analysis
Israeli President Herzog has met a colleague in the USA who is unusually clear about his displeasure with politics in Tel Aviv. Here, Herzog is on a bridge-building mission.
“Israeli democracy is solid, strong and resilient,” stressed Isaac Herzog at the start of his talks in Washington. Israel is going through a painful time with heated debates, but he will continue to work for a compromise in order to “get out of this crisis together”.
President Herzog as a bridge builder
The fact that President Herzog is being received in Washington again, but not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a lot about the current state of relations, says David Makovsky, director of the Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington.
Herzog is at the center of the dispute over judicial reform in Israel. It is he who is trying to find a compromise between the right-wing religious coalition government and the opposition. Herzog is considered a bridge builder. At a time of tension between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Herzog embodies American-Israeli relations.
Invitation to Netanyahu without an appointment
Joe Biden promised Benjamin Netanyahu a meeting before the end of the year last Monday, but the invitation remained vague and without a specific date. Biden has repeatedly and clearly criticized both the planned judicial reform and Netanyahu’s settlement policy.
Netanyahu’s cabinet is “one of the most extremist” he has ever seen, Biden said in a recent television interview. At the start of the Duke’s visit, the US President made more diplomatic statements.
“America’s commitment to Israel is firm and unbreakable,” Biden said. This also applies to the goal that Iran should never be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
US military aid is not up for grabs
How strong will the pressure that Biden is willing to put on Netanyahu end up being? Could it even go to the foundations, the annual financial and military support for Israel?
No, says political scientist Makovsky: “No US president will touch Israel’s military support or intelligence cooperation. After all, Israel’s real enemies – Iran, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad – are not Israel’s imagination, they are real.”
What Biden is expressing is the frustration of a pro-Israeli president who is concerned about fundamental values, about Israeli democracy, who wants to say to Netanyahu: “Hey man, you’re the prime minister, you have to set the tone, not this one extremist minister. Let me help you. Work with me.”
Boycott calls from left-wing democrats
When President Herzog speaks before both chambers of the US Congress today, some members of the left wing of the Democrats want to demonstratively stay away – out of solidarity with the Palestinians. Makovsky has no understanding for this.
“Herzog embodies Yitzchak Rabin’s tradition of peace,” says Makovsky. “He was always committed to the peace process.” And there has been progress: peace with Egypt, peace with Jordan, most recently peace with the United Arab Emirates, with Bahrain, with Morocco.
Perhaps there will soon be peace with Saudi Arabia – a real goal of the Biden government that is not yet properly understood in Europe, says the political scientist. “If you want to move all this forward, then a boycott by President Herzog is really beyond my comprehension.”