Biden cannot erase the Obama chasm-of-trust with Israel! Building permits in Jerusalem are not political, it is simply an internal matter for Israel and its Capital.

Even though Vice President Biden is known for being pro-Israel, a Zionist, if you please; his mission to the Middle East was doomed to fail before it started.

While still holding discussions with Israel’s leaders, Israeli authorities announced that it is authorizing 1600 new housing units in [East] Jerusalem. Contrary to prevailing opinions, this move was not designed to embarrass Vice President Biden, it was rather a routine action that a sovereign entity often undertakes. To Israel there is no such thing as East Jerusalem, there is only one Jerusalem, a Jerusalem that is an integral part of the country; the housing authorization is just a part of conducting normal day-to-day business, not an international political message, as many would have you believe.

Vice President Biden mission has little to do with settlements, that issue is a side-show. Biden’s mission is to try to convince Israel not to take unilateral action against Iran. In order to accomplish such mission, however, the United States Vice President has a great deal of negative feelings Israel has towards the Obama Administration, to overcome. In just over a year in office, the Obama Administration was able to put a wedge between Israel and the United States, to create a chasm-of-trust, if you will, a chasm that a few days visit by Biden are not likely to narrow. 

While on his present mission to the Middle East, Vice President Biden will require a number of positive gestures by his boss, the President of the United States, towards the Jewish state, if he is to have any credibility with the Israeli government. It is time that after criticizing Israel for designation sights of the Jewish Patriarchs and its Matriarch as national points of interest, and after delaying, again the move of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem, that President Obama takes a stand and speaks up clearly to demonstrate that he considered Israel an important ally, not someone of less stature than are members of the Islamic world.