Former US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro spoke today (Wednesday) at an online conference of the Friends of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. On the important things in his opinion in the foreign policy of the new administration, and also tried to explain why Biden has not yet called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to him, Biden took office during the most stressful and tense period, with a record number of urgent issues and committees on the table. In his remarks, Shapiro referred first and foremost to the corona plague in the United States, the great upheaval in the American nation alongside the racial struggle that befell it several months ago, and the struggle against Russia and China at the international level.
“There is a long list of priorities he will have to deal with. It is an important context to understand what happens when Biden may wait three weeks until he calls Netanyahu. That does not mean the relationship is not important,” Shapiro said. He added that “in his early days he was first working to settle relations with the Allies who would face him with Russia and China, and Israel does not have such a role in that. This does not mean that Israel is not important. I assume that the conversation with Israel will be in 10th place in the world, coming in the coming week. There is no reason to worry about that. “
- 2021 Elections: All the polls, articles and interpretations of leading reporters on the Maariv website
Shapiro made it clear that Biden has always been an ardent supporter of Israel, ever since he was a senator. He assured that security cooperation between Israel and the United States is not likely to change in relation to what happened during the Trump era, and said that Biden intends to ensure continued assistance, including intelligence and joint exercises, technological development and more. International Criminal Law in The Hague.
Benjamin Netanyahu congratulates Joe Biden and his deputy Kamla Harris. Photo: Roi Avraham, GPO
Another issue on which Biden intends to adhere to a policy similar to that of former President Trump, according to Shapiro, is the normalization agreements in the Middle East. The former ambassador said he believed Biden would work to continue the trend, with an emphasis on Saudi Arabia and Oman. In this context, he also mentioned Biden’s commitment to the political process with the Palestinians, and to a two-state solution. At the same time, he said that Biden is not optimistic about progress in the matter in the coming years, and therefore it is also likely that he will not appoint a special envoy to the matter. On the other hand, Biden is expected to use Israel’s new friendships in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates for example, to try and put pressure on Israel to move forward in the political process.
The most significant variable for Biden in relation to the Trump era, according to Shapiro, is the Iranian nuclear threat. Shapiro made it clear that the situation that existed in Trump’s early days is completely different, and today Iran is much closer to a nuclear bomb, while at the same time the United States is gaining at least international backing in this regard. However, he has patience and it seems that at this stage he is not interested in relieving the pressure.