From his White House meeting with President Joe Biden to his speech before Congress, Israeli President Isaac “Bougie” Herzog’s America visit showcased the depth and the strength of the Jerusalem-Washington alliance.
But while the US celebration of Israel’s 75 anniversary provided the backdrop for an especially successful trip, it would be remiss not to address the administration’s tactic: utilizing Israel’s president to advance its own agenda. Nor can we ignore the elephant who wasn’t in the room – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Unquestionably, Herzog’s Washington program was top-notch. In addition to the US president, he met with Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
The icing on the cake was Herzog’s address before a special joint session of Congress, the ultimate honor given to a visiting foreign dignitary. Rising to the occasion, Herzog delivered a masterful speech. As a former leader of the Israeli Labor Party, he can connect with Democratic lawmakers in a way that our right-wing prime minister cannot.
Later, in The Big Apple, Herzog met with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
This sort of super-schedule is not usually given to the world’s most powerful and prominent leaders when they visit the US, let alone to ceremonial heads of state.
The impressive itinerary was augmented by the warmth with which Herzog was received. His interlocutors offering repeated affirmations of the bond between Israel and the US: Biden reiterating “my love for Israel is deep-rooted and long-lasting” and Harris stressing her “ironclad” commitment to Israel’s security.
Shouldn’t Netanyahu have been there to hear these words?
Although there is a tradition of newly-elected Israeli prime ministers visiting Washington within weeks of assuming office, America’s 46th president has been playing hardball.
Back in March, Biden even publicly uninvited Netanyahu. When asked if he would be hosting Israel’s prime minister at the White House, he responded: “No, not in the near term.”
The refusal to extend such an invitation may be a legitimate tool to apply diplomatic pressure, but it is quite another matter to trumpet a boycott of the elected leader of an allied nation. For example, during the trans-Atlantic crisis over America's 2003 war against Iraq, the White House announced no comparable uninvitation to German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder or French president Jacques Chirac, both NATO members who opposed the US-led invasion.
On the eve of Herzog’s America visit, Biden spoke on the phone with Netanyahu – their first conversation in four months – and proposed that they meet in the fall. The initial reports were unclear as to whether the US president was offering to host Netanyahu at the White House, or if he meant a get-together in New York around the annual September UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders.
Over the last seven months, Biden has repeatedly expressed his discomfort with Netanyahu’s government, its “extremist” cabinet members, behavior in the West Bank, and judicial reform proposals. Although in his CNN interview with Fareed Zakaria, the president did offer some backhanded praise, saying: “Hopefully Bibi will continue to move toward moderation.”
Jerusalem-Washington ties have gone through periods of tension in the past, with numerous examples of American presidents adopting a confrontational approach towards an Israeli prime minister, to secure a policy change. But the White House tactic of involving Israel’s ceremonial president in such a dispute is a relatively new development.
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman recently reminded his readers of the March 1975 Israel-US “reassessment” crisis. Then, president Gerald Ford and his secretary of state Henry Kissinger got tough with Israel, believing that the government of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was being intransigent in the negotiations over an Egypt-Israel interim agreement.
Kissinger abruptly ended his Cairo-Jerusalem shuttle diplomacy and returned to Washington, where the administration declared it was reconsidering its entire approach towards Israel – and in the meantime suspending arms deliveries, including the supply of new F-15 aircraft.
During the “reassessment,” Ford didn’t consider inviting Israeli president Ephraim Katzir to the White House for a president-to-president meeting to demonstrate that despite the administration’s troubles with Rabin, it really did have Israel’s back.
Another crisis in Israel-US ties erupted in June 1990 between the administration of president George H. W. Bush and the government of prime minister Yitzhak Shamir.
Differences over the composition of a Palestinian delegation for peace talks had secretary of state James Baker theatrically tell Israel that “the phone number [for the White House] is 202-456-1414. When you’re serious about this, call us.” Baker was threatening a US disengagement from Arab-Israel peacemaking.
Then, too, America’s 41st president did not invite his fellow head of state, Israeli president Chaim Herzog – the father of the incumbent – to the White House to parade his administration’s love for Israel and to demonstrate it only had a problem with the “hardline” and “inflexible” Shamir.
A precedent was broken in June 2012 when, for the first time, Israel’s president was inserted into some adroit American triangular diplomacy.
President Barack Obama had a testy relationship with Netanyahu, with their differences over Iran, the Palestinians, and settlements constantly creating friction.
But during his reelection campaign, Obama didn’t want to be seen as hostile to Israel. He decided to award the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom to president Shimon Peres in a White House ceremony; the photographs of the US president adorning a beaming Peres with the medal seemingly attesting to Obama’s heartfelt friendship for the Jewish state.
None of this is to say that Herzog should not have gone to Washington. It is almost impossible to reject a White House invitation and an opportunity to speak before Congress. Moreover, it appears that Herzog was working in tandem with Netanyahu – as indicated by their pre-visit coordination meeting.
It is even possible that Herzog’s imminent visit had something to do with the timing of the US president’s phone call to the Israeli prime minister, and the announcement that a Biden-Netanyahu meeting was finally being scheduled.
Israelis followed their president’s US visit with pride. Herzog excels as the nation’s chief diplomat, a picture of consummate statesmanship.
Although pleased with their president’s performance and delighted by Washington’s lauding of the Israel-US partnership, Israelis would do well to remember that the Biden White House is playing a very serious diplomatic game – hugging their ceremonial head of state, while snubbing their elected head of government.
The writer, formerly an adviser to the prime minister, is chair of the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy at Reichman University. Connect with him on LinkedIn @Ambassador Mark Regev.