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The secretary of state and the Israeli leader had a “frank” verbal exchange amid development over the Palestinians, Ukraine and a shift to the right through Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
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by Michael Crowley
JERUSALEM – As Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stood with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, the two men spoke of an enduring bond between their countries, even as the development of differences on a variety of basic issues puts that unity under great strain.
In the context of a contentious relationship over Israel’s political shift to the right and escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as disagreements over issues such as Iran’s nuclear program and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, familiar claims of a major alliance seemed almost defensive. As if either man identified how complicated it is to maintain that bond.
Blinken pleaded with Israelis and Palestinians to spare them a cycle of retaliation after months of escalating violence that erupted in recent days with a bloody Israeli army incursion into the West Bank and terror attacks in Jerusalem that killed more than 20 people.
Israel has also been hit by mass protests, with up to 100,000 more people attending an event in Tel Aviv on Saturday. Israelis opposed to Netanyahu’s re-election and his plans to impose greater political power over the judiciary have taken to the streets. , warning of a right-wing risk to Israel’s democratic foundations, a fear shared by the Biden administration. The new Israeli coalition, which was formed last month, is widely seen as the right-wing and devout top in Israel’s history.
After expressing America’s “unwavering support” for Israel, Mr. Blinken nodded to the disagreements in what was a one-on-one “frank” verbal exchange with M. Netanyahu.
He reiterated U. S. support for a two-state solution with the Palestinians, a more remote purpose than ever under M. S. Netanyahu, which was established with the support of ultra-nationalist figures who take difficult positions towards Palestinian rights and inspire construction in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Mr. Blinken also spoke of the importance of “fundamental democratic principles and institutions,” an obvious reference to proposed judicial changes, and reminded Mr. Netanyahu of the need to govern through consensus.
And with Israel covering up its Ukraine out of concern to anger Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, Mr. Blinken spoke of “the importance of offering all of Ukraine’s wishes. “
Netanyahu, now in his third term as prime minister, joked that he was a survivor who had associated himself with “quite a few” American presidents (four, to be exact). But within the Biden administration, where many know Mr. Netanyahu from a term that straddled Barack Obama’s presidency, memories are not good.
The Israeli leader’s electoral return last year after a brief political exile, when he faced charges for thief, stunned U. S. officials, who have bitter clashes with Obama over Iran, the Palestinians and other issues. They also explain how the Israeli leader, long regarded as aligned with Republicans, worked hand-in-hand with President Donald J. Trump.
But it is also clear that the two governments want the opposite. Netanyahu and Blinken discussed the possibility of cooperation on what could be the prime minister’s main foreign policy goal: further normalizing Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbors, and possibly adding Saudi Arabia.
It probably wouldn’t be easy. U. S. officials warned Mr. Netanyahu that the more his coalition’s internal timeline clashes with Washington’s views, the more complicated that collaboration becomes.
“This moment is the most serious political challenge to U. S. -Israel relations since Menachem Begin became prime minister in 1977,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Israeli advocacy organization J Street.
The Biden administration’s frustrations with Netanyahu and his coalition, which includes figures deemed radical enough that U. S. officials don’t interact directly with them, have been clouded through Biden’s strong expressions of sadness and solidarity. Blinken after a couple of terrorist attacks in the East. Jerusalem, led by the Palestinians in recent days.
After landing at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, Blinken made an unusual comment on the tarmac expressing his condolences and calling Friday’s outdoor attack on a synagogue in which a Palestinian gunman killed seven other people “particularly shocking. “
The attacks followed an Israeli raid Thursday on a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin that killed 10 Palestinians, plus a 61-year-old woman. Palestinian officials called the killings a bloodbath and the Palestinian Authority suspended security cooperation with the Israeli military. Israeli officials said the raid was aimed at arresting Islamic Jihad militants who were planning “major attacks” opposed to the Israelis.
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The violence continued on Sunday, when a Palestinian was shot dead outside an Israeli deal in the West Bank, and Israeli settlers carried out some 150 attacks on Palestinians and their property in the area.
U. S. officials and analysts fear that Palestinian frustration with a moribund peace process, as well as that of Israeli extremist leaders, has created a dry tinder that could erupt into a primary Palestinian uprising.
Blinken called for calm amid considerations about escalation responses, which had come “at a crucial time. “
“Calls for revenge on more innocent victims are not the answer,” he said. “And retaliatory acts of violence against civilians are never justified. “
After meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken reiterated that the United States “maintains the historic prestige quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites,” adding the Temple Mount, a holy site for Jews and Muslims. Earlier this month, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir made a provocation. A stopover at the site that provoked a livid reaction from Palestinian leaders and alarmed U. S. officials.
Blinken is scheduled to stop in Ramallah, the administrative hub of Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, on Tuesday and meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He will most likely ask Abbas to participate in the escalating violence, which included a firefight. in Jerusalem through a 13-year-old Palestinian boy last weekend.
But it will also force Abbas to seek anti-Israel charges in bodies such as the International Criminal Court, a technique Biden’s management calls counterproductive. The Palestinian leader might be frustrated by the message, which gives his people little they haven’t heard before.
Adding to the sense of unease, Blinken arrived in Israel a day after an Iranian army facility was targeted in a drone strike that senior intelligence officials said were paintings by Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency. strategy for engaging Iran’s nuclear program, a task made less difficult by the obvious failure of Mr. S. ‘s Nuclear Weapons Program. S. Biden to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Mr. Netanyahu vehemently opposed. But the maximum prime minister probably has a greater appetite for confrontation with Tehran than Mr. Biden, fueled by the war in Ukraine and the festival with China.
Still, in public, Blinken and Netanyahu struck a friendly tone. The Israeli leader first referred to the secretary of state through his title, then through “Tony,” reflecting a date with Blinken, a longtime aide to Mr. Biden, dating back many years. With a smile, Biden became a “true friend of Israel” and spoke of the “unbreakable bond between Israel and the United States. “Blinken responded that “America’s commitment has never wavered. It never will be.
Administration officials have so far tempered their public complaint of the Israeli government, which prefers to have difficult conversations in private, according to other people familiar with the exchanges, specifically on internal Israeli political issues.
“They like to be personal and the scenes,” M. Ben-Ami said. “Our position is that management wants to be harder and more public about it. “
But the plan to exert greater political control over the judiciary, especially at a time when Mr. Netanyahu has 3 instances of ongoing fraudsters opposing him, for bribery, fraud, and breach of acceptance, might be too much for the Biden administration. too much like a Congress, to be careless.
“It sucks all the oxygen out of the room,” said David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The sense that Israel’s judiciary is no longer independent, he said, would mean that “a large part of the U. S. -Israel relationship is lost. “
The judicial reform plan remains just a proposal, and U. S. officials expect it to be moderated or abandoned. In an interview with The Times of Israel published on January 22, Thomas Nides, the US ambassador to Jerusalem, said: “It would be incredibly helpful if we didn’t have to deal every day with things that we fundamentally oppose, because it distracts us from the bigger messes we seek to solve.
But it’s unclear what Netanyahu has about his coalition, which operates with a clear majority in parliament, or whether he will have to adapt to his maximum far-right members to remain in power.
In a later appearance with Blinken, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen gave the impression of acknowledging Washington’s frustration with Israel’s border on Ukraine. Cohen said he plans to make a stopover in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, in the near future.
Netanyahu signaled that he would continue the policy of his predecessor, Yair Lapid, offering Ukraine non-military aid.
Both countries fully agree that they deserve Israel’s relations with their Arab neighbors and build on the normalization agreements, known as the Abraham Accords, that were reached under Trump. Blinken said Monday that Biden’s administration “has worked tirelessly to deepen and expand the Abraham Accords. “
For Netanyahu, the big prize would be the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia. But analysts say the official normalization of Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia, even if either country has become unofficial security partners opposed to Iran, will be incredibly complicated if Israel is noticed as seizing the West Bank and trampling on Palestinian rights.
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