The so-called ‘normalisation’ process, catalysed by Trump, is really just a removal of masks. The UAE for example, has been working with Israel for many years. No resistance state or people has changed its position. Biden has yet to announce his position on Palestine. But his options are now highly constrained.

Trump adjusted the so-called ‘Kushner Plan’ of 2019 (really just a package of bribes) to include the most minimal pretense of a ‘Palestinian state’ – tiny pockets on the West Bank which have no real status above that of a local council under Israeli authority, much the same as the role of the PA in ‘Zone A’ today; that is, the status quo, while Zionists steal more land. But Palestinians now comprise no less than half the population of historic Palestine.

One of the key US Democrat Party institutions, Human Rights Watch, has now admitted that the crime of apartheid is being committed in occupied Palestine. However, HRW boss Ken Roth claims that this report should be read not as an effort “to delegitimize Israel” but “as a wake-up call, and one perhaps most pressing for those most invested in Israel’s future.”

Notice how ‘liberal Zionists’ spin apartheid: this is an opportunity to rescue Israel and not dismantle it. The contradictions are extreme. The Palestinian and regional resistance should present a united front to this house of cards.

Tim Anderson is a distinguished author and director of the Sydney-based Centre for Counter-Hegemonic Studies. He has worked at Australian universities for more than 30 years. His most recent book is “Axis of Resistance: Towards an Independent Middle East.”