The approaching storm in US-Israel relations

Since Election Day, Israeli officials and the media having been trying to guess who will be named to senior foreign policy positions in a Biden administration. But worrying about it should certainly not be a priority, as Biden’s policies are basically set in stone.

The day before the US presidential election, the progressive Israel Democracy Institute published the results of a poll of Israeli Jews asked whether they believed President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden would be better for Israel. Some 70% named Trump, 13% chose Biden and 17% said they didn’t know.

Since Election Day, and since US networks proclaimed Joe Biden the winner, Israel’s media, along with its diplomatic, security establishment and political leadership busied themselves by scouring the lists of candidates for senior foreign policy positions in the Biden administration and considering the implications of so-and-so’s appointment to national security adviser over Whatshisname. The notion behind the name game is that the appointment of one person over another will significantly impact a Biden administration’s Middle East policy either in Israel’s favor or to its detriment.

There is nothing new about the name game. Israel’s political and national security leaders and its media know-it-alls play it every four years and often, personnel has been policy. For instance, when Trump replaced his first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, things changed. Tillerson opposed leaving the Iran nuclear deal and opposed moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. Pompeo supported both.

But in the case of the apparently incoming Biden administration, who fills what job is basically irrelevant. And worrying about it should certainly not be a priority. Biden’s policies are basically set in stone.

Biden, his running mate Kamala Harris, and his team repeatedly set out his Middle East policies in detail over the course of the campaign. And in the days since it became clear the Biden is far more likely than Trump to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, his advisers have restated those policies and, in some cases, they have taken initial steps towards implementing them.

If statements and actions by Biden, Harris, and their campaign during the course of the election and in its immediate aftermath were not enough to convince Israel’s leadership and our media of the depth of their commitment, the Democrat Party as a whole, stands behind them.

In the days since the election, Democrats, particularly in the House of Representatives, have been playing the blame game regarding their significant losses. Whereas everyone was certain that the party would expand their House majority, with the loss of at least twelve seats, the Democrat majority has moved from comfortable to endangered. Moderates now insist that the progressives took the party too far to the Left and lost it precious votes in mixed districts. Radicals for their part note that nearly everyone who ran with their policies won their races and demand even greater sway in party decision making and leadership circles.

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