Amidst addressing the Delta virus and organizing the country for the elderly to receive their COVID booster shot, Israel’s new Prime Minister, Naphtali Bennett, is proceeding very astutely and carefully in his conduct of Israeli foreign policy, especially with respect to the U.S. This is true in his efforts to expand and enhance the Abraham Accords; his desire to protect Israel’s concern with a blanket renewal of the JCPA with Iran; and his interest in continuing Israel’s relationship with China. Bennett appears determined to reset U.S.-Israel relations as it was conducted prior to Netanyahu’s twelve-year reign. He will proceed thoughtfully and respectfully, while protecting Israel’s national interest.
Bennett is not attempting any grandstanding displays as was the frequent style of his predecessor. There appear to be no end-runs being conducted around the back of President Biden to appeal Israel’s Republican/Trump allies. Bennett recognizes that a country has one head of government at a time. Stylistically, Prime Minister Bennett is not playing his cards in public and is not seeking a huge ego victory; rather he is following proper, quiet diplomatic etiquette. The intriguing thing is that this modus operandi appears so far to be working.
Some of the evidence can be seen in how Bennett is preparing for his first prime ministerial trip to Washington. Earlier this month, two of Bennett’s key national security and foreign policy advisers were in Washington to prepare for the Bennett-Biden meeting. In particular, it appears that Bennett clearly wanted to understand before his personal meeting with President Biden where the Iran-nuclear deal is or is not moving. Bennett also announced his selection of Michael Herzog to be Israel’s Ambassador to Washington, a sign of calmness and moderation which pleased the White House.
CIA Director William Burns’ visit this week to Jerusalem was also significant. As a partial follow-up to the Bennett team’s meetings in Washington, Burns undoubtedly wanted to address further Iran and China with Bennett. He also sought to underscore President Biden’s interest in trying to buttress Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s standing. Burns stop in Israel was not merely a courtesy visit.
Prime Minister Bennett has also indicated that he personally wants to try to rebuild the wide, bi-partisan support that Israel used to enjoy in Congress. Much of the rupture that Netanyahu created both with President Obama and Congressional Democrats can be repaired. Bennett’s challenge will be to create a conversation with the progressive wing of the party and even perhaps make a few new friends among them, while initiating a conversation with the other progressives.
There will be an additional set of meetings which Bennett will have that could prove very interesting. Israeli Prime Ministers usually meet with the major Jewish leadership in the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. Many of these leaders on the political right as well as within the Orthodox community were very personally and organizationally supportive of Netanyahu. For many in the Presidents’ Conference, when they had previously met with Naphtali Bennett, he was always seen as the champion of the settler movement and even more right-wing than Bibi. It will be fascinating to observe how some of these Jewish leaders respond to Prime Minister Bennett.
Having achieved the premiership, Bennett actually can expand his support, by continuing his more broadening approach to governing than had been expected. Bennett could receive some pushback from Jewish leaders on the right who had been most supportive of the Netanyahu/Trump anti-two state solution. These differences will only emerge after Bennett has returned to Israel.
Whether Bennett’s trip still will occur in August or later in September—after the Jewish holidays—probably will be determined by how serious Bennett’s problems are at home in dealing with the Delta variant of COVID. (It may now also be influenced by how dramatically Iran responds to the imminent take-over of Afghanistan by the Taliban.) What appears to be clear at this juncture is that the atmospherics will be much different in Washington when Bennett arrives than they had been under Netanyahu.
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