.
This betrayal cannot be forgotten or forgiven.
