Prime Minister Bennett’s new Israeli administration has been in office for just over a month. But it is already trying to do some things differently in foreign policy than the previous government under Netanyahu. This applies above all to the relationship with the USA.
The new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made one thing clear at the start of his term in office: He wants to improve relations with the United States. For decades, all Israeli governments had a foreign policy maxim: Israel must always be a “bi-partisan issue”, an issue that is equally important and significant for both major US parties – Democrats and Republicans.
It has always been like this until Benjamin Netanyahu, an ideological friend of the Republicans, overturned this principle. It started when the then Democratic US President Barack Obama wanted to push through the nuclear deal with Iran. Netanyahu strictly rejected the agreement, considered it dangerous and therefore absolutely wanted to prevent it. He carried out the dispute with Obama on this issue in public, not behind closed doors, as allies usually do.
When the then Republican spokesman for Congress, John Boehner, invited Netanyahu to give a speech in the Capitol behind Obama’s back, the Israeli prime minister took the opportunity to rail against the US president in Washington of all places. Even if some Democrats agreed with Netanyahu on the matter, this affront was too much of a good thing.
Netanyahu did not care, on the contrary: After the end of the Obama era, he devoted himself skin and hair to the politics of the republican populist Donald Trump and not only got the new man in the White House to recognize the annexation of the Golan Heights, as well as Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but also to unilaterally terminate the so-called JCPOA agreement with Iran that has now come into force.
Bennett also rejects the nuclear deal
Now with Joe Biden a Democrat is again sitting in the White House, especially as Obama’s former Vice President. And this wants to lead the USA back into the nuclear agreement with Tehran. In his first speech as opposition leader, Netanyahu had nothing better to do than accuse Biden of not caring about the fate of the Jewish people, that he would accept a second Holocaust. So Bennett has come into a difficult legacy. He wants and has to repair relations with Israel’s most important ally as quickly as possible, he has to create a new “business basis” with Biden and the Democrats. Of course, the new prime minister has already made it clear that differences of opinion will be resolved behind closed doors, as should be the case with good friends.
Nevertheless, it is no secret that Bennett is also critical of the resumption of the nuclear agreement. Like Netanyahu, he also fears that Tehran will secretly continue to work on an atomic bomb. The re-entry of the Americans into the agreement would also result in the lifting of sanctions that Donald Trump had reintroduced. But that would again wash a lot of money into the coffers of the ayatollah regime. It could thus expand the financial and military support of the Iranian representatives, such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, but above all the Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. That would further jeopardize Israel’s security. Last but not least, the Iranian missile program would no longer be affected by the new agreement. The danger that an Iranian atomic bomb could reach Tel Aviv is growing. So Israel has legitimate objections and concerns that Washington could consider when negotiating with Iran.
But the previous confrontation course taken by ex-prime minister Netanyahu has ensured that Biden and his foreign minister, Antony Blinken, have left the Israelis out of the picture. They did not want to let “Bibi”, as Netanyahu is commonly known, spit in their soup. Bennett is now trying to limit the damage, sending high-ranking military and intelligence chiefs to Washington in order to underpin Israel’s position in technical discussions and thus perhaps to be able to exercise a little influence on the agreement. It is not yet certain that it will come about at the moment. But Bennett is also about the day to the reinstatement of the atomic deal. How could the US and Israel cooperate sensibly to control Iran’s actions? What happens in a few years when the nuclear deal runs out? And what if there is no contract at all?
Netanyahu left scorched earth behind
Bennett plans to visit Washington in August. He will not only meet with President Biden, but also with Democratic leaders. There is much to be done; Netanyahu has truly scorched earth. He proved that Biden is well disposed towards the new Israeli prime minister when he called to congratulate him just two hours after he was sworn in. When Biden himself was introduced to office, he let the then reigning Netanyahu fidget for weeks until he picked up the phone for the first time to call Jerusalem.
Beyond the subject of Iran, Bennett and his foreign minister, Yair Lapid, are trying to support US policy in the Middle East. The first foreign trip that Bennett made as premier was to Jordan – secret. He met there with King Abdullah in order to put the relationship between the two states, which had also been completely destroyed, back on track. Netanyahu had left Jordan by the wayside, had repeatedly snubbed Abdullah politically and was convinced that he could afford it all, since Jordan needs Israel more than Israel needs the Hashemite state. What he overlooked: King Abdullah has many enemies in his own country, an overthrow of the king, as he had recently planned and failed, would have been fatal for Israel. Because the Jewish state has its longest and so far most peaceful border with Jordan. The king is the guarantor of this calm.
And not only Israel needs Jordan as a moderate partner in the Middle East, but also the USA. Bennett’s visit to Abdullah was therefore more than just a nice gesture to the king. It was agreed with Washington in order to better integrate the poor country strategically, to upgrade the king against his enemies in his own country and thus to achieve more stability in the region. As a sign of goodwill, Israel immediately agreed to deliver 50 billion liters of water to the arid country to alleviate the first misery. Further deliveries are planned.
Foreign Minister Lapid has meanwhile flown to the United Arab Emirates to open the new Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi. He also plans to travel to Morocco in the near future in order to intensify diplomatic relations between the two countries. The new government in Jerusalem is making every effort to strengthen the moderate forces in the Middle East and thus to support Biden’s Middle East policy, who is taking over the policy of his predecessor Donald Trump in this regard. Trump had only made the peace agreements between Israel and the Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan possible at the end of his term in office.
Faustian pact with Trump and the Republicans
So the “only” question left is how the new Israeli government will deal with the Palestinians. On his inaugural visit to Brussels, Lapid recently told the EU that he was in favor of the two-state solution, but that it was not feasible at the moment. There are two reasons for this: the political weakness and unwillingness of the Palestinian Authority to resume a constructive dialogue with Israel. But even more the complicated situation in the new Israeli coalition.
Eight parties have come together to form the alliance to achieve their most important common goal: the removal of Netanyahu as head of government. But the coalition, which covers the entire political spectrum from the far left to the far right, is not in a position to formulate a common policy towards the Palestinians; the ideological ideas are too diverse. The danger that the young government would break up would be great. Of course, Biden knows that too. And so he is unlikely to put pressure on Bennett as long as he does not change the status quo in the occupied territories and accommodates the Palestinians in economic and other areas in order to make their everyday lives easier.
Will Bennett succeed in scoring points in Washington and mending the broken relationship between Israel and the US Democrats? The chances are not bad. The prime minister knows full well that Netanyahu’s Faustian pact with Trump and the Republicans was toxic to Israel’s future. The Jewish state simply cannot afford to be in constant clinch with half of the American political establishment. Israel is not that powerful, even if its opponents often want to lead you to believe.
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