Justified as it may have been, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's and Foreign Minister and Prime Minister's designate Yair Lapid's blatant attack on US President Joe Biden's administration is an admission of the failure of their policy.
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After many months in which we were told of their lovey-dovey ties with the Biden White House, on Friday, Lapid and Bennett changed their tune. In a fairly unprecedented manner, they both accused the US administration of abandoning Israel.
"The attempt to delist the IRGC as a terrorist organization is an insult to the victims and would ignore documented reality supported by unequivocal evidence. We find it hard to believe that the IRGC's designation as a terrorist organization will be removed in exchange for a promise not to harm Americans.
"The fight against terrorism is a global one, a shared mission of the entire world. We believe that the United States will not abandon its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists," the two said in a tone even former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not have allowed himself to use in a statement.
Indeed, the American intention of removing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards from the list of terrorist organizations is a moral disgrace. It is hard to believe an administration that purports to weigh ethical considerations would launder such a murderous organization.
Furthermore, the step will put the lives of thousands of people around the world at risk as it will make it easier for the Revolutionary Guards to do business, which will be funded with the dollars oiling its international killing machine. Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who promised a "longer, stronger, and more comprehensive" Iran nuclear deal, are now delivering the exact opposite: a weak and short-term deal that grants inconceivable concessions to the Iranians. Bennett's and Lapid's cries then were justified.
Ever since this coalition government's establishment, Bennett and Lapid have spoken of their excellent ties with Biden and his people, which they said was leading to improvements in the Iran nuclear deal and was therefore far more effective than Netanyahu's confrontational approach. Indeed, ever since June 13th, they have spoken of a new era in Israel-US relations in which they were overcoming differences of opinion with Washington.
So they said.
In the moment of truth, this all turned out to be idle chatter. A terrible nuclear deal will be signed in contrast to their position. They believe the situation to be so grave that they were forced to use stronger rhetoric than Netanyahu ever used. In other words, they have adopted the policy they both spoke out against.
Bennett, although mostly Lapid, gave interviews on TV in which he claimed Netanyahu had poisoned Israel-US ties with his international pressure campaign against the nuclear deal. And now that the burden is on their shoulders, they have adopted a similar policy. The only difference is that fewer Americans are familiar with Bennett and Lapid.
They promised that with them, everything would be different. They would know how to get the Democratic administration in the right zone. In the end, they lost everything. They remained silent the entire time and have now been forced to both accept a disgraceful deal and openly clash with the administration. The biggest issue is that it isn't Bennett and Lapid who received the stinging slap from the US administration but Israel's national security. US policy is indeed the abandonment of "its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists."
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