David Wurmser
Israel Hayom, July 19, 2023
“Given how dearly the Biden team held isolating Netanyahu and focusing blame for US-Israeli tensions solely on him, a visit by Netanyahu – connecting directly with the American people, being feted in Congress and filling the airwaves – could be disastrous for the US administration’s strategy.”
US President Joe Biden this week hosts Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The purpose of the visit and speech to Congress is to celebrate Israel’s 75th anniversary. However, the absence of a formal invitation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until just before the trip added policy dimensions. The optics of shunning Netanyahu signaled to Israel that Netanyahu, who prides himself on accessing American political culture, is some sort of persona non grata. So why was Netanyahu shunned, until he wasn’t?
The administration’s Middle East team, which includes the most unsympathetic staffers (Samantha Powers, Maher Bitar, Hady Amr and the now-suspended Robert Malley) ever to manage that area, believes that the popularity of the United States and Biden in Israel can be leveraged to politically damage Netanyahu, who already is limping as a result of upheaval surrounding legal reform. Moreover, throwing Netanyahu reeling on his heels was a way to neutralize his obstructing America’s gallop towards a new nuclear deal with Iran. The Middle East team was also determined to hold up progress on advancing Israeli-Saudi peace not only to further isolate Netanyahu and deny him any appearance of victory but to block his work with the Saudis to derail the US attempt to come to terms with Iran.
As such, the administration had no interest in throwing the prime minister a lifeline or calming tensions. In fact, it was interested in exacerbating them. It even floated a trial balloon, which Netanyahu’s opposition seized upon with great focus, in the form of an editorial by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times arguing that the United States is reassessing (read downgrading) US-Israeli relations. As such, the administration hoped honoring Israel’s premier would politically defeat Netanyahu on his own turf.
Another reason for cropping Herzog’s visit as an ersatz for Netanyahu’s was the bitter experiences of the Biden team, most of whom are veterans of Obama’s administration, whenever Netanyahu brought his case to American soil previously. The administration’s hesitation stems not only from the 2015… [To read the full article, click here]