President Biden has yet to call several Middle Eastern leaders, an indication he is giving key players in the volatile region the silent treatment during his early weeks in office.
The former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for instance, has yet to speak by phone to top Israeli, Palestinian, and Saudi Arabian leaders. The same is true of other top national security and diplomatic officials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Biden’s delay in calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not be taken as a slight, White House press secretary Jen Psaki claims.
“It is not an intentional diss,” she said on Friday.
Biden has not made any phone calls to Saudi Arabian or Palestinian leaders, and none are scheduled, Psaki added.
The decision stands in sharp contrast to former President Donald Trump, who made his first foreign trip to Saudi Arabia. The Israeli leader was among his first phone calls after taking office.
The calls Biden has made, to leaders across Europe and Asia, point to the new administration’s shifting orientation, including a downsizing of the National Security Council’s Middle Eastern directorate and a growing desk to coordinate policy for China and the Indo-Pacific.
Biden has made foreign policy an important focus throughout his decadeslong career in public office.
Asked for a picture of the White House goals for the Middle East region and whether the United States still considers Saudi Arabia and Israel important allies, Psaki demurred, citing “internal interagency processes” still underway.
“We’ve only been here for three and a half weeks, and I think I’m going to let those policy processes see themselves through before we give kind of a complete laydown of what our national security approaches will be to a range of issues,” she continued.
Notably, Biden has telephoned allies in Canada, France, Japan, and Britain, and on Monday, held a two-hour phone call with China’s president, Xi Jinping.
Washington is also expected to rebuild ties with the Palestinian Authority’s leadership, a relationship that fell apart under Trump.
Most conspicuously absent is Biden’s call with Israel’s leader, with a senior Likud official voicing his frustration earlier this week.
Israel’s former United Nations envoy, Danny Danon, tweeted at Biden on Wednesday, listing nearly a dozen countries whose leaders the president had phoned, and asked him, “Might it now be time to call the leader of #Israel, the closest ally of the #US?” Danon also shared an out-of-service phone number for the Israeli foreign ministry.
@POTUS Joe Biden, you have called world leaders from#Canada#Mexico#UK#India#France#Germany#Japan#Australia#SouthKorea#Russia
Might it now be time to call the leader of #Israel, the closest ally of the #US?
The PM’s number is: 972-2-6705555 pic.twitter.com/OYgPvVga6F— Ambassador Danny Danon | דני דנון (@dannydanon) February 10, 2021
Danon moved to distance himself from the phrasing one day later but denied it had anything to do with Netanyahu’s office or was a move to embarrass the embattled Israeli leader, who is under trial for corruption and faces new elections next month.
“I didn’t formulate the tweet, but I take responsibility for it,” Danon told Army Radio on Thursday. “The choice of words was not successful, but I stand behind the message. … The tweet was not coordinated with the prime minister or his adversaries.”
The delay falls in contrast to Netanyahu’s ties to Trump, who called him within days of taking office, stoking concern that the snub this time is intentional.
“Biden and his aides aim to tell Netanyahu, ‘You’re nothing special,'” Israeli journalist Yossi Melman wrote in Haaretz. “‘The personal connection and chemistry you had with Donald Trump not only fail to advance your standing in Washington, they’re an obstacle.'”
Netanyahu and the Obama administration, with Biden as vice president, had a highly caustic relationship.
On Thursday, Psaki pointed to Biden’s and Netanyahu’s “long-standing relationship,” acknowledging the two countries’ “important” security partnership in the Middle East.
“A call will come. But a clear message is being sent,” Aaron Miller, a senior fellow with the Carnegie Endowment, wrote on Twitter. “To quote Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
A source familiar with the thinking inside the White House told CNN that a “sense of payback” is at play in making Netanyahu wait.
Experts also see a Saudi snub as Biden and his team review U.S. policy toward that country, frustrated by its military operations inside Yemen.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told the Washington Examiner on Friday that Austin considers the Saudis a “critical ally.” He said the Biden Pentagon intends to “meet our security commitments … in helping our Saudi partners with the defense of their borders and their country.”
Asked if the new defense secretary had spoken to his Israeli counterpart, Kirby did not mention a call.
Abraham Mahshie contributed to this report.
