As Netanyahu flies to DC, Israeli politicians seek to sway his agenda from afar
Right-wing MKs call on PM to emphasize fight against Iran, push back on sanctions against settlers in meeting with Biden; Lapid demands he announce support for hostage deal
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Israeli politicians were full of advice for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, as he flew to the United States to meet with outgoing US President Joe Biden and address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, calling on him to take stances on issues ranging from sanctions against settlers to a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
While Biden is a Zionist who “loves Israel,” hard-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that Netanyahu needs to stand up to pressure from the White House.
“I call on the prime minister: Do not be silent in the face of the sanctions on the citizens of Israel and the settlers in Judea and Samaria,” he said as the premier was in the air over the Atlantic, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
A person familiar with Biden’s schedule confirmed Sunday that the president will host Netanyahu at the White House, most likely on Tuesday.
Arguing that Israel “must not stop the war before achieving all the goals we have defined,” Smotrich told reporters in the Knesset that “the State of Israel is facing a tremendous international pressure campaign in order to force it to commit suicide and agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
“All means are [deemed] legitimate in order to achieve this goal: imposing sanctions on settlers and organizations, including threats to impose sanctions on me personally, unilateral recognition [of Palestinian statehood], and disconnected and unfounded decisions in The Hague,” he insisted, referring to a recent non-binding advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice stating that Israel’s policies in in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza are “illegal.”
In recent months, the Biden administration has issued five batches of sanctions against Israeli extremists and illegal outposts in the West Bank, and the White House is reported to be discussing imposing such embargoes on Smotrich and National Security Minister Ben Gvir.
Smotrich has said that sanctioning cabinet ministers would constitute a “mortal blow to Israeli sovereignty” and US-Israel relations.
“I stand here and pledge to you, I will never give up. The people of Israel will not surrender. We will do everything so that a Palestinian state will never be established in the Land of Israel that would endanger our existence. We are working day and night in the field to thwart this, and God willing, we will also bring about the application of Israeli sovereignty,” Smotrich added, repeating aspirations to annex the West Bank or parts of it.
Turning to the issue of the indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas, Smotrich warned that Israel cannot “reenter a cycle of fruitless talks that will harm the achievements of the war.”
Criticizing the senior leadership of the IDF, which has reportedly endorsed an Israeli-proposed deal that is opposed by far-right elements in the government, the finance minister accused the army’s senior command of not knowing its place “and instead of focusing on the continuation and intensification of the fighting against Hamas, voices political and policy positions in favor of a reckless deal while deviating from its authority and role.”
Nationalist opposition politician Gideon Sa’ar sounded a similar note during his New Hope party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset on Monday, telling reporters that the “era of withdrawals, concessions, and containment is over,” in the wake of last week’s Knesset vote rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Hailing the end of “30 years of incorrect political and security” policy, Sa’ar, whose party co-sponsored the measure, insisted that “we will not allow a return to this [two-state] policy, no matter by whom.”
Like Smotrich, Sa’ar had an appeal for Netanyahu, calling on the premier to put the Iranian issue “at the top of the agenda during his visit to Washington.”
Welcoming Saturday’s Israeli strike against the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in Yemen as “better late than never,” Sa’ar said that Jerusalem must “exact from Iran a price for its aggression” and work with its allies “to stop the Iranian nuclear project.”
“The regime in Iran is the cause of the problems in the Middle East and its overthrow is a regional, Western, and international interest,” Sa’ar continued, asserting that “the fight against Iran and its proxies cannot be merely reactive.”
Like Smotrich, Sa’ar called on Netanyahu not to fold in the fight against Hamas because the conflict there directly affects other fronts — an apparent reference to US-brokered hostage talks that have drawn criticism from right-wing lawmakers worried that it would require Israel to halt fighting before Hamas is completely destroyed.
Despite having opposed the disengagement from Gaza in 2005, Sa’ar added that without a “wide national consensus” on renewing settlement, he could not support calls to reestablish Israeli communities in the coastal territory.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, meanwhile, reiterated his previous demand that Netanyahu use the trip as an opportunity to advance a hostage deal, stating that the state visit is only a good idea if he announces his acceptance while in Washington.
Labor leader denounces Netanyahu and his US trip
Yair Golan, head of the left-wing Labor-Meretz union The Democrats, went even further, praising Biden before launching into a heated condemnation of Netanyahu ahead of his own party’s weekly faction meeting.
“There was never a Zionist president like Biden and there has never been a past American president who was treated as rudely, bluntly, and irresponsibly by the Israeli government and its leader, as President Biden,” Golan declared.
“The president, in his quick and decisive response, prevented the expansion of the war into other arenas, protected Israel in the world political arena, allowed the IDF to breathe, and physically protected Israel from Houthi and Iranian attacks throughout the long months of the war,” Golan stated.
By contrast, Netanyahu’s flight to the United States to address Congress and meet with the president is an “unnecessary, wasteful, ostentatious, and corrupt PR campaign.”
“Netanyahu’s trip to Washington is nothing more than a show trip, empty of content, absent of real goals, all of which is designed for domestic purposes, and has nothing to do with Israel’s relations with its most important ally,” he added.
The Times of Israel Community.