Some also speculated that Pompeo wanted to show his pro-Israel bona fides ahead of a 2024 run for president, an analysis that would likely apply to Pence, as well.Meanwhile, Israel has not been in contact with the incoming Biden administration, beyond an initial congratulatory phone call between the president-elect and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.When asked what outreach efforts have been made to Biden’s team, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office referred to a recent interview Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer gave to MSNBC this week, in which he referred to speaking with the incoming administration in the future tense, implying he had not yet done so.Dermer met with Trump’s transition team about two weeks after he was elected in 2016.Netanyahu has, however, been sending public messages to the Biden administration, by way of speaking out against the 2015 Iran Deal, which Biden seeks to rejoin.In an online conversation with Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute in Washington last week, Netanyahu said the deal “paved the way” for Iran to launch proxy wars throughout the Middle East and develop nuclear weapons.“It’s a mistake to go back to the JCPOA. You shouldn’t go back to that flawed agreement,” Netanyahu stated.
Pence may visit Israel before Biden’s inauguration
The arrivals come on the heels of US Sec. of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to Israel last month.
