Mendi Safadi, head of the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy, Research, Public Relations and Human Rights, proclaimed recently that in light of Trump’s forgery allegations and claims of irregularities during the 2020 elections, it is “still too early for there to be a decisive winner.”
Most media outlets, as expected, have already declared Joe Biden to be the winner and they claim that all claims of fraud are unsubstantiated in an attempt to discourage the Republicans. Rudy Giuliani, who is heading the investigation for Trump, thinks otherwise.
Assuming that Biden’s victory is not overturned by the US Congress or US Supreme Court, a Biden victory will be greatly problematic for the State of Israel.
In an exclusive interview, prominent Middle East scholar Dr. Mordechai Kedar proclaimed: “If a Biden presidency goes back to the Iranian nuclear deal and lifts sanctions on Iran, it would be a disaster for the Middle East. It would be a continuation of the oppression of the Iranian people, pouring more money towards terrorism all over the Middle East, in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, etc. In all these theaters, the Iranians are deeply involved, either directly or through their proxies. For some days already, the Iranian Arab citizens who live in the Ahwaz area are rising up in the streets. The regime arrests people indiscriminately, and the world is silent. Yet, instead of helping the oppressed Ahwaz, Biden prepares to give the Iranian regime more gifts.”
In light of all this, an international treaty must be formed between Israel, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, with perhaps other Persian Gulf countries signing on, which will prevent the US from easing sanctions against Iran before there is a regime change in Tehran and from abandoning the Abraham Accords once Trump leaves office. This treaty will help to preserve Israel’s main national security interests, regardless who will be the US president.
As Dr. Kedar declared, “Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain should have an alliance with the United States together. We stand together and united we fall.” If such a treaty is formed, it will be more difficult for a Biden presidency to go back to the Iranian nuclear deal and to try to undo the Abraham Accords, which to a large part requires a united American-Israeli-Persian Gulf front against Iran.
This international treaty would be an excellent response to the recent call made by Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, who called for the international community to take decisive steps against Iran: “The kingdom stresses the dangers of Iran’s regional project, its interference in other countries, its fostering of terrorism, its fanning the flames of sectarianism and its calls for a decisive stance from the international community that guarantees a drastic handling of its efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.”
There is a legal precedent for this.
The 1924 Anglo-American Treaty engrained the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine into both American and British law, thus legally obliging both countries to support the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the State of Israel under international law. Since it was domestic law in both the United Kingdom and the United States to support the Jewish right to a national home in the Land of Israel, it was harder for both governments to be as hostile towards the Zionist Movement as they may have desired prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.
According to Y.J Draiman, a former candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles, “Article VI of the U.S. Constitution labels treaties as the ‘Supreme Law of the Land’ and instructs judges to enforce the performance of the specific obligations of the Nation's treaties:’…all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby…’ Though the 1924 Anglo-American Convention expired when the Mandate for Palestine was terminated midnight May 14/15, 1948, the principle of ‘Acquired Legal Rights,’ as defined in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Article 70(1)(b), dictates that rights recognized and protected under a treaty do not expire or terminate when the legal instrument recognizing the rights is terminated. In other words, rights continue without end.”
In other words, the 1924 Anglo-American Treaty remains legally valid today and this won’t change until another treaty is formed that will determine the final status of Gaza and Judea and Samaria. Thus, Keder proclaimed considering this treaty, “Any president who tries to establish a Palestinian state west of the Jordan river” without Israeli consenting to a fresh treaty “is violating US law.”
Just as the 1924 Anglo-American Treaty created a legal obstacle for the creation of a Palestinian state in the absence of a consensual peace agreement between both sides, a fresh treaty will be able to make it a legal headache for Biden to backtrack on the Abraham Accords and Trump’s withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.
If Trump signs such a treaty with Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with perhaps other countries signing on during his last days before January 20, the Israeli people can sleep well at night, knowing that they will not be dealt a raw deal by any potential transfer of power in the United States.
Safadi stated: “The damage that Biden will do to Israel will be minimal and minor, in that case, so long as he faces a determined leader like Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden will not be able to make any move that harms Israel or the process that Trump began during Netanyahu’s tenure. Only if G-d forbid Israel has a left-wing prime minister will we surrender to their dictates and America’s desire, and then the damage will be greater than it was under Obama.”
Rachel Avraham is a political analyst working at the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy, Research, Public Relations and Human Rights. She is the author of “Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media.”