Those who insist on seeing the few congratulatory calls from state leaders that have reached Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu so far as a sign of a difficult future of international isolation are likely to be deluded. First of all, in diplomatic terms there is not yet some thundering silence here. In the political timetable, things are still early : Not only has the government not yet set out, the mandate for its formation has not yet been assigned to the Likud leader. Despite this, it is possible to learn a few things about the identity of the well-wishers and those who were avoided.
Those who have already called to congratulate are usually those with a political interest: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who looks with anxious eyes at the warming relations between Israel and Turkey, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who during Lapid’s tenure as Foreign Minister and Prime Minister relations between Israel and his country cooled, and the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban, who leads an oppositional policy to the European Union’s decisions against Israel and even took a photo on Twitter with Netanyahu’s book, congratulated him with good luck and noted that “difficult times require strong leaders.”
The list also includes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who during his visit to Israel was photographed dipping his feet in the sea together with Netanyahu. He has now written to him that he expects to continue efforts to deepen the partnership between India and Israel. Giorgia Maloney, the Prime Minister of Italy, also congratulated her, although she received congratulations from the Lapid government only after the formation of the government and not immediately after its victory. Another congratulator is the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, whose claims against the minority of Israeli aid to his country are well known and who wrote that he hopes to open a new page in cooperation with Israel.
Although the US Ambassador to Israel Tom Neides congratulated on Twitter and even called, President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken are nevertheless conspicuous by their absence from the list of calls received. , which is expected to affect decisions regarding Israel as well. But we should note that even after Biden took office and began a round of talks with international leaders, it seemed that the conversation from him to Netanyahu was shy of coming, even though in the end a long conversation took place.
The disregard on the part of Linken is more noticeable, considering the fact that he did pick up the phone at the weekend to Yair Lapid, and also to Abu Mazen. According to the State Department announcement, in a conversation with Abu Mazen, the secretary “reaffirmed our commitment to the two-state solution. He emphasized his deep concern about the situation in the West Bank – about the growing tension, violence and loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives, and emphasized the need for all parties to stop the deterioration.” The Israeli assessment and hope is that Blinken brought up to Abu Mazen the American opposition to the planned step of calling the United Nations to turn to the International Court of Justice against Israel.
During Donald Trump’s time in the White House, political sleight of hand was required to maintain his full support along with not severing ties with the Democratic side. Remember the phone call that was broadcast live between Trump and Netanyahu at the end of the Republican president’s time in the White House, in which he demanded to hear from Netanyahu whether “Joe would have done the same for him”. Although Netanyahu managed to avoid a direct answer, later on, as it emerged from the tapes published by journalist Barak Ravid, Trump was still furious with him.
During his visit to Israel at the beginning of the summer, the current US president warmly shook Netanyahu’s hand. The assumption is that even now, despite the existing reservations, these are two experienced statesmen who have known each other for a long time and that a stable relationship will prevail between them. The question is whether Netanyahu will also succeed in promoting national goals such as Construction in Yosh, although it is expected to be frowned upon by the existing administration, is placed at the doorstep of the elected right-wing leader.