By Ramzy Baroud
March 17, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" -
“I am a Zionist. You
don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” current
Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden,
said
in April 2007, soon before he was chosen to be
Barack Obama’s running mate in the 2008 elections.
Biden is, of course,
correct, because Zionism is a political movement
that is rooted in 20th-century nationalism and
fascism.
Its use of religious dogmas is prompted by political
expediency, not spirituality or faith.
Unlike US
President, Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders, Biden’s
only serious opponent in the Democratic primaries,
Biden’s stand on Israel is rarely examined.
Trump has made
his
support for Israel
the cornerstone of his foreign policy agenda since
his inauguration into the White House in January
2017. The American President has basically
transformed into Israel’s political genie, granting
Tel Aviv all of its wishes in complete defiance of
international law.
Sanders, on the
other hand, came to represent the
antithesis
of Trump’s blind and reckless support for Israel.
Himself Jewish, Sanders has promised to restore to
the Palestinian people their rights and dignity, and
to play a more even-handed role, thus ending decades
of US unconditional support and bias in favor of
Israel.
But where does
Biden factor into all of this?
Below is a brief
examination of Biden’s record on Palestine and
Israel in recent years, with the hope that it gives
the reader a glimpse of a man that many Democrats
feel is the rational alternative to the political
imbalances and extremism of the Trump
administration.