Members of Congress, experts and the Obama administration itself agree that President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repaired their fractured relationship during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington last week, which will let the government show its support for Israel by negotiating a new defense aid package.
Talks stalled on a new 10-year defense deal during the fallout between Netanyahu and Obama over the U.S.-led agreement that Tehran struck with six world powers to curb its nuclear weapons program.
But both sides agreed that talks are back on track, and Washington is dispatching a delegation to Tel Aviv this week to begin hammering out details. Next month, the White House will host Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to discuss “a range of issues of common focus, including the unprecedented bilateral security cooperation between the U.S. and Israel,” the White House stated.
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Democrats who backed Obama on the nuclear agreement took tremendous heat from voters and Jewish organizations over the summer. Helping Obama seal a generous package, and vigorously and vocally supporting it, can help them mend fences with an important left-leaning voting bloc.
After Netanyahu met with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill last week, Republicans and Democrats were eager to say that the Iran unpleasantness is behind them and that Congress is ready to do its part to show support for the U.S.’s biggest Middle Eastern ally.
“We didn’t dwell on the Iran nuclear agreement,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters after the meeting. “Talked about it. But didn’t dwell on it. This was an important step back into a bipartisan relationship.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told the Times of Israel that supporters of the Iran nuclear deal bent over backwards to show their support for Israel. Corker also told the paper that Netanyahu was aware of their efforts and friendship.
Netanyahu himself extended an olive branch to American progressives and stressed how important it is for Israel to have friends on both sides of the aisle in Congress.
“I think it is vital to understand how important it is for me that Israel remain an issue of bipartisan consensus” in the United States, Netanyahu told progressives gathered at the Center for American Progress last week. “It’s crucial.”
And after taking a lot of flack from American liberals over his objections to the Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu said he specifically visited the Center for American Progress because, “I’d like to talk to a progressive audience about progressive values.”
Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., told The Jewish Week that no such olive branch or apologies were necessary on either side.
“While the optics of the relationship may appear to be tense, the substance of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel — particularly on military and intelligence cooperation — has never been better,” he reportedly said.
The current memorandum of understanding between Israel and the U.S., which expires in late 2017, tops $3 billion annually. Israel reportedly wants to bump it to $5 billion annually; Washington has signaled a willingness to up the annual amount over the following 10 years. A group of 16 Senate Democrats wrote Obama just ahead of Netanyahu’s visit that they want to up the ante.
“In addition to concluding a new MOU for security assistance to Israel, we encourage you to provide the necessary and appropriate measures to deter Iran, including applicable ordnance and delivery systems, and to enhance Israel’s [qualitative military edge] over countries in the region,” the group wrote.
“I am quite optimistic that this package of security enhancements for Israel will pass on a bipartisan basis next year,” Rep. Israel told The Jewish Week. “This is going to be a test. There are many Republican members of Congress who will try to use Israel as a political football and exploit the differences between” Obama and Netanyahu. “Now with a new package of security enhancements for Israel, we will see whether those members really care about the relationship and will vote for the package.
“Let them put their money where their mouths are,” he reportedly told the paper.
