(United Nations) Joe Biden promised Wednesday to discuss “difficult subjects” during his highly anticipated meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, supposed to warm up a relationship that had become frosty.
The American president mentioned a possible interview, “before the end of the year”, at the White House, where the head of the Israeli government has not yet been received since his return to power, contrary to custom in force between these two countries closely linked.
Benjamin Netanyahu raised, during introductory remarks to the press, another key subject: the possibility of normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, strongly encouraged by Joe Biden.
“I believe that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” the prime minister said.
“If any of us had been talking about normalization with Saudi Arabia ten years ago, I think we would have looked at each other and said, ‘What the hell was he drinking?’ ” “, joked the American president.
For their first meeting since Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power at the end of 2022, the 80-year-old democrat chose the neutral setting of a New York hotel, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
“We will discuss some difficult topics, such as defending the democratic values that are at the heart of our partnership, including the balance of power in our institutions and preserving a trajectory towards a two-state solution” with the Palestinians, Joe Biden said.
This while the White House has publicly and vigorously criticized both the judicial reform undertaken by Benjamin Netanyahu and his settlements, particularly in the occupied West Bank.
“Israel is essential”
Joe Biden, however, also sent more consensual messages to his interlocutor, speaking of “ensuring that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon” and repeating that his “commitment to Israel (was) made of tempered steel . »
“Without Israel, no Jew in this world is safe. Israel is essential,” Joe Biden said.
“There is one thing that will never change, and that is Israel’s commitment to democracy. We will continue to defend the values that our two countries […] cherish,” for his part promised the Israeli Prime Minister.
Relations between the United States and Israel have become significantly strained since the return to power of Benjamin Netanyahu, at the head of a government that Joe Biden described as “the most extreme” in the country’s history.
The American president openly criticized the prime minister’s judicial reform plan, which gave rise to one of the largest protest movements in Israel since its creation in 1948.
The Israeli government claims to want to rebalance institutions by reviewing the prerogatives of the judicial power, but opponents denounce an authoritarian project, which removes safeguards against the action of the legislative and executive power.
Joe Biden, candidate for a second term, knows that the subject is particularly sensitive for the progressive Jewish electorate in the United States, who are very hostile to this reform.
But the 80-year-old democrat cannot afford an open crisis with Israel if he wants to bring about a normalization of relations between the country and Saudi Arabia, a way of leaving his mark on the history of the Middle East. .
According to the New York Times, the American president would be ready, to win the consent of the oil monarchy, to negotiate with it a particularly ambitious security pact, inspired by those which bind Washington with Japan or South Korea.