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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visits Joe Biden's inaugural visit: the main thing is that he is not Netanyahu

2021-08-26T15:11:04.177Z


The new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will meet US President Joe Biden for the first time today. The list of controversial issues is long - but the chances of rapprochement between the close allies are good.


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Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is visiting the United States for the first time as his country's head of government

Photo: Olivier Douliery / dpa

When Israel’s new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with US President Joe Biden for the first time today, he must first clear away the rubble that his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu left him with.

For decades there was one principle in Washington: Israel was a "bi-partisan issue," a bipartisan issue.

This meant that both Republicans and Democrats always guaranteed solidarity and support to their most important ally in the Middle East, albeit with different political weights.

Benjamin Netanyahu relied on Donald Trump

With Netanyahu, there was a massive shift in that balance. The right-wing conservative Israeli ex-prime minister had always sympathized with the Republicans and snubbed Democratic President Barack Obama several times. For example, in 2015, without the President's knowledge, he accepted an invitation from the Republicans to speak publicly in the US Congress against the nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by Obama. After Netanyahu eventually became President Donald Trump's closest "buddy", the relationship between Democrats and Netanyahu was utterly shattered, especially after he persuaded Trump to unilaterally end the nuclear deal.

Joe Biden is now a Democrat again in the White House, and his party is becoming increasingly critical of Israel, not least because of a small but growing number of progressive members of Congress who not only think pro-Palestinian, but sometimes even anti-Semitic. Bennett, himself an advocate of the internationally criticized settlement policy and an opponent of the two-state solution, must first succeed in opening a new chapter in American-Israeli relations with Biden and the Democrats.

There is a lot to talk about: for the new Israeli government, dealing with Iran is the most pressing and important issue.

On the agenda, however, should also be the failing peace process with the Palestinians - and the competition between the USA and China.

Even if Bennett himself is further to the right than the old prime minister - the chances of a fresh start are not that bad.

Biden immediately congratulated Bennett, not calling Netanyahu for weeks

Similar to Benjamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett is an Israeli politician in power who knows and values ​​the United States well. He spent part of his childhood in San Francisco and is fluent in English. After graduating from Tel Aviv University with a law degree, he started a software company in New York. He later sold the company and returned to Israel in the mid-2000s to go into politics - as the office manager of the then opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The former political friendship between the two is now considered broken.

While Benjamin Netanyahu, as opposition leader, accuses Biden of risking a second holocaust against the Jewish people just to revive the nuclear deal with Tehran, Bennett reacts in a statesmanlike manner. He praised and thanks Biden for his support of Israel and stressed that the time of open hostility among allies was over. And Joe Biden, for his part, is getting closer to the new Israeli prime minister. While he did not call Benjamin Netanyahu for weeks after his own inauguration, American President Bennett congratulated Bennett immediately after his inauguration in mid-June.

Biden has a keen interest in the new government in Israel being successful.

As for Bennett and his coalition partners, the ultimate goal of the US government is to prevent Netanyahu from returning to power.

It can be assumed that Biden will treat the new Israeli prime minister kindly and guarantee him support, even with regard to his policy towards the Palestinians.

Because Biden knows that Bennett's coalition is fragile and cannot land big throws.

Left Democrats criticize Biden's Israel policy

Its complex coalition consists of one Arab and seven Jewish left, centralist and ultra-right parties, it has only one vote majority in the Knesset. As a result, she cannot make any ideological or adventurous decisions that could jeopardize the cohesion of the government - and cause Biden a headache.

In the peace process, to which Joe Biden once devoted himself as Vice President under Obama, will probably not go ahead for now.

But what Biden can still demand from Bennett is a certain amount of support from the Palestinian Authority: no more new settlements should be announced, but the living conditions of the Palestinians should be improved.

Bennett is likely to meet the American president here - also to take him out of the line of fire of the left wing of the Democrats.

The left around Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez find Biden's policy towards Israel far too conciliatory; most recently, the focus was on his support for Jerusalem during the latest armed conflict in Gaza in May.

Bennett doesn't want a new Iran deal either

The issue of the new Iran deal that the United States, Europeans and Russians want to negotiate with the new government in Tehran in Vienna is more of a source of conflict. Just like his predecessor, Bennett rejects the resumption of the agreement - but at least he strikes a different tone. Bennett recently announced that he would submit a plan to the US on how to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. He'll probably do it quietly, behind closed doors, not rumbling in public like his predecessor.

At the moment it is not at all clear whether a deal can be reached at all.

Iran, under the new leadership of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi, does not seem to be in any particular hurry.

The uranium enrichment, which is needed to manufacture an atomic bomb, is in full swing, even in Washington there are doubts as to whether one can still come to an understanding with the regime in Tehran.

Bennett knows, however, that if the US and Iran do come to an agreement, he will not be able to prevent the course of events.

Then it would be about damage control for him.

Like his predecessor, he will likely make it clear to Biden that Israel will always reserve the right to act alone if it sees its own security at risk.

Bennett has to convince the Democrats

That leaves China, Joe Biden's most important foreign policy issue. Just as Biden demands allegiance from the Europeans, he does the same from the ally Israel. In the past there have been several frictions between Jerusalem and Washington - whenever Israel wanted to sell the Chinese sensitive high-tech know-how or were too willing to open their own market to them. The volume of trade between the two states is growing. Americans do not like to see any of this.

Bennett, too, will hardly be able to turn Israel into a "bi-partisan issue" again with just one single visit. The all-important question of this visit for Naftali Bennett is whether he'll manage to win over Biden and the Democrats. Despite all the different points of view with the US government, the hurdle for Bennett is not very high - it helps that he is not Netanyahu. And if Bennett's visit is a success, it would also be a second victory over his predecessor Netanyahu for him.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-08-26

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