U.S. President Joe Biden spoke candidly on Sunday in an interview with CNN against the Israeli government's policy in the West Bank and said that "this is the most extreme government I have seen since the days of Golda Meir." According to Biden, "ministers who say 'we can settle wherever we want,' they are part of the problem" – a reference to the members of the Religious Zionist party of Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit of Itamar Ben-Gvir.
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Biden avoided the question of whether he would soon invite Netanyahu to visit the White House and said that President Isaac Herzog would be visiting soon.
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Prime Minister Benjamin 'Netanyahu is still trying to solve problems in his coalition,' President Joe Biden says
(Photos: EPA, Yonatan ZIndel)
"Netanyahu is still trying to solve problems in his coalition," he said, against the backdrop of the vote scheduled for Monday in the Knesset on the cancellation of the Supreme Court's reasonableness standard.
Biden also said that normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia may take a long time. "We're a long way from there. We got a lot to talk about," Biden said in the interview with "Fareed Zakaria's GPS" program on CNN. "We're making progress in the region. And it depends upon the conduct and what is asked of us for them to recognize Israel," Biden added.
The American president told Zakaria that he continues to believe in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and criticized members of the government for their "view regarding the settlements in the West Bank."
According to security officials in the region, since Smotrich took up his post at the Ministry of Defense, there has been a change in Israel's policy beyond the Green Line. Externally, the change can be seen in various specific decisions, such as the cancellation of the Disengagement Law in the northern West Bank, the granting of construction permits, and the return to the Evyatar outpost and nine other outposts, but the changes are also seen in Israel's activity in the West Bank.
A senior security official said last week that "the Americans are having a very difficult time with nationalist crime. They are very worried, certainly after the events in the village of Turmus Aya, which are located near the outposts. It is hard to know what will develop, but there are very complex incidents that can lead to a complex operational situation."
Netanyahu, meanwhile, has not left the country for diplomatic visits abroad since March. Then the prime minister met in a series of visits to Europe with the leaders of France, Italy, Germany and London to discuss mainly issues concerning Iran, according to informed security officials. Since then, Netanyahu has not made any diplomatic visits abroad, despite contacts that have taken place with a number of countries.
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The Israeli government ministers that are causing the prime minister so much trouble - Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich
(Photos: Alex Kolomoisky, AFP)
The Netanyahu government was sworn in more than six months ago and the prime minister has not yet received an invitation to the White House, as opposed to former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who had already made a visit during the same period.
The possibility of holding a meeting between Netanyahu and President Biden on the sidelines of the UN assembly in September had been discussed, but this too may not take place due to the security situation and tensions with the Palestinians, as well as the movement forward of the controversial judicial reform legislation.
Netanyahu recently announced in a meeting with members of Congress in Jerusalem that he has been invited to visit China, but a date has not yet been set. "The intended visit will be Prime Minister Netanyahu's fourth visit to China, and the American administration was informed about this a month ago," the Prime Minister's office said at the end of last month. "Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear to members of Congress that the security and intelligence cooperation between the US and Israel is at an all-time high and emphasized that the US will always be Israel's essential ally."
Nadav Tamir, CEO of J Street Israel, in response to Biden's comments to CNN about the current government being one of the most extreme he has seen said in a statement that "President Biden has a record of more than 50 years of support for the State of Israel. When he says that the current government is 'one of the most extreme he has seen' we should listen to him, both to his words and to his tone.
Biden's criticism comes from "a place of sympathy and sincere concern for the future of the State of Israel as a democratic state," according to Tamir.
He adds that "This is also the message of President Herzog's invitation to the White House, in contrast to the avoidance avoiding giving Prime Minister Netanyahu an invitation." It is "a message whose essence is, we love Israel but disapprove of its anti-democratic government."