- Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett hopes to re-establish relations with the United States.
- He will visit the United States on Tuesday to hold talks with US President Joe Biden.
- Due to a close relationship with Donald Trump, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alienated the U.S. Democratic Party.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett went to Washington on Tuesday to hold talks with US President Joe Biden, seeking to “reset” relations with Israel’s closest ally, and to reach a consensus on the issue of his mortal enemy Iran.
In his first state visit since taking office in June, Bennett will meet with Biden on Thursday and try to repair relations with the top U.S. Democrat, who was nervous under the leadership of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Accused of publicly supporting the Republican Party.
“The biggest transaction currently taking place between the two countries is the renewal and resetting of bilateral relations,” said Kotrasensky, senior Israeli policy adviser to former President Barack Obama.
Read | Biden congratulates incoming Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett
Netanyahu made a ruthless public criticism of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the Obama administration negotiated between world powers in 2015, alienating Democratic leaders, in which Biden served as vice president.
Netanyahu’s tight embrace of Obama’s successor-President Donald Trump, whom he has repeatedly called Israel’s “best friend” in the White House-further angered Biden’s party.
New method
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid hinted at a new approach when meeting with US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken in June.
“In the past few years, mistakes have been made. Israel’s bipartisan stance has been compromised. Together we will correct these mistakes,” Rapide said.
Although Bennett’s goal may be to heat up the diplomatic waters, he is still a foreign policy hawk who firmly opposes the Iran agreement, which lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful, but has gradually withdrawn from key commitments, including uranium enrichment, in response to Trump’s sanctions imposed after it unilaterally pulled the United States out of the agreement in 2018.
The 49-year-old Israeli prime minister said on Sunday: “I will tell President Biden that it is time to stop the Iranians… Do not give them a lifeline in the form of re-entering an expired nuclear agreement.”
Bennett met with the 78-year-old Biden, and negotiations to resume the deal broke down in Vienna two months ago, but there was no obvious progress.
Or, Rabinowitz, an expert on nuclear proliferation and U.S.-Israel relations at the Hebrew University, told AFP that she believes that “Iran will be the top agenda of the meeting.”
She said, “Israel wants to set a new term,” or understanding, to let the United States understand what constitutes Iran’s crossing the threshold for nuclear weapons.
Bennett recommended this approach on Sunday. He said: “We will present an orderly plan that we have developed in the past two months to contain Iranians.” He did not provide specific details.
Iran Agreement
Due to growing concerns about the prospect of resuming the Iran agreement, the Israeli leader will land in Washington.
After winning the presidential election in June, the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in in Iran earlier this month.
Bennett leads a coalition of eight parties with different ideologies, from dovish parties to hardliners like him. He avoided the Palestinian issue and instead supported consensus issues such as health and the economy.
Sheila Efron, a senior researcher at the National Security Institute in Tel Aviv, said that the Biden administration’s ambitions are not big, and it is mainly focused on revoking some of Trump’s favoritism to Israel.
“The Biden administration understands that this is an unstable alliance,” she said.
“I don’t think Biden will push Naftali Bennett to try to restart peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.”
Ali Jabawi, a political scientist at Birzeit University in the Occupied West Bank, predicts that the talks between Bennett and Biden will be “meaningless” to Palestinians suffering under Israeli “apartheid”. “.
Israel firmly refuses to accuse it of treating Palestinians in a manner equivalent to apartheid.
“Biden will not resolve the conflict,” Jabawi said.
“If they talk about Palestinians, they will talk about improving the lives of Palestinians under occupation, so it’s the same as in the past.”
After Trump stopped aid, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, the Biden administration has restored millions of dollars in funding to the Palestinians.
An expected point of friction in the talks will be the Biden administration’s promise to reopen a consulate in Jerusalem that is responsible for US-Pakistan affairs.
Trump ended the mission in 2019 after moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, supporting Israel’s controversial sovereignty claim over East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim to be the capital of the future nation.
Eugene Kontorovich, who once advised the Trump administration on Israel, said that rebuilding the consulate is “almost certain” will be the focus of the talks and may be opposed by Bennett. Bennett “Ideologically and fundamentally committed to the integrity of Jerusalem.”
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