by Sanaa Kamal
RAMALLAH/GAZA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden's ignoring of the Palestinian-Israeli issue made him lose the "last chance" to be trusted by the Palestinians, forcing the Palestinian leadership to search for a new international sponsor, analysts said.
On Friday, Biden arrived in the West Bank city of Bethlehem for a short visit to meet his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, after a 40-hour visit to Israel.
Biden said at a joint news conference following the meeting that "the U.S. commitment to the goal of a two-state solution has not changed," but added that the goal may seem "unattainable."
Biden announced that the United States would provide 200 million U.S. dollars in funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for its critical role in the region.
During a trip to a local hospital, he also pledged to provide 100 million dollars to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, which includes six health institutions and works to serve the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Mohammed Hijazi, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Xinhua that "Biden is just offering Palestinians' money in exchange for not demanding any political move."
"The previous U.S. administrations, despite their failure to do so, were seeking to put forward a complete project to settle the Palestinian issue, but the Biden administration deliberately marginalized the issue and made it an internal Israeli affair," he added.
Such a procedure would allow the Israelis to expand settlement activities and commit more political, economic, and field violations against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, noted Hijazi.
Adel Samara, another Ramallah-based political analyst, told Xinhua that "Biden is doing his best to transform the Palestinian cause from a political issue into humanitarian and economic issues by coming to the region to provide financial aid to a group of starving poor."
Meanwhile, Samara doubted the possibility of Biden fulfilling his economic promises to the Palestinians, pointing out Washington "is facing a major economic crisis."
Hani al-Masri, a Ramallah-based analyst, said that Biden's visit did not bring anything new to the Palestinians.
"Biden wanted to integrate Israel into the Arab region at the expense of the Palestinian cause," he told Xinhua, adding that "he tried to silence the Palestinians by providing only some financial aid."
"Although the main goal of Biden's visit is to secure Israel and protect it from the surrounding dangers, whether Iran or others, and make Israel a dominant state in the region, the United States is experiencing a real crisis which lies at the beginning of the formation of a bipolar world," al-Masri said.
Hijazi believes that the Palestinians have two main paths that they could pursue, internationally and locally, in order to get rid of the U.S. hegemony and Israeli intransigence regarding the Palestinian issue.
Locally, it is important for the Palestinians to present the Palestinian cause to the international community to pressure Israel to find a solution to the conflict, he said.
Internationally, "the Palestinian leadership will be forced to search for a new sponsor of the peace process with the Israelis instead of the United States," he added. ■
