8 | FEBRUARY 2 • 2023
PURELY COMMENTARY
insight
How the U.S. Views the New
Netanyahu Government
W
hen U.S. Ambassador Tom
Nides sat down for an inter-
view with the Times of Israel
shortly after arriving in Jerusalem a year
ago, he explained that his role would be to
“keep things calm” in the face of “irritants”
that risk upending the U.S.-Israel relation-
ship.
Throughout the course of 2022, Nides
appeared to succeed in that effort. That
year made up the bulk of the tenure of
Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid’s short-
lived unity government, during which ties
between Jerusalem and Washington contin-
ued to flourish, despite the lack of a break-
through on the Palestinian front.
The U.S. issued several strongly worded
rebukes of Israeli West Bank settlement
announcements, but there were none of the
larger-scale blow-ups that strained the rela-
tionship the last time a Democrat was in
the White House. Washington even found
in the more moderate Israeli government
a partner for advancing several relative-
ly unprecedented measures to improve
Palestinian livelihood in the West Bank and
Gaza.
Last spring, the U.S. helped Israel launch
the Negev Forum to advance collaboration
between the Jewish state’s old and new allies
in the Arab world. Several months later,
Joe Biden made his first visit as president
to Israel, where new bilateral partnerships
in the fields of security and technology
were announced. He then traveled to Saudi
Arabia, which he managed to coax into
allowing Israeli airliners to fly through its
skies for the first time, in what Washington
characterized as a first step toward normal-
ization between Riyadh and Jerusalem.
Having returned to power last month,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is
intent on closing that elusive deal. But such
an agreement appears to have gotten even
more distant, given the hardline parties
sharing the cabinet table with Netanyahu
for his sixth term in office.
Biden administration officials have
been quick to highlight the Likud leader’s
insistence that he is the one in control, but
his coalition partners will likely try to veer
Israel toward steps that would antagonize
the Palestinians and possibly the broader
Arab world. The government’s guiding
principles express an intention to signifi-
cantly expand Israel’s presence in the West
Bank and declare that the Jewish people
have an “exclusive and inalienable right to
all parts of the Land of Israel,
” far beyond
the Green Line.
Speaking to the Times of Israel on Jan. 20,
Nides appeared to recognize the challenges
posed by the new government, while insist-
ing that it would still be possible to further
advance ties between Israel and the U.S.
Still, the ambassador clarified that progress
would be contingent on the calm he’s been
seeking to maintain since arriving.
“The prime minister has told us he wants
to do big things” Nides said. “
And we want
to do big things, too. But if we want to
achieve those things, we can’t wake up and
have one’s backyard on fire. So, he’s going
to have to manage the things we care about
… effectively,
” Nides added, highlighting
the U.S. administration’s commitment
to preserving prospects for a two-state
solution.
COOPERATION WITH ISRAEL
In the meantime, the Biden administration
appears determined to maintain business
as usual, even with what is widely seen as
the most right-wing government in Israel’s
history.
The president dispatched National
Security Adviser Jake Sullivan for marathon
meetings with Israel’s top brass Jan. 19 and
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expect-
ed to soon make a similar visit.
Asked whether the administration was
feeling better about the new government
after Sullivan’s trip, Nides said it was too
early to determine.
“We’re going to judge this on actions, not
just coalition agreements or comments in
the press,
” he said. Netanyahu “told us that
he’s got his hands on the wheel, so now he
needs to drive that proverbial car. He’s got a
lot of things he needs to manage to achieve
the things he wants to get done.
”
In addition to a normalization agreement
with Saudi Arabia — which Riyadh again
ruled out under the current circumstances
— Netanyahu is looking to boost coopera-
tion with the U.S. vis-a-vis Iran, pushing a
more aggressive approach to preventing the
Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear
weapon.
Nides clarified that the Biden adminis-
tration would not condition its effort on
Iran on Israel’s willingness to cooperate on
the Palestinian issue. “We’re going to work
on Iran because ultimately that’s something
that President Biden cares deeply about,
both for Israel’s security and for our own
security.
“But there’s only so much time in the
day, so it would be enormously helpful
if we don’t have to be dealing every day
with things that we fundamentally oppose,
because that just distracts us from the big-
ger issues that we’re trying to achieve,
” the
ambassador said. He added that Netanyahu
has “been around the block multiple times
and understands this better” than anyone.
“We don’t have to teach this guy the things
that we care about.
”
“We care deeply about preserving a two-
state solution. And he understands [that]
WIKIPEDIA
continued on page 10
An interview with U.S. ambassador to Israel Tom Nides.
JACOB MAGID THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Ambassador
Tom Nides