But the administration is unlikely to, the Middle East Institute’s Khaled Elgindy told me. If they were going to denounce the Israeli government harshly, he said “they would’ve done it by now. Why would they suddenly have a moment of clarity?”
Experts said there were other ways Washington could rebuke Jerusalem, such as sanctioning Israel or curbing weapons sales, but none expect any of that will happen. When it comes to the US defending human rights, “Palestine is usually the exception,” said Elgindy, who served as an adviser to Palestinian leadership from 2004 to 2009. “Who’s going to push the Israelis on human rights? It’s not going to be the US.”