Haaretz/Israel News
Analysis | Mr. Netanyahu Isn’t Going to Washington
The United States currently views Netanyahu’s Israel as an irritant, an unwelcome imposition on the administration’s agenda, which is focused on the Ukraine-Russia war and competition with China
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Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden.
Mar 17, 2023 10:56 pm IST
It has been 72 days since Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was sworn in, and he has yet to be invited to Washington for the traditional coronation of Israeli prime ministers. At those festivities, the PM gets the White House, senior members of Congress, movers and shakers, and sycophantic reporters describing the visit as “historic” and “exceeding expectations,” even though they were at the previous one probably two years earlier.
Israeli prime ministers consider this initiation ritual something of a consummation of their term, regardless of whether it’s showcase or substance. Here’s the prime minister of Israel sitting in an Oval Office armchair next to the president of the United States, in front of the fireplace and under a huge portrait of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln.
For an Israeli prime minister, nothing says “Wow, I made it” like that photo op. But Netanyahu hasn’t been invited, which is why in the very near future he’s liable to make like Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction”: “I will not be ignored.”
Since the 1970s, with the gradual consolidation of the “special relationship,” all Israeli prime ministers have either visited the White House or been formally invited for a later date within their first three months in office.
This goes for Golda Meir (1969-1974), Yitzhak Rabin (1974-1977), Menachem Begin (1977-1983), Yitzhak Shamir (1983-1984), Shimon Peres (1984-1986), Shamir again (1986-1988 and 1988-1992), Rabin again (1992-1995), Peres again after Rabin’s assassination (1995-1996), Netanyahu (1996-1999), Ehud Barak (1999-2001), Ariel Sharon (2001-2006), Ehud Olmert (2006-2009), Netanyahu again (2009-2021), and Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid (2021-2022).
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Netanyahu and then-Vice President Joe Biden at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem in 2010.Credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
Conspicuously, Netanyahu has not been invited. If it walks likes a deliberate act of discontent from the United States and talks like a deliberate act of discontent from the United States, it’s probably a deliberate act of discontent – from President Joe Biden.
But this isn’t where it ends, as merely an expression of displeasure with Israel’s direction or policies. In fact, it’s highly likely that this toxic face-off is just the beginning. Netanyahu will soon blow it into an open confrontation, probably revolving around Iran, trying to upend the equation and turn it against Biden.
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When asked about the subject, a State Department spokesman came up with: “We refer you to the Israeli government for information about the prime minister’s travel plans.” However evasive and ambiguous the answer, the message was clear: Discontent entails revoking or indefinitely suspending official visitation rights.
The United States currently views Israel, particularly Netanyahu, as an irritant, an unwelcome imposition on the administration’s agenda, which is focusing on Ukraine-Russia in the short and intermediate term and China in the longer term.
The United States sees events in Israel as a combination of three intertwined and unfavorable developments: 1. A constitutional crisis engulfing a democratic ally as the government launches an assault on democracy, a visible retreat from the “shared values” concept. 2. A confrontational and annexationist policy in the West Bank vis-à-vis the Palestinians. 3. Increasingly bellicose rhetoric on Iran.
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A demonstrator at a protest against the Iranian regime in New York last Saturday.Credit: David Dee Delgado/Reuters
On the first issue – Netanyahu’s regime-changing legislation and planned move toward a patently illiberal, quasi-authoritarian system – Washington has already expressed clear reservations.
Both Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as scores of members of Congress – who signed two separate letters of concern last week – have already made their dismay public. A “senior official” at the State Department said the Biden administration “prefers quiet conversations over public criticism,” as Reuters described it, with the official adding: “Anything that we would say on the specific proposals has the potential to be deeply counterproductive.”
How and why this may be “counterproductive” is unclear and cryptic. On the Palestinian issue, Washington expressed its frustrations with Israel’s policy following the Hawara pogrom and expansion of settlements, but it also cautioned Israel on veering sharply away and making the two-state model unfeasible, as Senator Chris Murphy emphatically said Thursday.
Furthermore, while paying lip service to the two-state solution, the United States is surely aware of a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showing that a majority of Palestinians now support the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority and 75 percent want President Mahmoud Abbas to resign. Conflate that with the Netanyahu far-right coalition’s pledges to expand settlements and stated opposition to a Palestinian state and you see the Americans’ concerns about a violent escalation.
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Netanyahu receiving a gift from Barack Obama at the prime minister's residence in 2012.
Netanyahu receiving a gift from Barack Obama at the prime minister's residence in 2012.Credit: Amos Ben Gershon/GPO
Then there’s the issue of Iran, where Netanyahu already accused Biden of being “weak,” speaking as a “senior Israeli source with the prime minister on his visit to Rome.” Netanyahu was referring to the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement that Israel sees as an adverse development, but Netanyahu soon will probably go full-anti-Biden on Iran.
This is the man who was against the Iranian nuclear deal, who in 2015 spoke to Congress against the U.S. president’s foreign policy and said “there’s a better deal” but never produced one because he never had one. He’s the man who pressured Donald Trump to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement in 2018 without an alternative policy because he never had one. He’s the man under whose watch Iran accumulated more enriched uranium using more advanced centrifuges.
That man is about to confront Biden on Iran. This is where the visit invitation is relevant.
Netanyahu will gradually start criticizing U.S. policy on Iran, contending that he didn’t get invited to the White House because “leftist liberals have been working against him” and the president is averse to hearing what he has to say on Iran’s nuclear program.
As Netanyahu plans it, this will immediately ignite partisan strife in Washington. Not only has he deserted the principle of bipartisanship for the last 14 years, he has actively distanced Israel from the Democrats and aligned himself closely with the GOP, particularly the Tea Party and the MAGA Republicans.
For them, it’s a zero-sum, hyper-partisan game. If Netanyahu is against Biden and Democrats criticize Israel, they’ll do the exact opposite. After all, they regard Netanyahu as the Republican senator from the great state of Jerusalem.
If an invitation arrives, Netanyahu got his way. If it doesn’t, because the Biden administration calls his bluff, Netanyahu has one other option: Go to Washington without a presidential invite. From his vantage point, there’s nothing to lose. For Israel’s interests, there’s a lot to lose.
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