What Israel Wants from Biden

Then-Vice-president Joe Biden with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2010. (AFP)

While Americans were voting on November 3, Israel was experiencing its first heavy winter rains. The inclement weather paired well with the stormy progress of the US vote count.

Israel’s leftists and centrists have welcomed Joe Biden’s win, but President Donald Trump’s defeat is unlikely to be welcome news for his close ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the many Israelis who thought Trump was good for Israel.

Israelis have applauded Trump for measures like moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli control of the Golan Heights and making it clear that America is Israel’s closest ally.

However, for all the adoration, Trump never spent much time in Israel and his zig-zags on foreign policy, such as his order to withdraw US troops from part of Syria in October 2019, left some wondering whether he could turn on Israel if he felt it wasn’t skipping to his beat. While Israelis broadly like Trump, they are less familiar with Joe Biden and have many more concerns closer to home.

Israel has experienced three elections in less than two years, Covid-19 lockdowns and multiple protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

New peace deals between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are important -- and the next US president must invest in those relations as key to US strategy in the Middle East. For Israelis, it’s essential that the Biden administration stands with them against Iran’s threats, deters an increasingly hostile Turkey and improves American bipartisan support for the country.

Seth Frantzman is a Ginsburg-Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and senior Middle East correspondent at The Jerusalem Post.

A journalist and analyst concentrating on the Middle East, Seth J. Frantzman has a PhD from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was an assistant professor at Al-Quds University. He is the Oped Editor and an analyst on Middle East Affairs at The Jerusalem Post and his work has appeared at The National Interest, The Spectator, The Hill, National Review, The Moscow Times, and Rudaw. He is a frequent guest on radio and TV programs in the region and internationally, speaking on current developments in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. As a correspondent and researcher has covered the war on ISIS in Iraq and security in Turkey, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, the UAE and eastern Europe.
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I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews. The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt him and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.