Amid Successive Criticisms of the Extremist Moves of the Netanyahu Government: Are US–Israeli Relations Breakable?

Relations between the United States and “Israel” are always strong. Still, they are not always the same between the presidents of the two countries.

With his return to the presidency of the Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden began the stage of feeling the pulse regarding what is going on between them during the coming period, especially with an Israeli government that has a hard-right orientation.

Many points of contention have recently been revealed that could break US–Israeli relations 10 days after the sixth term of Netanyahu’s government in Israeli history, which took its first steps on the path of collision with the White House.

On January 7, 2022, the Times of Israel newspaper reported that US diplomats are currently reassuring Washington’s allies in the Middle East about the US position on the need to preserve the status quo in Jerusalem.

The newspaper confirmed that US diplomats were in a state of anger after the extremist minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who holds the national security portfolio, stormed al-Aqsa Mosque on January 3, 2022, and the Israeli authorities subsequently imposed sanctions on the Palestinians on January 6, 2022, in addition to the file of massive expansions in building Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

US diplomats stressed to the Netanyahu government not to get too close to Russia and flatter it, warning it also of blocking the horizons of the Palestinian cause.

 

Israeli Escalation

On January 7, 2022, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper revealed a new US–Israeli dispute looming on the horizon.

It stated that the measures imposed by the Israeli government on the Palestinians would be an important link in the US–Israeli disputes at last.

The Hebrew newspaper reported that US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are on their way to a collision, against the background of the Israeli government imposing sanctions on the Palestinians on January 6, 2022.

The Israeli government had decided to deduct about $39 million from the Palestinian Authority’s funds that are paid as monthly salaries to the families of Palestinian prisoners and martyrs and instead allocate it for the benefit of the families of “Israeli victims,” in addition to freezing Palestinian construction in Area C, which constitutes about 60% of the West Bank.

The Israeli government also decided to deny privileges to important figures leading the political and legal war against “Israel,” and to take action against organizations in the West Bank that promote hostile activity.

The recent Israeli punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority came in response to its recent decision to resort to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to obtain an advisory opinion on the issue of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

On December 31, 2022, the Israeli Prime Minister announced that the UN General Assembly’s adoption of a Palestinian draft resolution on requesting a legal advisory opinion from the ICJ on the nature of the Israeli occupation would not be binding on “Israel.”

Yedioth Ahronoth also indicated that the storming of the far-right Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, al-Aqsa Mosque caused an embarrassment between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government.

On January 3, 2022, Ben-Gvir stormed al-Aqsa Mosque, defying Jerusalemites and provoking their feelings, amid enhanced protection from the Israeli forces, who imposed strict restrictions on the entry of Palestinian youths.

Regarding the escalation policy adopted by the Israeli government in the occupied Palestinian territories, some in the United States called for the withdrawal of US military aid and support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

In turn, the US ambassador to “Tel Aviv,” Tom Nides, told the Israeli Walla website that the White House has made it clear to the government of “Israel” that it opposes every step that would harm the status quo in the holy sites.

US Presidential Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said, “the United States firmly supports maintaining the status quo while respecting the holy sites in Jerusalem.”

On his part, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a separate statement that “the United States is very concerned after Ben-Gvir’s step,” considering that “the visit could exacerbate tensions and spark violence.”

It is noteworthy that tensions with the United States have been exacerbated this month also due to another incident in which two extremist Israeli Jews desecrated about 30 graves in the historic Protestant Mount Zion cemetery.

“Religious site vandalism by anyone is unacceptable. Jerusalem must be a city for all of its people,” the US Office of Palestinian Affairs tweeted.

 

US Discontent

In another context, the Times of Israel newspaper indicated that the differences between Washington and “Tel Aviv” go beyond the Palestinian file and also affect the file of Russian–Israeli relations at a time when Iran, the main enemy of “Israel,” plays an important role in the Ukraine war.

“The US ambassador, Tom Nides, urged the new Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, not to tone down Israeli criticism towards Russia, during a meeting on January 4, 2022, and told him that Israel should stand on the right side of history,” the newspaper added.

The most pro-Israeli Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, attacked Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s contact with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, considering him to have a conversation with a representative of a regime that commits war crimes, which gave the impression that “Tel Aviv” is trying to adopt a new policy regarding the Ukraine war, different from the governments of Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett.

Nides recalled that Washington had sought earlier to limit the causes of the clash with Netanyahu’s new government, and stated that it would judge his government through actions and not through people.

US sources told Politico that the Biden administration plans to hold Netanyahu personally responsible for the actions of his more extreme coalition partners, especially if it leads to policies that endanger plans for a future Palestinian state.

It is noteworthy that some officials in the Biden administration, who previously worked with the Barack Obama administration, feel resentment toward Netanyahu, who hindered their important achievement in terms of foreign policy, that is, the nuclear agreement with Iran, which was signed in 2015 in Vienna, before the administration of Republican US President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.

In turn, Alon Liel, a former director-general of the Foreign Ministry, told the newspaper that “more US rapprochement with the Palestinians may be the only way to influence Netanyahu.”

“If the Biden administration really wants to put pressure on Netanyahu, it is expected that it will show an intention to open the PLO office in Washington and the US consulate in East Jerusalem, which could be considered a means of pressure on Israel,” the Israeli diplomat added.

On his part, ex-US envoy to “Israel” Martin Indyk called on the US administration to pressure the Netanyahu government to deter it from taking provocative steps against the Palestinians.

In his interview with Al-Jazeera, he said that the storming of Ben-Gvir and settlers into the courtyards of al-Aqsa Mosque is an indication of the Netanyahu government’s approach, which aims to change the status quo in the holy sites.

With his assertion that the US administration will not cut off annual military aid to “Tel Aviv,” Indyk suggested that Washington would resort, in the event that the Netanyahu government insisted on its position and acted contrary to US interests, to use other cards such as not protecting it from international sanctions.

He explained that the Biden administration is still thinking about the way it deals with the new Israeli government, and there are issues such as settlements and Israeli efforts to annex the West Bank that are waiting to be discussed with it during the meeting of the two parties, stressing that the United States cares about Netanyahu and does not care about the extremist ministers in his government.

 

Pragmatic Moves

Despite the points of contention between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government, this did not prevent Washington from calling on “Tel Aviv” to jointly confront the Iranian threat, which indicates that all that has been said about supporting the two-state solution and opposing extremist Israeli policies is nothing but empty talk.

Everyone knows that the essence of US policy in support of “Israel” will not change, but some of it may hinder US policy in the region and distract its efforts to integrate “Israel” into the region and establish its hegemony over it.

Despite an annual US aid package of more than $3 billion to “Israel” and diplomatic support in international forums, US influence over Netanyahu appears to be limited.

Knowing that the Biden administration is more Zionist than the Trump administration, according to Biden himself, in addition to the fact that Biden has not yet rescinded any decision taken by Trump regarding “Israel,” such as the decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of “Israel,” and to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

Historical experience over the past seven decades has proven that the Democratic and Republican parties, no matter how much they share roles on various international issues, are competing to serve “Israel,” simply because it is a US military base in the heart of the Middle East, and this service is not affected by the change of those in charge of this base.

The Biden administration, as it has repeatedly announced, will not present a draft settlement between “Israel” and the Palestinians, but it is concerned with preserving, at least outwardly, the status quo, and preventing the outbreak of a third Palestinian intifada that might spoil the course of Arab–Israeli normalization on the political, economic and military levels.

According to observers, the recent tension in US–Israeli relations is not related to the direction of Israeli practices as much as it is related to their style, as the Democratic Party usually tends to the soft, gradual methods of imposing its agenda, while Netanyahu tends to the Republican Party’s direct and rude way of imposing its agenda.

Therefore, the recent extremist statements and actions of the Israeli government forced the United States to take public and non-public moves, most notably the visit of US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, scheduled for the middle of this month, to “Israel,” to pressure Netanyahu and prevent his government’s extremists from changing the status quo in Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to an article by David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute.

Even if the US administration succeeds for a period of time in deterring the impulse of the Israeli extremist parties, the pragmatic Netanyahu may respond to the US desire, but he will ask it to impose pressure on the Palestinian Authority, as his government has done recently.