Biden and U.S. accused of hypocrisy.

• Position: Middle East - Joe Biden

Vice Pres. Joe Biden's rebuke of Israel over proposed settlement expansion in Greater East Jerusalem not only was ineffective, it was hypocritical, charges Rafael Reuveny, professor of environmental and public affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington. "The United States has been funding the Israeli colonial project for decades," Reuveny asserts.

Israel annually receives billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. As a result, weapons, money, and easy loans are passed on to Israeli settlers to build homes and businesses in Palestinian territory, Reuveny maintains. "It is terribly difficult for Palestinians who have very few rights in their homeland. Not only has such colonialism come to be rejected everywhere else in the world, it defeats U.S. and Israeli interests and gravely risks their national security."

While the U.S. struggles with security problems resulting from Israeli-induced anti-Americanism, Israel faces a demographic time bomb, contends Reuveny. "Because Palestinians have one of the highest fertility rates in the world, they will become the majority within approximately 10 to 15 years. When that happens, Israeli colonial control will resemble South Africa or Rhodesia, essentially creating a system of...