Nine Reasons Why Biden May Not Have Called Bibi Until Now

President Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday, ending the first manufactured crisis in U.S.-Israel relations, as the Israeli and Jewish press were abuzz with the question “why hasn’t Biden called?” I have no idea why President Biden waited to call  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until the 28th day of his administration. But I can think of nine good reasons why he may have taken his time. Readers of this piece are likely to think of a few more.

1. The prime minister is in the middle of an election campaign. Anything that is said by Biden will be used by the prime minister to advance his own campaign and not necessarily to advance the interests of Israel. In previous campaigns, for example, Bibi has used his relationship with then President Trump to advance the notion that he was indispensable to the U.S.-Israel relationship.
2. The prime minister has hired a Steve Bannon protégé, Aaron Klein of Breitbart News, to run his campaign. Anything said by President Biden on that call may be spun to undercut the president.
3. Netanyahu is on trial for corruption. The call could be interpreted as the president’s personal support for Netanyahu and not only as a call between a U.S. president and Israeli prime minister.
4. Prime Minister Netanyahu took his time in calling President-elect Biden to congratulate him on his victory at a November 17 news conference. That is to say, for two weeks after the election, Bibi deliberately avoided calling Biden as president-elect.
5. The prime minister supported President Trump for reelection, openly and directly, unequivocally. Netanyahu also allied himself with a Republican Congress to undermine then President Barack Obama, addressing a Joint Session of Congress attacking the Iran deal and agreeing to come to the United States at the initiative of the Republican speaker of the House and his own ambassador, a former Republican operative, without first informing the president. These actions alienated Democrats in Congress, the president and then Vice President Biden, making support for Israel a partisan issue.
6. The first time Biden visited Jerusalem as vice president in 2010, he had a long and friendly dinner with “his old friend” Netanyahu, only to find out when he got back to his hotel that Israel’s Interior Minister had announced a new building program in East Jerusalem, a deliberate and politically embarrassing culmination to a long and leisurely dinner.
7. Nothing is wrong with the U.S.-Israel relationship now. There are no crises and no difficulties. Foreign aid is going forward, military and intelligence cooperation is ongoing, the embassy will not leave Jerusalem and the Abraham Accords are going forward — albeit with less support for quid pro quos. Biden well knows of Netanyahu’s reservations about the Iran deal, and he factored that into his support for reentering the agreement.
8. The President’s domestic agenda is full — COVID-19 Relief, vaccine distribution, economic recovery, social justice, climate change, immigration, infrastructure initiatives. Foreign policy is not his primary or even secondary concern at this point in time.
9. Despite the prime minister’s support for President Trump’s reelection, between 70 and 75% of American Jews voted for Biden. That percentage may have increased if the election was held after the January 6 storming of the Capitol, Trump’s support for Marjorie Taylor Green and the Republicans’ refusal to ban her from serving on committees. Since Biden is naturally pro-Israel in orientation, he is unlikely to lose Jewish support at home if he takes his time in calling the prime minister.

It is remarkable to see how insecure our Israeli brethren are that the delay of a call has become an issue at home. One wonders if it makes them feel abandoned, neglected, unappreciated. We all can recall the fuss that was made when President Obama visited Egypt but not Israel on his first trip to the Middle East. According to Obama’s memoir, he did so at the request of the Israeli government, who then interpreted it as a snub. After all, Biden only called China last week. The U.S.-Israel relationship is on solid ground. I sleep far less comfortably worrying about the domestic issues dividing Israelis from another — four elections in two years is not reassuring — and the polarization of the American populace.

Michael Berenbaum is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute and a professor of Jewish Studies at American Jewish University.

Editor’s note: Shortly after this piece was published, Biden called Bibi. The piece has been changed to reflect that event.