Palestinian Americans have been pressuring Democratic Party presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden to shift U.S. policy in favor of the Palestinians if he wins the election in November, Reuters reported on Thursday.
According to the report, one source said that the pressure campaign has not had any significant impact.
“The progressives want a full-throttle platform change—a pro-Palestinian flank, an anti-annexation flank—but there just isn’t appetite in the campaign so far,” said the source.
“If Mr. Biden (is) elected in November, we hope that it will be a totally different dynamic,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said last week, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s strengthening of ties with the Jewish state.
That includes working with the Israeli government to chart the part of the “Peace to Prosperity” Mideast plan that allows for Jerusalem to extend sovereignty into the Jordan Valley, parts of Judea and Samaria. The Trump administration also has cut aid to the Palestinian Authority over its ongoing “pay for slay” policy.
Biden campaign spokesman Michael Gwin said in a statement to Reuters: “Biden opposes any unilateral action by either side that makes the prospects of a two-state solution less likely—including annexation, which Biden opposes now, and would continue to oppose as president.”
