In view of the growing tensions between the administration in the United States and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, we spoke with Danny Ayalon, who was Israel’s ambassador to the United States and deputy foreign minister, who gave his opinion on the matter.
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What actually leads here to tensions between the great friendships are we losing the American administration?
“These tensions are actually, I would say, great joy among all our enemies from Iran, Hezbollah and of course Hamas. They see this conflict and how Israel with a rough foot is destroying value, fighting with its strongest and most important ally. It’s not just that they said out loud that there is a separation – What Vice President Kamala Harris said – between the State of Israel and the government of Israel. They say that the government is harming our national security, the State of Israel is very important to them and a strong and democratic Israel is a very important value in terms of values for the Americans and also in terms of their national interest because Israel is strong, prevents wars in the Middle East“.
How?
“We saw what happened on the seventh of October, it is important today to restore deterrence and that is why we saw all the massive shipments of weapons and political aid from the United States. A veto in the United Nations which is not obvious, but the Americans have a statement that after the 1973 Yom Kippur War that a ‘strong Israel’ will be able to make concessions ‘. This has always been the American policy and it still continues, because from their point of view, you can’t trust anyone else in the Middle East except Israel.”
But still there is dissatisfaction as mentioned?
“Israel’s democratic values are important, that’s why the Americans were against the regime revolution. It was clear which direction it was going and they saw that it was weakening Israel because of the rift created here. The Americans wanted us to reach agreements on the nature of the regime by consensus.”
Is this not interference in Israel’s internal affairs?
“They didn’t tell us what to do, Bibi tried to say they were interfering with us here, but they didn’t interfere. You are still important to us, We want you to be strong, this revolution because there is no consensus weakens Israel and to our great regret they were right and we reached Shiva in October“.
Criticism towards the government is increasing and we have also seen statements against Netanyahu, including by Chek Schumer?
“Regarding the specific statement – Schumer aligns himself with Biden and this also means that the ‘Bibi’ brand that was once considered in the United States is no longer worth much. He knows that he is targeting the hearts of the Democratic voters and even some of the moderate Republicans. This shows a further decline in Netanyahu’s status in the world in general And in the United States in particular. But they see Netanyahu as an obstacle several times: it started at the tactical level of the humanitarian issue, they initially said this issue is subject to the laws of war, there are clear rules in the international community today to separate the civilian population from terrorists and everyone has to meet these criteria whether you are a country Or from itself. But there was also the logic of the humanitarian issue, even if part of it goes to Hamas, it will give continued legitimacy to go and eliminate Hamas. So maybe Hamas gains a little from this, but the IDF’s bombings are much more destructive than he can understand.”
But does the United States feel that there is a stoppage in the Israeli approach?
“The Americans feel that because of political needs and the ‘Abu Ali’ feeling, ‘Not a drop of fuel will go in, no flour will go in,’ everything goes in, so this is the short-sighted policy that does not see a few steps forward. So instead of taking the initiative and going with the Americans at the beginning instead of them pressuring us and then we will do things Under pressure, and they are pulling us by force, so we could come with them. We will do it. This hurts the war effort a bit, but it is important for the American people, in a time of political criticism of Biden because of international criticism, so we will do it and see what we will get in return from the United States, a give and take relationship.”
But in practice this is not the case?
“What happened is that we only gave and received nothing. We could, for example, in the humanitarian issue allow what the United States requests but in return also allow their support in entering Rafah because we must eliminate Hamas because it is also in the American interest to eliminate Hamas. It is a terrorist organization that is on all American terror lists But not only that, he is against the American vision of two states. Hamas wants one Islamic Sharia state.”
So what were we to do?
“We simply had to read the map of interests, work with a smart policy, an initiative and not a lagging policy. What is happening is that the Americans suspect Bibi of being motivated by political needs and because he is afraid of Smutritz and Ben Gvir who from the beginning of the government also came out against Aidid Biden and Bibi did not come out for them, this means that Bibi did not behave as a leader That’s why they didn’t invite him to Washington until today.”
On the other hand, there is criticism towards me that the United States doesn’t back us up, for example, regarding Erdoğan’s harsh statements against us that radicalize?
“I would say in this matter that there are necessary steps in the face of all that are not. Security Council condemnations of Israel and a decision to stop the war by force on Israel is life or death and they are vetoing it. Now as for what Erdogan is saying it is unpleasant but it is nonsense. He does not harm Israel in any real way He does not harm the extensive economic system between Israel and Turkey. So if there was a relationship of trust and appreciation between Biden and Bibi, then Bibi could, for that matter, pick up the phone to Biden and say, ‘It is important to us that you defend Erdogan, and Biden could have done that. Or, for example, there were and in the past This was done a lot and caused the Congress to condemn Erdogan with an absolute majority. Once it served us as important instruments. Today, unfortunately, we do not have the intimate relations between the leaders.”
Why is it actually important that battle and chemistry is not all about interests?
“The relationship between Bibi and Biden is not a personal relationship, it is important to the State of Israel and therefore he cannot do what he wants. As a private person or even a small politician and that is one of the problems. What the Americans also recognize is that Bibi is using this confrontation with Biden politically. He is leveraging This in front of his voters and the extreme right. They like the confrontation and say ‘Bibi is a man, he is standing against the United States’ but this is really nonsense and stupidity, maybe he is even looking for this confrontation but in the end the one who loses here is the state. And for the Americans the feeling is that Bibi is working Out of personal political interests and not out of broad interests.”
Is the same true in what is defined as the issue of the day after?
“This story of the vision and it’s an Israeli interest, not even two states that won’t be tomorrow and not even in another year, but saying for example that we want a political process, that the conflict will end in a political process, something that will give even a little bit that will go towards the Americans who are important to them because they are criticized by all their allies from Arab countries and the Europeans, but they really think that this is also an Israeli advantage, a political solution vis-à-vis the Palestinians, even the beginning of it, which gives us relations with Saudi Arabia, isolates Iran and its metastases, is an Israeli interest.”
So why isn’t it done?
“It’s because of the messianic politics of Smotrich and Bibi Fahadan and this was not done to preserve the government, it’s something that for the Americans, ‘it’s just going in with your head against the wall.’ That after Gaza and also about this, Netanyahu is not willing to talk about all kinds of clans, it’s a pipe dream, and in the meantime, nothing will be done, and those who do are willing to talk. In the end, they kill him.”
But is there also a bright spot?
“Glant, Galant came out a man. He says that we need to start thinking about the fact that only the Palestinians can govern themselves. Why do we now need to sink into the mud of Gaza and take care of their sewage and all these things? It will cost us billions, because if we do that, no one else will enter “.
In conclusion, when we see the relations of the United States with our neighboring countries, how does it affect Israel?
“For the Americans, it is very important that Israel have good relations with the Arab countries because they want to form a single front against Iran and against Chinese or Russian attempts to enter the region here and this is very important, so also on the issue of the reconstruction of Gaza, they want the Saudi money and the Emirati money here, not the Americans’ account, they will give Something, but most of the money will come from Arab countries. For that, we need Israeli political cooperation, so everything stopped because of Netanyahu’s no no no.”