Progressives debate whether to be hopeful about Biden’s Mideast policy
“‘I’d love to see more constructive, more courageous, more visionary thoughts, particularly at a time when Israel is getting set to do something like annexation,’ [FMEP’s Lara] Friedman explained. ‘But essentially what they’ve articulated is as close to a status quo — ‘don’t upset the apple cart, we’ll deal with things as they happen, we’re solid, we’re going to give the rhetoric of progressives just like every other previous administration has, and we’re not going to shake things up,’’ she posited. ‘Anyone who is hoping for a Biden administration to come in and save the Palestinians, I think, one, should take a [deep] breath,’ Friedman continued, ‘because no progressive candidate, no president from either party has ever come in and said, ‘I am going to be the one who will come in with great vision and change everything.’ [Barack] Obama didn’t say he would do that, and he came in and really didn’t even meet the expectations of people who thought he might surprise them. So I think it is useful to look at what the Biden campaign has said and the people around the Biden campaign and say, ‘This is a reminder there is no savior here.’”