US President Joe Biden is expected to call Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu in the coming days, to congratulate him on his victory in the elections and probably also to invite him to visit the White House.
Political sources in Jerusalem estimate that already in this phone call, President Biden will ask Netanyahu to act to reduce the security escalation in the West Bank, The administration is concerned about the instability of the PA and the possibility of a new intifada.
President Biden lost his friend Yair Lapid as Prime Minister of Israel as a result of the Knesset elections and he accepts, to his dismay, his old friend Benjamin Netanyahu as the new Prime Minister for four years.
Despite the differences between President Biden and Netanyahu, he met with him when he visited Israel last July and gave him a warm attitude, Biden is an experienced politician and estimated even then that the possibility of Netanyahu returning to power as Prime Minister is definitely possible.
The relationship between the two is complex, and according to American sources, two controversies will be at the center of the relationship between the two leaders as soon as Netanyahu assumes the position of Prime Minister.
The first issue will be the nuclear agreement with Iran which has reached an impasse and the second issue is Israel’s policy towards Russia following the invasion of the Russian army into Ukraine.
President Biden’s expectations of signing a nuclear deal with Iran have been disappointed, Iran is also supplying missiles and UAVs to Russia for the war in Ukraine, President Biden’s wrong move regarding Iran could hurt the Democratic Party in the mid-term congressional elections and weaken the power of the President.
However, if the Democratic Party will not lose the congressional elections, which does not seem likely now, this may encourage President Biden to try once again to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran despite the collapse of American policy on the matter.
President Biden is expected to ask Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu to clearly stand by the United States and the Western countries against the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
Netanyahu will have to reconsolidate Israel’s position in view of the tensions in Russia’s relations with the Lapid government regarding the war in Ukraine and the fact that Israel cannot afford to lose coordination with Russia in regards to the Israeli airstrikes in Syria.
Despite the complexity of the relationship between Netanyahu and President Biden, Netanyahu’s relationship with him is much better than the relationship he had with former US President Barack Obama.
Other issues that are in dispute between the two personalities are Netanyahu’s opposition to the American demand for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and the transfer of the American consulate to East Jerusalem a move that harms President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, and the continued construction in the settlements and East Jerusalem.
The Biden administration is very concerned about the new coalition in Israel and the fact that the heads of religious Zionism party Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are expected to receive senior positions in the government and become members of the security cabinet, he expects Prime Minister Netanyahu to restrain them In regards to maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount and the treatment of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.
Nevertheless, the assessment in Jerusalem is that the administration will act very carefully with the new Netanyahu government and give it a few weeks of peace despite the expected differences of opinion, nor will it rush to boycott Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotritz in advance if they will not take “extreme steps” on the ground.
The Biden administration did not impose any political plan on the Palestinian issue on the Bennett and Lapid governments, it did not even move the American consulate to East Jerusalem, despite President Biden’s promise to PA Chairman Abu Mazen, a new peace plan is not on the administration’s horizon, President Biden understands that Abu Mazen is not a partner and he is waiting for the change of power in the PA, in the meantime he has given the green light to the advancement of Hussein al-Sheikh for the role of successor.
The administration is expected to continue, even during the Netanyahu government, the policy of managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and not trying to resolve it.
