Biden’s management wonders how to deal with a new Israeli government that will be the greatest right-wing in that country’s history and could hinder America’s basic goals for the Middle East.
The new government will be headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who was fired from his workplace just over a year ago and is on trial for corruption. To regain office, Netanyahu has formed an alliance with questionable political figures known for their excessive anti-Arab views, likely condemning any peace deal with the Palestinians.
Dealing with the Netanyahu-led government will pose demanding primary situations for the Biden administration, which seeks a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation and greater acceptance of Israel in the Arab world.
Republicans in the United States who wish to present themselves as true friends of Israel will consult any complaints from the new administration through the Biden administration.
Netanyahu and the Republican Party have grown closer in the past decade, undermining decades of bipartisanship for Israel.
In 2015, Netanyahu, whom congressional Republicans had invited to speak at a joint congressional consultation, used the speech to criticize President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Former President Trump moved the U. S. EmbassyTel Aviv to Jerusalem and Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. Just this week, Netanyahu delivered a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, a partisan group.
Both Netanyahu and President Biden have said that America for Israel deserves to remain bipartisan.
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17:31 November 27, 2022 An earlier edition of this tale misspelled the first by Bezalel Smotrich and the last Array by Senator Robert Menendez
However, Netanyahu’s new allies may make this difficult. Some U. S. officials have already indicated privately that they will meet with Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two likely members of Netanyahu’s government.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich advocate detecting illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where most Palestinians live, and probably annexing most or all of that territory. They oppose a separate Palestinian state. Netanyahu wants to consolidate a majority in the Knesset, or the Israeli parliament. They may also help him pass a law that allows him to avoid prosecution for corruption.
The two men also called for a much tougher crackdown on Palestinian activists and their supporters, adding strict curfews on Palestinian villages, mass deportations and targeted killings of suspected terrorists. He advocated that Israeli security forces use live ammunition instead of stone. Throw out Palestinian protesters.
Ben-Gvir also expressed his affinity with ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose ideology, according to the Anti-Defamation League, reflects “racism, violence and political extremism” and whose organization until recently was listed as a terrorist organization by the U. S. government.
For years, Ben-Gvir kept in his home a poster of Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli-American terrorist and follower of Kahane who murdered 29 Muslim worshippers in Hebron in 1994, according to Israeli media. In 2007, an Israeli court convicted Ben-Gvir of inciting racist violence and supporting a terrorist organization.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich should head the departments of public protection and defense, respectively, the portfolios that have the closest contact with U. S. officials. On Friday, Netanyahu’s Likud party and Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party announced an agreement for Ben-Gvir security minister
“This country is a democracy that has elected leaders and I intend to work with them,” U. S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nestes said in an interview with Israeli media, adding temporarily: “That said, we have to defend the things we do. “, that’s American values. We have a very strong best friend in the State of Israel, however, there will be times when we explain where we think our differences are.
Nides and other U. S. officials said the two countries’ problems of discord stem from the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and, in all likelihood, the annexation of the territory.
“Management will have to recognize what the genuine red lines are,” said Michael Koplow, senior analyst at the Israel Policy Forum, a U. S. -based pro-Israel organization. The U. S. government advocates the two-state solution. all fronts. “
Negotiations to shape the government are ongoing and may take days or even weeks. Much of the haggling is part of the process, so it’s unclear which politicians will take on which positions. Netanyahu has introduced Smotrich as finance minister of the defense ministry, according to Israeli media, however, so far Smotrich has given no indication that he will abandon his initial application.
“We provide about $4 billion a year to the Department of Defense Array . . . And are we going to put our cash in the hands of those guys?” said Daniel Kurtzer, a former U. S. ambassador. He is a U. S. citizen in Israel who now teaches at Princeton University. I would say no. “
Netanyahu would appoint Ron Dermer as his foreign minister. Dermer served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States since 2013 and through the Trump administration, with which he was friends. He organized Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in 2015. Demer’s appointment would be a “shot in the eye” for Biden, Kurtzer said.
Republicans remain willing to criticize anything that is not unconditional to Israel through the Biden administration. After the Israeli government revealed that the U. S. Department of Justice was not allowed to do so. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called on Attorney General Merrick Garland and “everyone involved in this debacle” to be “fired or removed. “
Multiple investigations through independent human rights and journalism organizations have concluded that an Israeli soldier likely fired the shot that killed the veteran journalist. Israel eventually declared that one of its foot soldiers is likely responsible. No one punished.
If the new Israeli government makes the decision to try to annex the West Bank, it would jeopardize the Abraham Accords, a deal negotiated under Trump’s direction that has opened business and diplomatic relations between Israel and several Persian Gulf states, such as the United Arab Emirates, which in the past refused to recognize Israel’s existence.
The UAE’s accession to the deal was based on the fact that Netanyahu, his previous term as prime minister, distanced himself from plans to annex West Bank territory.
“If they push too hard, it will spare them any progress” in regional relations, said Aaron David Miller, a former U. S. envoy. He recently spoke to the U. S. Department of Agriculture for the Middle East at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Miller believes Biden and Netanyahu will try to confront each other openly to safeguard their own domestic and international positions: “Biden wants a public duel with Netanyahu,” Miller said, while Netanyahu “aspires abroad and intends to strut around. “it. . “
Publicly, U. S. officials remain cautious and say they need to see what kind of government Netanyahu will form, reiterating his “ironclad” commitment to Israel while emphasizing American “values” that come with freedom and prosperity “equally” for Israelis and Palestinians.
“Management is right to get involved in Array. . . and telegraph concerns,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md. ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview. He is one of several Democratic lawmakers who are staunch supporters of Israel but have sounded the alarm about potential members of the new administration. They come with Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who chairs the committee, and California Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Northridge).
But Ben-Gvir further alienated Biden’s leadership officials by winning an election victory circular at a memorial service for Kahane, who was killed more than 30 years ago.
“Celebrating the legacy of a terrorist organization is abhorrent, there’s no other word for that,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in unusually strong remarks. “We remain involved in Kahane’s legacy and continued use of rhetoric among violent right-wing extremists. “he said.
Ben-Gvir struck a deal with Netanyahu that would allow him to expand police powers and shield officials from scrutiny by other judicial authorities.
Appointing a convicted terrorist-related fee man to head the Israel National Police has alarmed many Israelis.
“This means that the police will be politicized to favor the far right,” the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz said in an editorial this week. “Those who seek to safeguard democracy have become foot soldiers in the service of politicians. This is what happens when those accused and convicted of crimes take from establishments guilty of maintaining public order.
The prospect of a Ben-Gvir-led police force has also alarmed American supporters of Israel. Ben-Gvir “promised unlimited repression against terrorism and an increased police and border security presence,” said Yulia Shalomov, a member of the U. S. think tank. Atlantic Council, in a recent appearance on Internet. Su party, “has consistently stoked national ethnic and social tensions,” he said.
Netanyahu’s right-wing partners will also push for other legislation that would not only have an effect on Palestinians and Arabs. They have threatened to take away the rights of the gay network and make it highly unlikely that many non-Orthodox Jews abroad will download Israeli citizenship. .
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Tracy Wilkinson covers the Los Angeles Times office in Washington, D. C.
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