Benjamin Netanyahu is set for a historic sixth return to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Tuesday’s election results suggest that Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party will lead a coalition of far-right and religious parties to a comfortable 65+ seat majority in the Knesset.
The Biden administration should congratulate Netanyahu on his remarkable victory. Biden should recommit that America will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear strike capability. But the president and Congress should also make clear that they will not quietly tolerate two developments negative to U.S. interests: the willful undermining of America’s alliance with Jordan and, as a priority, continued high-level Israeli cooperation with China.
Relevant to the Jordanian concern, as Barak Ravid reports, the Biden administration is considering a no-engagement policy toward Netanyahu’s coalition partner Itamar Ben-Gvir. The fear is that Ben-Gvir will use his new power to destabilize the fragile socio-religious balance in East Jerusalem. Any no-engagement policy would be a mistake. Ben-Gvir might be racist, but whatever ministry he now leads will reflect Israeli democratic will. And the U.S. must work with Israeli ministers to ensure that the East Jerusalem status quo is not further degraded. This matters for reasons of prospective future peace agreements, Israel’s security facing escalated Palestinian terrorist threats from the West Bank, and U.S.-Israeli relations with Jordan.
Far more important, however, is U.S. pressure on Netanyahu to avoid his return to a pro-China policy. It’s a necessary message in that, compared to caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his predecessor Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu has shown a willingness to prioritize Sino-Russian interests over those of the U.S.
Netanyahu’s traditional friendly approach to Vladimir Putin has its justifying nuances. Although it’s frustrating to many in the West, Israeli caution against providing greater military support to Ukraine, something Netanyahu is likely to continue, is understandable. Israel has a critical national security interest in maintaining influence with Russia with regard to its Syrian military presence and associated leverage over Bashar Assad’s regime and Iranian/aligned terrorist actors. In the weighing of national interests, Israel cannot sacrifice this influence by sending advanced weapons to Ukraine and thus risk alienating Russia.
Netanyahu has no such excuses on China. Israeli trade interests cannot come at the expense of America’s preeminent national security concerns.
Unfortunately, via his enabling of high-technology transfers and Chinese access to Israel’s critical infrastructure, Netanyahu’s record on China has been plainly detrimental to the U.S. At times, Netanyahu’s service of Chinese interests has been gratuitous. Take, for example, his 2017 call for Xi to take a greater role in international affairs. Netanyahu declared, “We are your perfect junior partner for that effort. … I believe this is a marriage made in heaven.” This marriage led to significant Chinese high-technology developments that have strengthened the Chinese military’s most advanced capabilities. They thus directly endanger the lives of American service personnel who may soon fight a war against the People’s Liberation Army.
This threat underlines why then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a stern China-related message to Netanyahu during a May 2020 visit. And while Israel has since introduced a technology-infrastructure investment review board to assess technology transfers, enforcement remains far too weak.
Top line: As must also now apply to Britain, Germany, and every other U.S. ally, if Netanyahu fails to address life-or-death U.S. concerns over China, his government must face serious consequences.
