In the end, the very public Jerusalem-Washington spat over democracy and the Palestinians did not prevent Israel from entering the United States’ coveted Visa Waiver Program (VWP).
The joy was palatable. It was as if fireworks erupted in the Israeli skies and horns blew in celebration. Ceremonies were held Thursday in both Jerusalem and Washington to mark the moment.
“Great news!” Netanyahu jubilantly tweeted in celebration on Wednesday, after the news was announced. He even made a video for the moment, in which he sat in front of a computer and purportedly filled out an application for a visa. “Location: Jerusalem; Occupation: Prime Minster.”
The happiness, however, was only partially about the potential ease with which millions of Israelis can now enter the US or the economic boon that is expected to follow. Those who worried that Netanyahu’s policies and the extremist statements of some of his ministers had irreparably harmed Israel-US ties could breathe a sigh of relief for the moment.
If ever US President Joe Biden had wanted to make a statement against such policies and to show that the steadfast ties between the two countries were on the line, a clear way to do so would have been to ban Israel from the program. Netanyahu's opponents had urged Biden to do so, fearing that it gave Israel’s right-wing government a stamp of approval.
Political win for Netanyahu, regardless of who deserves the credit
Like Netanyahu or dislike him, he is the prime minister of Israel and as a result, all the country’s successes are credited to him during his tenure in office. This is true even in this instance, which relied on the work of so many others, such as former prime minister Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Yair Lapid, former US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides and former interior minister Ayelet Shaked.
Despite the argument over who is most responsible for visa-free US travel, there is no question that Israel’s entry into the VWP is a significant notch on Netanyahu’s diplomatic belt. It is a moment of truth all of Israel’s allies who object to this government’s policies will have to face, whether to move ahead with nation-to-nation contact or to punish the country for its government.
In Wednesday’s announcement on the visa, the Biden administration chose to put its people-to-people ties with the Jewish state above its conflicts with its government. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller underscored this point in speaking with reporters in Washington on Thursday.
“The decisions we make with respect to Israel are decisions we make in the best interest of the United States national security and in the best interests of the security of the region,” Miller said. “They are not decisions that we make with respect to any one government. They are decisions that we make with respect to the United States and Israel,” he emphasized.
Despite approval, Biden's snub remains
The moment the news came, of course, some pundits immediately declared that it was half a victory. They noted that Biden could have announced the visa-free travel during his meeting last week with Netanyahu in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Or, he could have invited Netanyahu to the Oval Office and the two men could have marked the moment in the White House. Failure to do so, the pundits noted, was a deliberate slight. There could be some truth to the observation that US visa-free travel came with a slight public slap to Netanyahu.
One could in that same breath say the same thing about the Netanyahu-Biden meeting itself, which came nine months late and was in New York and not Washington. Netanyahu in New York had to suffice himself with a half-victory and is likely to continue to find himself in such situations, not just with the US, but with other allies. Biden was careful in that meeting to speak of the high regard he held Israel as an existential necessity for world Jewry; in short, he planned to keep his eye on what matters.
Netanyahu and Biden are not strangers to each other and have branded themselves friends with differences. Biden once famously wrote, “Bibi I don’t agree with a damn thing you say, but I love you.” So it was last week that a formal meeting in New York dissolved quickly into an hour-long conversation. But it is also true that, on a personal level, Netanyahu has not been feeling the love since entering office.
There is also no question that the tensions raise questions among Israel’s enemies as to whether the US truly has Israel’s back. The Netanyahu-Biden tensions take place against a growing anti-Israel sentiment in the US, to say nothing of rising antisemitism, which has some wondering if this decade or even this administration doesn’t reflect the dying gasp of such ties.
If so, it’s still premature speculation as the weight remains on the unbreakable nature of the US-Israel bond. The Biden administration has been careful, however, to show that these are still the ties that bind. President Isaac Herzog addressed a joint session of Congress. US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spoke before the Knesset. High-level visits and cooperation continue. The two countries are now engaged in a complex diplomatic quadrangle agreement with Saudi Arabia that could include a normalization agreement with Riyadh.
Given the philosophical gulf between the Netanyahu government and the Biden administration, there will still be snubs and hiccups between the two men and the two countries. But at present, as proven by the VWP announcement, they are engulfed at this stage by the larger nation-to-nation bond. As Miller explained, “This relationship transcends US and Israeli administrations.”