In his first three weeks in office, President Joe Biden made a flurry of calls to American allies around the world, including leaders from Canada, Britain, France, Japan and China.
But the leader of a close American ally was visibly left out of the new president’s summons list: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
While it is clear that Biden is very busy with a myriad of domestic challenges, every day the phone does not ring, increasing concerns in Israel that Netanyahu is being blocked by the new Democratic government because of its close ties to former President Donald Trump and his public antagonism to former President Barack Obama.
The contrast between Biden and Trump is stark: the former president called Netanyahu two days after taking office in 2017.
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“It is a clear sign of President Biden’s discontent that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been seen in Washington for the past 12 years as almost a cardinal member of the Republican Party,” said Dani Dayan, former consul general of Israel in New York.
Dayan was appointed to the post by Netanyahu in 2016, but is now part of New Hope, a right-wing political party led by former Netanyahu allies who are running against him in the next election.
During his time in the United States, Dayan said he went out of his way to meet with Democrats to counter the perception that the Israeli Prime Minister was aligned with Republicans – first because of what was widely considered to be the implicit endorsement of Netanyahu to Mitt Romney in the 2012 election and later his warm embrace from Trump.
Danny Danon, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a member of the Netanyahu Likud party, was more blunt.
On a tweet addressed to Biden, he asked: “Is it now time to call the leader of Israel, the closest ally to the US?” before entering a phone number for Netanyahu’s office. (The number appeared to be out of service when NBC News tried to call him.)
Israeli media commentators have also been counting the days and interpreting a deliberate affront.
“To Netanyahu’s sadness, it seems that the Americans are very interested in proving that Biden is not a personal friend so close to the prime minister,” wrote a columnist for Makor Rishon, a conservative newspaper. “Is Biden fantasizing about Netanyahu?” another headline asked.
Netanyahu ignored the White House’s lack of contact, pointing out that Biden has not yet called any Middle Eastern leaders.
Biden “is making calls to world leaders in whatever order he sees fit,” he said. “The Israel-US alliance is strong, as is our almost 40-year friendship, although we may not agree on everything,”
Asked why Biden and Netanyahu have yet to speak, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on February 2 that the United States has a “long-lasting relationship” with Israel. “I’m sure they will discuss this and a number of issues when they connect,” she said.
Biden, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has met with all Israeli prime ministers since Golda Meir and has known Netanyahu for decades. He has always insisted that his personal relationship is warm despite his political disagreements.
“Bibi, I don’t agree with anything you say, but I love you,” Biden once wrote in an autograph for Netanyahu, using his popular nickname.
But Biden’s first visit to Israel as vice president in 2010 tested that title. Hours after Air Force Two landed in Tel Aviv, the Israeli government announced 1,600 new housing units in an East Jerusalem settlement.
The lawsuit was seen as blatantly disrespectful and forced Biden to issue a statement of condemnation. Netanyahu’s allies said he was taken aback by the announcement – made by the Interior Ministry – and had no intention of causing embarrassment.
Biden does not appear to have held a grudge, but tensions with Israel would only increase during the Obama-Biden administration – culminating in Netanyahu’s thunderous public denunciations of Obama’s efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran.
The same agreement is likely to be an initial point of contention. Although Biden has shown little ambition to try to revive peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians – avoiding an area of potential conflict with Netanyahu – he is eager to quickly return the U.S. to the nuclear deal with Iran, from which Trump withdrew in 2018. Netanyahu continues to oppose when negotiating, but he must be more discreet in his opposition.
Antony Blinken, Biden’s secretary of state, has already caused irritation in Jerusalem on another front after suggesting that the new administration would not adhere to Trump’s decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria. in 1967. Netanyahu’s office responded with a concise statement saying the region “will forever remain part of the State of Israel”.
But in the signature element of Trump’s policy in Israel, the new government has accepted that there is no turning back: Blinken acknowledged that the U.S. embassy would remain in Jerusalem, although there is also renewed diplomatic contact with the Palestinians.
When asked about the Israeli Prime Minister’s office’s response to Secretary Blinken’s comments on the Golan Heights, a State Department spokesman said: “The secretary spoke about this earlier this week and we have nothing left.”
Dan Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel under Obama, said that while many in Israel and the U.S. were reading deeply the question of who is called when, the reality is that Biden is simply focused on the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States and the economic consequence that accompanies it.
“The lack of a call so far has little to do with Netanyahu and Israel, and much, much more to do with what Biden sees as his priorities,” he said.