Analysis | The White House Visit That Really Matters Is Not Herzog's, or Netanyahu's

U.S. President Joe Biden speaking in the White House last week.Credit: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS

"… and then someone mentioned or led Tom Friedman to conclude that
the United States is in the process of “reassessing” relations.”

Our narrative begins with seven months of “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t being invited to the White House.” It evolves into seven weeks of “President Isaac Herzog is being invited to the White House.” Once the second eclipses the first in public and political attention, the saga turns into “NYT columnist Thomas Friedman was invited to the White House.”

And that sums it all up: the visit that wasn’t and isn’t; the visit that is actually taking place; and the visit that really matters.

If anyone had any hopes or illusions that Herzog’s visit to Washington this week would assuage tensions and mitigate the widening crisis in U.S.-Israel relations, they were proved wrong.

Anyone entertaining such hopes and flirting with such illusions was delusional to have them in the first place. This crisis is real, it is substantive, it reflects a genuine disparity, it is not subject to rhetorical bandaging or political spin, and it is going nowhere given the trajectory Israel is on.

The quality and uniqueness of U.S.-Israel relations in the last 40 to 50 years is predicated on two tenets. First, a continuous, durable and dependable diplomatic umbrella, even when Israeli policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians are diametrically opposed to stated U.S. policy. The second pillar is America’s ongoing, unmitigated and pronounced commitment to Israel’s security and Qualitative Military Edge, aka QME.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman attending the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Idaho last week.Credit: KEVIN DIETSCH - Getty Images via AFP

These tenets have a core: “shared values” – the concept that America and modern Israel, however asymmetrical, are two new societies and nation-states, established against the run of history, in defiance of the Old World, against injustice and persecution, sharing a commitment to liberal democratic values, both aspiring to serve as models of a new entity in international history. America is the “shining city on a hill” and Israel is “a light unto the nations.”

“Shared values” is not merely an attractive slogan or a politically expedient bumper sticker. It is the very core of what makes the relationship special. Without it, any sanctimonious evocation of “common strategic interests” and “a unique alliance” – expressions used profusely by Israel over the past four decades – is hollow.

Once U.S. President Joe Biden became convinced that Israel is in the process of deliberately, by political design, retreating from the values that comprise the “shared values” framework and is in danger of becoming more like Turkey than the United States, his profound friendship for Israel gradually corroded.

If you need proof, read the president’s paraphrased words in Friedman’s op-ed in Wednesday’s New York Times: “Biden to Netanyahu: Please stop trying to rush through your judicial overhaul. Build a consensus first.”

In an unintentionally confused and comical response – one that perhaps epitomizes the chaos Israel is engulfed in – National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi denied that Biden had demanded Israel cease and desist with constitutional legislation. Yes, you read that right: Mr. Hanegbi denied what Biden said to Tom Friedman. Maybe he meant Biden never made that stipulation to Netanyahu in their phone call on Monday, but that wasn’t clear from the gung-ho response.

No one should be surprised by Biden’s warning. It is entirely consistent with his position and sentiments over the last seven months. Connect the dots: Biden sends emissaries (Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez) to politely warn Netanyahu about the composition of his impending extremist government. He dispatches Secretary of State Antony Blinken to reiterate the warning, and to caution Netanyahu that a constitutional overhaul without broad consent might look more like a coup than “reform.” He then refrains from inviting the prime minister to Washington, repeatedly warning Israel that backsliding from democracy and asserting Jewish supremacy in the West Bank will carry a price.

U.S. President Joe Biden meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the White House on Wednesday.Credit: MANDEL NGAN - AFP

To no avail. His warnings were ignored, dismissed, and he was crudely and vulgarly attacked by Netanyahu’s ministers and school of vitriolic parrots. So Biden gave an interview to CNN, and then someone mentioned or led Tom Friedman to conclude that the United States is in the process of “reassessing” relations.

Then came the scheduled visit of Herzog. He was originally supposed to deliver a symbolic speech to a joint session of Congress, belatedly celebrating Israel’s 75th anniversary. It grew into something else: a full diplomatic visit, including meetings with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the secretary of state, the national security adviser and also the UN secretary-general. Netanyahu was livid, so Biden massaged his bruised ego with a phone call. Convinced that neither Netanyahu nor Herzog are fully cognizant of the severity and magnitude of the crisis, he then resorted to inviting Friedman.

In fact, Biden’s conversation with Friedman marginalized and rendered Herzog’s visit inconsequential. Even if he cautioned Herzog along the lines of what he said to Friedman – “If we are not seen to share that democratic value, it will be difficult to sustain the special relationship that Israel and America have enjoyed for the last 75 years for another 75 years” – Biden isn’t sure the message was received and internalized. Next week, when Netanyahu’s first major judicial overhaul legislation is set to be passed in the Knesset, he will know.