Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has painstakingly assembled a coalition government from an eclectic bloc of rival politicians to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His next task to repair frayed ties with Democrats in the United States could prove just as difficult.
Netanyahu burned his bridges with many Democrats through his outspoken efforts to torpedo then-President Barack Obama’s signature diplomatic initiative: the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Lapid blames Netanyahu’s personal alliance with former President Donald Trump for the rise of antisemitic politicians in the U.S. Democratic Party, but his overtures to President Joe Biden’s team could be circumscribed by a broad disagreement over the rehabilitation of that nuclear accord.
“There are more bonus points for not being Benjamin Netanyahu. That’s it,” the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka told the Washington Examiner. “You can be the devil himself, but as long as you’re not Bibi, you’ve got an advantage [with Democrats] from the starting gate.”
Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies called Netanyahu “kind of a fly in the ointment [to] the White House right now.”
“So the question is, with new faces, new voices emerging in Israeli leadership, will that open the door for better cooperation and possibly compromise?” Schanzer asked. “Or does it not matter because the Israeli position on the Iran deal is really rather static and unchanging across the political divide. The Iran deal is still seen as deeply flawed and highly problematic, and maybe it doesn’t matter who is in charge.”
US TOUTS ‘MEANINGFUL PROGRESS’ IN IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS
Iran loomed large in Netanyahu’s last-ditch effort to sabotage the new coalition that is forcing him out.
“An Iranian nuclear bomb is a threat for the continuation of the Zionist project, and we must fight it relentlessly,” he said this week while stoking a political backlash against right-wing politician Naftali Bennett’s decision to partner with Lapid. “If we have to choose between friction with our great friend the U.S. and the elimination of this existential threat, the elimination of the threat will come first.”
That statement drew a rebuke from Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who led the charge against Netanyahu during a previous round of inconclusive elections and joined the Lapid coalition this week.
“Israel has and will have no better partner than the U.S.,” Gantz said. “Even if there are disagreements, they will be solved behind closed doors and not with defiant rhetoric that could harm Israel’s security.”
Israeli-Palestinian issues have fueled the most emphatic Democratic denunciations of Netanyahu. The coalition government features a historic partnership with a small bloc of Israeli Arab lawmakers led by Mansour Abbas, which could curb right-wing policies that Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib and other supporters of the movement have used to target Israel with the economic sanctions that brought down the apartheid South African regime.
Yet, Abbas could also be at loggerheads with Bennett, the right-wing figure who will lead the government as prime minister.
“If they’re able to find some kind of common denominator, then it could be positive, but … you’ve got an Islamist, you’ve got a center-left guy, you’ve got a far-right guy,” Schanzer said. “I don’t know how you figure out where the common denominator is going to be.”
In the meantime, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif did Lapid no favors when he danced on Netanyahu’s political grave Thursday.
“Netanyahu has joined the disgraceful journey of his anti-Iran co-conspirators—Bolton, Trump and Pompeo—into the dustbin of history,” Zarif tweeted Thursday. “Iran continues to stand tall.”
The political upheaval in Israel coincides with reports that the U.S. and Iran are close to a breakthrough in the multi-round talks over their joint return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
“I’m sure that the next round will be the one in which we will finally get the deal,” Enrique Mora, the European Union’s representative at the talks, said Thursday.
Such an agreement is likely to cause another uproar among congressional Republicans and right-wing Israelis. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team has signaled the U.S. will ease a raft of sanctions that Trump’s team imposed on Iran under counterterrorism authorities, on the theory that “it was done purely for the purpose of preventing or hindering a return to compliance” with the nuclear deal and therefore is not a legitimate use of sanctions.
“That’s going to be a big test because Bibi is absolutely steeped in Iran,” Schanzer said. “Bennett is new. Lapid is new. So, you will have a steep learning curve for both of these people as it relates to Iran at a critical moment.”
Gantz got the first crack at representing the incoming coalition in talks with the Biden administration when he flew to Washington for a round of meetings shortly after Lapid announced the power-sharing deal.
“They shared their concerns about the threat posed by Iran’s aggressive behavior in the Middle East and expressed their determination to counter these threats,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said after Gantz met with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. “They agreed that the United States and Israel would remain closely engaged in the weeks ahead to advance their strategic priorities in the region.”
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That coordination could give Netanyahu and his allies the chance to put pressure on the fragile coalition by continuing the drive for rank-and-file members of Bennett’s party to defect from the coalition.
“That’s the game,” AEI’s Pletka said. “That’s the game. That’s why [Netanyahu] has been able to win so many times.”
