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