Wake-Up Call

As Joe Biden was elected to the presidency of the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood in the Knesset and brushed off, as is his habit, the opposition’s claims that he neglected relationships with the Democratic Party during the Donald Trump administration and damaged Israel’s standing in Washington. Now Biden, since he was sworn in three weeks ago, has spoken with the leaders of many countries of the world but has not found time to speak with the prime minister of Israel, who, for the last four years, saw himself as having a special connection with the American power.

When Netanyahu was asked last week if he was bothered by the fact that Biden hasn’t called, he answered, “He calls the heads of nations in the order that makes sense to him, and he hasn’t gotten to the Middle East yet.” But we are not talking about a meaningless technical matter. Biden’s message is clear: Whatever was is not what will be. The character of the relationship that the United States had with Israel in the last four years has changed, and there is a price to pay for the diplomatic romance that Netanyahu conducted with Trump.

There is nothing like last week’s tweet of the former Israeli ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, to demonstrate the vulgarization of Israeli diplomacy following the out-of-control relationship between Netanyahu and Trump and the intoxication of power — which Israel needs to sober up from, and fast. Danon published the names of the countries whose leaders Biden has already contacted, wondering “if it might now be time to call the leader of Israel, the closest ally of the U.S.?” And he even published the phone number of the prime minister’s office.

In the last four years Netanyahu continuously gave Biden and the Democratic Party reasons to feel alienated from him, starting with the unprecedented speech that he gave to Congress in 2015 about his anger toward Barack Obama and the Iran nuclear agreement. Netanyahu decisively identified himself with Trump to the extent that it would be hard to distinguish where Israeli policies end and American policies begin, who stands at the head of this small country in the Middle East and who is actually the head of it.

Netanyahu provided diplomatic whitewashing service to Trump, which helped to manage the reservations that Jews in America and in the Democratic Party may have had about the president. Netanyahu did this as he also crudely trampled on one of the axioms of Israeli foreign policy: maintain support for both parties in the United States.

On Thursday the White House announced that Biden would call soon. But afterward, Israel will need a long time to repair the damage that Netanyahu did to its relationship with the Democratic Party. It is hard to imagine that the one responsible for the damage will be able to fix it. This is another reason to put an end to the Netanyahu government.