What the weaponisation of religion in the US presidential race reveals about the Biden camp’s true stance on Israel
The Democratic nominee may not have offered a statement, says Robert Fisk, but his team's about-turn on condemning Muslim activist Linda Sarsour was revealing
Amid the US presidential election campaign, God is just where he was in the First World War when the unpopular but all too eloquent journalist John C Squire imagined the British and German peoples seeking the Good Lord’s help:
“Gott strafe England” and “God save the King!
God this, God that, and God the other thing –
‘Good God!’ said God. ‘I’ve got my work cut out!’
And so it goes again. Joe Biden, quoth Donald Trump in Ohio, is following the agenda of “no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible…He’s against God.” As for Biden, “as I’ve said so many times before, we’re in the battle for the soul of our nation, and President Trump’s decision…to profane God and to smear my faith in a political attack is a stark reminder of what the stakes of this fight truly are.”
Yup, God sure has got his work cut out yet again. But so far – until this week, at least – Saint Donald and Saint Joseph had scarcely touched that piece of sunny and much coveted real estate to which God always showed so much interest. We all know about Trump’s good deeds for the Land of Israel and Biden’s desire to stop Netanyahu smiting the Philistines (instead holding hands in the fictional two-state solution). Biden would also like to reheat the nuclear alliance with Persia while downgrading the land of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (or at least the Crown Prince). Well, maybe.
But when Michael Pompeo utilised Jerusalem itself for the Republican National Convention, we moved into Very Holy Territory indeed. Possibly illegally under US election law – and his words were very certainly intended for Evangelicals rather than Jewish voters – he appeared on a balcony of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem (former British military headquarters, bombed by one of Mr Netanyahu’s predecessors in 1946, etc). And there were the Ottoman walls in the background, floodlit at nightfall, as the secretary of state uttered words of Biblical depth: “I’m speaking to you from beautiful Jerusalem, looking out over the Old City.”
Not, perhaps, quite up to the standards of the 1611 King James Version, but there was plenty of Old Testament stuff in Pompeo’s flakey little ad. He boasted of America’s drone-murder of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Soleimani and the killing of Isis boss Baghdadi, the destruction of “radical Islamic terrorists” controlling an area “the size of Great Britain” and talked about “squeezing” the Ayatollah [sic] and moving the US embassy to “the rightful capital of the Jewish homeland.” And sure enough, just over the secretary’s left shoulder, you could see a bit of the Al Aqsa mosque and behind him even the Mount of Olives.
I’ve always found Jerusalem a bit austere and sometimes rather frightening. It does something to the nicest people. The mildest Catholic priest can turn into a Papal inquisitor, the most moderate imam into a raving Islamist, the friendliest rabbi into a shouting Zionist. Jerusalem does something to people. It inflames them. They can become obsessive, delusional. The Israeli authorities know all about this; they are used to people suffering from what is known as the “Jerusalem Syndrome”. Some visitors believe they are the Son of God. Pompeo merely told us that Trump had moved his embassy to “this very city of God”. Well, not a bad start.
Oddly, however, I was slightly more worried this week by a tiny, nasty, unpleasant and largely unnecessary dispute within the House of Biden. It started when Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American “activist” – a word I’m always suspicious of – appeared on a panel as part of the Democratic National Convention where she discussed voting in the American Muslim community. Her most controversial comment appears to have been her assertion that “the Democratic party is not perfect, but it is absolutely our party in this moment.” Not exactly riveting material. She claims that the Republican party supports fascism, not exactly a novel idea but certainly a runner in this election.
But Sarsour also supports BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel which is decidedly non-violent and calls for Israel to abide by international law (withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territory, for starters), but which Israel’s self-proclaimed supporters constantly label “antisemitic”. To accept this, you have to go along with the idea that to boycott Israeli goods and trade is to delegitimise the state of Israel and is therefore racist and, ergo, antisemitic. Jewish “progressives” – another word I’m never happy with – generally accept that she legitimately criticises Israel and supports justice for the Palestinians. But Sarsour is not exactly a household word. Until this week when the House of Trump condemned her “bigotry” against the Jewish people.
Par for the course, you may say. But no. The House of Biden – not Biden himself, mark you, for he would not want to get any humus on his shirt – spoke forth. Andrew Bates, the Biden campaign “spokesman” – or not, according to the arguments that followed – immediately grovelled. “Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of anti-semitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views [sic] and opposes BDS, as does the Democratic platform. She has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever.”
This was very revealing. Without bothering to check Sarsour’s views or whether she has any following among serious Muslim American groups – she is a popular speaker – the Biden campaign headed for the bunker. The mere whisper of the word “antisemitism” and Bates decided that the Democrats should run for cover. Then up spoke the Council on American-Islamic relations, the Arab American Institute and other organisations supporting the Democrats – and supporting Ms Sarsour. Bates should retract his statement, they said.
And then there occurred an obsequious, squeaky attempt by the Democratic Party to soften Muslim American anger while dutifully ignoring – and failing to or apologise to – the woman whom it had just abused. Biden’s acolytes performed some frightful mea culpas. “I am sorry that this [sic] happened,” spoke forth Ashley Allison (Biden’s “national coalitions director”). “And I hope that whatever trust was broken, that this conversation [sic again] is one small step to help build back [another wretched sic] the trust.”
What trust? How can you “build back” such confidence after such cowardice? The cowardice, of course, was represented by the word “this”. I remain silent at the oh-so-trendy “conversation” which politicians now feel forced to perform whenever they’ve pissed off their would-be friends. Then the man described as Biden’s “foreign policy adviser”, former US government official Tony Blinken, expressed “regret” over the “hurt and disappointment” caused by the remarks against Sarsour. Another Biden adviser called it all a “misstep” and promised the Democrats in their work with Democratic Muslim advocates would “do better going forward”.
Forward to where, one might ask? But that’s politics for you. We are always coming to terms, moving forward, moving on, seeking closure, you name it, after we’ve acted the bully out of fear of opponents swinging the “antisemitic” slander. Note, too, that this waffling apology was made in private – it was the feisty Middle East Eye which revealed it – and no such recantations were made publicly (or privately) to Sarsour herself.
It’s not the end of the earth. Not being a supporter of boycotts against Israel or anyone else, I don’t think BDS will force Israel to abide by international law. But on the basis of this little nonsense, it’s clear that Biden is not going to force Israel to abide by international law either. Nor stop the continuation of the Jewish settlement project in the West Bank – forget the “peace” with the UAE – nor, if he’s the president, do anything which will upset the Israeli government save, perhaps, a few delays in sending more weapons to the Middle East and calling for all sides – please tear out and keep this phrase – “to exercise restraint”.
Poor old Bernie Sanders, I kept saying to myself this week. I guess there’s always a reflecting mirror of what should have been/might have been/could have been in modern American politics. But with Biden, we’re going to be back in the Obama-world and Hillary-world and, dear-oh-dear, ex-four-star general Colin Powell-world. If Biden wins. At least with Trump’s man, you got the real thing, ex-captain Michael Pompeo of the US Army strutting above the walls of Jerusalem and talking about “this very city of God”. I don’t know if He’s a vengeful God or a loving God. But yes, once more, the Lord does have his work cut out.