The net effect of the telephone call between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is for U.S. government officials to feel relief that the persistent nagging from Bibi’s surrogates and press hounds is over. Nothing has changed except perhaps in perceptions. In essence, the substance of the call itself does not appear to have anything addressed anything substantively new between the allies.
U.S.-Israel relations have not lost a beat since Biden entered office. There have been numerous contacts between the Government on an array of levels. There has even been a visit to Israel by the head of CENTCOM, General Kenneth McKenzie, as Israel was moved in the final days of the Trump Administration out of the EUCOM (European Command theatre) to the Central Command. Within the U.S. military command structure, Israel is now situated where it has always belonged. For strategic purposes this move will permit more public cooperation and coordination between Israel and Arab States in the region where the U.S. has a military presence including Bahrain and the UAE.
The call permitted Biden to now proceed with his planned initiative to establish the modalities whereby the U.S. would consider rejoining the JCPOA. Having talked this through with Netanyahu, the President can now assume that Bibi will not be surprised. Biden thus established a comfort zone with Israel prior to discussing the matter today at the G7 virtual summit meeting.
Prime Minister Netanyahu can now demonstrate to the Israeli electorate, falsely, that he had enough political power that he was able to pressure Biden to make the “call”.
In fact, Biden had already begun making moves in the region which were more significant for his national security team as they sought to reset and redefine U.S. policy. While Biden affirmed his interest in sustaining the Abraham Accords and has no intention of moving the U.S. Embassy out of Jerusalem, the President moved quickly to re-establish U.S. connections with the Palestinian Authority and articulated his commitment to a two-state solution. President Biden also indicated to the international community that his Administration is challenging the International Criminal Court’s decision to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether Israel had committed war crimes on the West Bank.
Even before the “call”, the Biden Administration already had signaled its intent to reestablish human right issues as a critical criterion for U.S. foreign policy. With respect to the Saudis the President has sought to pressure the leader of the Kingdom for more accountability in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; has frozen weapons sales to the Saudis and the UAE to pressure them to stop the bombing of civilian targets in Yemen; and is trying to facilitate the humanitarian hunger crisis persisting in Yemen. President Biden has slowed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and has given very little indication that he intends to make any moves in Iraq or Syria.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s jockeying and posturing while waiting a month for a phone call was totally unnecessary. Even assuming that the Biden Administration was trying to show Netanyahu that it wanted to re-set the U.S.-Israel relationship, Bibi should have been able to bide his time.
The Biden team did want to demonstrate that it would not be taking marching orders on U.S. Middle East policy from Jerusalem. Trump, Kushner, and their policy team were no longer in charge.
In addition, Biden wanted the Israelis to recognize that the Democrats were still peeved on a personal level at how Netanyahu had handled his relationship with President Obama. Netanyahu knew Biden was a long-standing friend of Israel, but Bibi needed to be reminded of his prior insulting conduct. For this as well as not wanting to appear to be interfering in the upcoming Israeli elections, the importance of the Biden telephone was magnified.
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