The presumptive Democratic Party’s presidential candidate Joe Biden has not taken an anti-annexation stance that would be strong enough to halt the pending Israeli annexation of portions of the West Bank, PLO Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot said.
“I do not see a US partner arriving now that is capable of stopping [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Zomlot said during a web event late Tuesday night held by the Israeli Policy Forum, which is opposed to annexation.
Opponents of the annexation plan had cast their hope on Biden, who was vice president during the Obama administration and who has already stated his opposition to annexation. But he has also clarified that he has no intention of halting military assistance to Israel as a result.
Zomlot said that Biden's words would need to be attached to action strong enough to halt Israeli moves, if he has any hope of offering an effective alternative should he win the November presidential election.
“We are not seeing any new policy elements on the part of the Biden campaign that would help in changing the [equation]," Zomlot said. "It is nothing that would dissuade Israel or dissuade Netanyahu from going ahead with annexation."Zomlot was former head of the PLO mission to the United States.
“If the Biden team does not really send the right messages now… and they are not so far – the headache that Mr. Biden will inherit if he is elected will be immense. And I do not believe he can bring about an end to the conflict via another process: It will be over,” Zomlot continued.
He blamed US President Donald Trump and his administration for making it possible for Israel to annex.
"Trump is more into annexation than the Israeli government itself,” he said.
The Trump administration “has played a decisive role in pushing Israel toward annexation” and, as a result, “is now part of the problem rather than part of the solution,” he concluded.