Yesterday it was decided, and the desperate defense fight that US President Donald Trump continues to fight will not bear fruit, or prevent former Vice President Joe Biden from entering the White House on Jan. 20, 2021 as the 46th president of the American nation.
If the convincing proof collected in 1960 about mass voter fraud the Democratic machine committed in Chicago wasn't enough for Republican Richard Nixon to keep John Kennedy from being elected president, it looks like Trump's chances of turning back the wheel with help from the courts is negligible. At least right now, no real proof of election tampering has been presented.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
So America is going to travel back in time, not necessarily to the era of President Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president, but to the era of Bill Clinton. In contrast to Obama's approach, which was anchored in doctrine and rigid beliefs (especially, but not only, when it came to the Palestinians, to which he gave precedence in American policy in the Middle East), Biden is a distilled example of leadership that is pragmatic, matter-of-fact, and absent of rigid ideologies from which he will find it difficult to diverge. Indeed, as someone who spent 36 years in the Senate and held many key roles there (including chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee), the president-elect could revive elements of the old political culture, which fell by the sidelines and was replaced by a much more confrontational and polarized system.
Biden has always espoused the view that values can be separated from policy, and focus can be placed on specific issues for which it is possible to drum up bilateral support. He consistently applied that view on Capitol Hill through the many legislative initiatives he put together with Republicans. Moreover, he has put together political deals with a number of Republicans, including the late John McCain, despite the ideological differences that supposedly separated their outlooks.
So we have before us an old-school politician, who started his legislative career before the Cold War-era legacy of bilateral cooperation had been forgotten. Like Clinton, Biden will be a president of team work, who will bring in players who have different approaches without the top of the pyramid trying to force his opinion on them or demanding that they toe the line of his guiding concepts. Specifically, American policy under his leadership will head into a period of activity under a broad international umbrella that backs it up and legitimizes it.
The UN agencies, NATO, and many other international organizations that deal with both economic and security issues will flourish. Because unlike Trump's blatant approach, they will become the basis for a multi-sided American strategy that emphasizes partnership. Among other things, this means the US can be expected to return to the Paris climate accords and a long line of institutions from which it fully or partially detached itself in recent years. The principle of American sovereignty and exclusivity will be replaced by a principle of partnership and we will also see a return of the principle of collective security, and the need to defend allies and partners, even ones on the fringes.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Sensitivity to human rights will also become a priority for the Biden administration, unlike the Trump administration, whose conduct – except toward Israel – was based solely on national interests. When it came to China, for example, Biden's criticism on this issue could turn into a tariff war. It will be no less serious because Biden, despite his compromising nature, will have to work in loaded domestic sphere whose Democratic elements – mainly in the House of Representatives – will do everything possible to put him on the path similar to that of former President Jimmy Carter.
Although Biden's victory over the socialist wing of his party has led to a temporary truce between the camps, we can assume that the price the president-elect will be forced to pay Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's faction for them joining his team will be paid on the domestic field, in economy currency (including regulation and taxation) rather than in the shaping of American foreign policy.
Biden's unquestioning faith in multilateralism, as well as the importance of diplomacy in resolving disputes, could come into play in an attempt to form a new nuclear deal with Iran, on the condition that a new deal covers missiles as well as Tehran's subversive conduct in the region. The same can be said of the Palestinian Authority, with which he will be renewing full relations, as well as US economic aid, with some restrictions.
Unlike Trump, who operated outside the box and brought up daring, far-reaching initiatives for a general resolution, Biden – as a standout member of the establishment – will not try to go back in time to the Obama era, but will try to integrate the Palestinian issue into a process that is already unfolding, while emphasizing the two-state solution. As someone who knows the bounds of what is possible and feasible, he will refrain – like Carter, Obama, or John Kerry – from solving all aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in one fell swoop. Instead, he will accept the Trump peace plan as a fait accompli, but will try to move it onto a slightly different path.
When it comes to Israel, the special relationship between Washington and Jerusalem is not expected to undergo any particular change. Despite a series of clashes between Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu under Obama, which included Biden's volatile visit to Israel in the spring of 2010, during which plans to construct the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in Jerusalem were unveiled and were highlighted by his opposition to Israeli construction in the territories and his decision to absent himself from Netanyahu's speech on Capitol Hill in 2015, his attitude toward Israel and its leaders has always been one of affection.
Biden has already committed to not conditioning US military aid to Israel on the Palestinian issue, and he has always been an enthusiastic supporter of military support for and strategic cooperation with Israel. He is not thinking about moving the US Embassy out of Jerusalem, and his political-strategic hive is made up of experienced, practical professionals, such as Tony Blinkin and Jake Sullivan, who are far from radical.
If it doesn't get swept up in a rank wave of military radicalism that characterizes more than a few factions of his camp, we can assume that the Biden era will be marked by a continuation of the traditional US friendship with Israel, if not the unusual warmth and gestures that characterized Donald Trump's four years in the White House.
