The 2016 favourite, 'entitled' Clinton promises nothing for Palestinians

After intense debate within her tightly-knit inner circle, Hillary Clinton decided last week to formally postpone entering the 2016 presidential race until the spring of 2015. Democratic strategists say the former first lady, US senator and secretary of state is carefully finalising details to organise her presidential campaign so as to transition her shadow campaign into an official one more effectively and fulfil her overriding presidential ambition, the culmination of many years of preparing for this moment.

This has caused many among her enthusiasts heightened anxiety. They know how a few weeks jumpstart

The relationship between the United States and Israel is solid, and will remain solid. - Hillary Clinton

can sometimes tip the scale one way or another. They are especially anxious as they watch the swelling movement by young, multicultural Democratic progressives and those simply tired of the Clinton name to draft the more dynamic senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren.

One thing that is certain is that Hillary Clinton, still smarting from the 2008 campaign - when she watched a young unknown African American sweep the country off its feet – is running not only because she feels entitled to the job, but because there are hordes of Democrats who feel she is entitled and have in fact organized their lives around this notion for at least the past six years.

Chiming in to dispel any notion that Clinton is having second thoughts, her former Senate colleague from New York and fellow fierce Israel supporter, Charles Schumer told CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday that, "Hillary hasn't told me, and I haven't dared ask her, but I'll bet she's running, I'll bet she'll be a great candidate, I'll bet she'll win by a large majority. And then Democrats can help the middle class whose incomes have been declining for 15 years in a very united way."

To pre-empt Elizabeth Warren from getting the credit she deserves – as a fighter for the less fortunate or a champion in the fight against big business highlighted in the past few days by her effort to prevent Obama from selling out to Wall Street in the quest to prevent a government shutdown by the Republicans – Schumer said the economic programme Clinton will put together as a presidential candidate "will have the support of every wing in the Democratic party".

If true, and we are not likely to hear formal announcements from any of the Democratic hopefuls before spring 2015, it would throw an element of excitement into an otherwise dull 2016 Democratic presidential campaign-carnival. Past campaigns were launched earlier; then-senator Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the 2008 presidential run on January 20, 2007. Barack Obama followed 20 days later on February 10, 2007.

So this delay could mean one of two things: Either that internal bickering among the Democratic frontrunners (Clinton, followed by Warren, Vice-President Joe Biden and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley) are not yet resolved, especially with Biden, who has been running for over 40 years. Or, that the Democrats have already decided that Hillary Clinton is a shoe-in and can be relied on to smash any potential Republican opponent, something that affords the leisure of certainty and spares them the indignity of a prolonged campaign.

It isn't unusual though for the party in the White House to delay nominations by the party's frontrunner; for the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain, who would become the Republican nominee, declared his candidacy on April 25, 2007, more than two months after Obama.

To be sure, Clinton brings with her a formidable store of expertise that she can match against any potential candidate from within her own party or the Republican Party. However, for foreign policy watchers and analysts, her tenure as America's top diplomat is unremarkable. There is hardly a US foreign policy accomplishment, not a nugget of success that one can highlight as being wholly hers. Her planned departure from the top of the US foreign policy pyramid (since January 2013) did not either give her the sanctuary of a changed world nor the distance from American policy failures she had hoped to gain. Since leaving office, the messy Middle East continues to reel from crisis to crisis the only changes new abbreviations like the "Islamic State-ISIS". Elsewhere there are wild card elements like Boko Haram, both now part of the daily American parlance.

As with the other candidates, Hillary perceives her "undying support to Israel, right or wrong" as her ace in the hole. A week ago she got a head-start on everyone else among the pack of hopefuls by being the first to appear next to Clinton family buddy and huge contributor, American Israeli billionaire Haim Saban.

Saban annually strokes his ego (and makes use of his tax deductible millions) at "the Saban Forum" in Washington where he brings together the high and mighty among American politicians (last week it was Clinton, Biden, Sec. of State John Kerry and many others) with Israel politicians and officials to pay homage to their "unshakable partnership" in sustaining an occupying power and international rogue.

"The relationship between the United States and Israel is solid, and will remain solid, and will be part of our foreign policy and our domestic concerns, our values, ideals, forever," Clinton said at the forum. She added: "There is a necessary imperative to continue to try to achieve a resolution between Israel and the Palestinians," and that, "The two state solution … remains an important and, I would argue, essential concept to bring people together."

Two-state rhetoric notwithstanding, Clinton's failure to mention the crazy pace of Israeli settlement construction, or Israel's increasingly aggressive brutality against the Palestinians under occupation, was warmly received in Israel. A few days after her speech, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon told a group of Israeli students that the Obama administration was "blocking Israel from building more settlements, but that the current government in the United States won't last forever."

Yaalon knows Clinton is not only the favoured nominee among Democrats, but is also the overwhelming favourite to win the next elections.

For the Palestinians, the biggest mistake lies in always believing that the next American president will be different and will champion their delivery from occupation. The way for Palestinians to end the occupation and achieve independence is first to look elsewhere than Washington for meaningful support.