US-Israel tensions underline White House unease over Netanyahu’s policies

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As Joe Biden welcomed Israel’s premier, President Isaac Herzog, to the White House this week, he described the ties between the US and Israel as “absolutely unbreakable”, and spoke of an “iron” commitment to his Middle East ally.

Yet despite the US president’s warm words, this week’s diplomatic activity has also exposed the extent to which relations between the US and one of its closest allies have strained since Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in last year as the head of the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

“The administration is trying to walk between the lines,” said Danny Ayalon, Israel’s former ambassador to the US and now chairman of Silver Road Capital Group. “To show that he has the support of Israel – but also that he has a problem with this government.”

Part of the Biden administration’s criticism of the Netanyahu government has focused on accelerating plans to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which Palestinians have long desired as the center of a future state, but which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Biden’s administration has repeatedly called the expansion of the settlements – considered illegal by most of the international community – an obstacle to peace. Two weeks ago he said that Netanyahu’s cabinet contained some of the “most extreme” figures he had encountered in 50 years with Israel, criticizing his desire to “settle anywhere” in the West Bank as “part of the problem”. But in public announcements this week, he largely avoided the subject.

Instead, the concerns Biden has expressed publicly relate to moves to weaken the powers of Israel’s judiciary, which has sparked one of the biggest waves of protests in Israel’s history and plunged the country into its deepest political crisis in years.

Netanyahu and his allies have insisted judicial changes – the first of which is to be voted on on Monday – are necessary to rein in an overly powerful judiciary. But critics see them as a fundamental threat to Israel’s democratic institutions. This week, Biden once again urged Netanyahu not to pursue far-reaching changes without consensus.

To deliver his message shortly after meeting with Herzog on Tuesday, Biden told The New York Times that “the vibrancy of Israel’s democracy. , , The core of our bilateral relations must remain. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby then told Israel’s Channel 12 that the article “accurately depicts where the president’s head is”.

“We have never before encountered a situation in which the entire issue of Israel’s democratic institutions or its independent judiciary is called into question,” said Martin Indik, former US ambassador to Israel and now a Lowy Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“And it becomes all the more important when you have (Biden) as president. , , Who believes in promoting democracy.

Observers said the reason for Biden’s decision to focus his criticism on the judicial overhaul lies in US domestic politics. American politicians’ stance on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has gradually become a more partisan issue in recent years.

The trend was accelerated after the administration of Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, moved away from the long-standing US approach to a two-state solution and took several high-profile moves that clearly favored Israel. This was underscored again this week when Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal labeled Israel a “racist state,” followed by a Republican-sponsored resolution saying it is not.

In contrast, Biden’s warnings about Netanyahu’s judicial reform have done little to shock Republicans, Indyk said, not least because the majority of the Jewish community in America shares his concerns.

“(Biden) would not want to get into a fight with Israel over the settlements in an election year,” he said. “But it seems that he is fully prepared to fight for the independence of the judiciary.”

However, there is little indication that the Biden administration intends to act following its criticisms of Netanyahu’s government. An NSC official said “there was no talk of any kind of formal reassessment” of US-Israel relations.

And after explicitly refusing to invite Netanyahu to the US in the seven months since returning to office, Biden finally did so this week — though no date or location was set and officials said it was largely to avoid the topic falling on Herzog’s trip.

Indeed, although the Biden administration has halted a Trump-era policy of providing funding for Israeli research institutions operating in West Bank settlements, it has also adopted a number of other policies that analysts say could give Netanyahu political leverage.

Israel and the US signed an agreement this week that moves Israel closer to its long-held goal of gaining entry into the US visa-waiver program. And even though US officials have privately warned that the worsening situation in the West Bank was using up diplomatic bandwidth that could be devoted to issues such as Israel’s ambitions to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia, the Biden administration is still working to facilitate the establishment of ties.

In the short term, this is unlikely to change, diplomats and former officials said. “(US-Israel) defense cooperation continues in full swing, as it is also in US interest. The basic special relationship continues because it is a people-to-people relationship,” Ayalon said. “But (the Americans) are raising a red flag.”