While his Middle East policy is enabling Iran to continue to arm itself and he sends the Gulf States to knock on the door of the regime in Tehran, US President Joe Biden has opted to deliver a public message weakening the key partner of the US in the struggle against the ayatollahs' regime.
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Even if this was not his intention, this is the inevitable outcome of such a move, in view of the considerable importance attributed to the special relationship between Washington and Jerusalem in any adversary's assessment of Israel's power. A rapid improvement of the current relations and an immediate effort to redress the impression created are first and foremost in Israel's interest, but the White House too should have a clear interest in doing so.
The gruff message that Biden chose to publicly convey to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived after the first meeting of the negotiation teams, taking part in the talks to draft an agreement on amendments to the judiciary, had already concluded in Jerusalem. In an announcement issued by President Isaac Herzog's bureau, it was even stated that the meeting had been held in a positive atmosphere and that the talks were expected to continue on the following day too.
Bearing this in mind, it is genuinely unclear why Biden chose this specific timing to level his criticism and present a starkly contrarian position to Netanyahu, instead of providing support for the prime minister's decision to strive for consensus.
Biden's statement is clearly of tremendous significance to the ongoing political turmoil in Israel, and it is probably safe to say that the intention was to have an impact on the process, but it also has implications for the regional status of the State of Israel, and as such we might have expected a considerably greater degree of sensitivity from the White House.
With or without any connection to that, the working-level officials in Washington would do well to engage in a more critical examination of the degree of influence that their policy has on the dramatically negative processes taking place here and now in the Middle East.
Should they elect to do so, they will probably find that the reason why Saudi Arabia is now drifting towards China and Russia is a direct result of that policy, coupled with an approach that chooses to ignore the existence of "national pride", and one that is perceived in the Middle East to be patronizing, puritanical and arrogant.
They will also discover that it is their indifference to the distress of those considered to be allies of the US that has sent them packing, looking for other shoulders to lean on, and ultimately leading them to sign agreements with the Persian viper.
The special relationship between the US and Israel should in no way be compared with Washington's relations with other countries. Our special relationship is firmly grounded on a solid bedrock of shared values: commitment to the values of democracy, freedom, justice and peace, values that are deeply rooted in the heritage and culture of the two peoples, and which assume pride of place in their visions.
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The strong partnership between the countries is not dependent on the identity of the leaders or their political outlook, and it goes way beyond any disagreement.
It is precisely this partnership that enables both sides to engage in some degree of mutual friendly involvement in matters that go beyond the strict borderlines of foreign relations, while endeavoring to refrain from crossing the extremely thin line between this and intervention.
In any event, both Israel and the US have a clear interest to waste no time in improving the somewhat soured relations and repairing the negative impression that has been created. The key beneficiary of this current diplomatic scuffle is Iran, which continues to dash unobstructed towards its goal of attaining a nuclear capability, while it continues to operate a well-oiled terrorist machine both in the region and beyond it too. Faced with such a serious challenge, what we really need here in Israel is a cohesive, common stand, and by working hand in hand with the US our stance would be much more resolute, as we are "Stronger Together".
Meir Ben Shabbat served as Israel's national security advisor and head of the National Security Council between 2017 and 2021. He is head of the Institute for Zionist Strategy & National Security, in Jerusalem.
