Israeli PM Opposes U.S. On Three Main Issues

Israeli Prime Minister Bennett’s Three No’s To Joe Biden

Hugh Fitzgerald

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has reassured settler leaders in the West Bank that he is willing to stand up to American pressure, describing his three “No’s” to President Biden’s requests made at their meeting on August 26. A report on Bennett’s description of his pushback is here: “Bennett tells settlers he said no 3 times to Biden, on Iran, consulate, building,” by Shalom Yerushalmi, Times of Israel, September 27, 2021:

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently told settler leaders that he pushed back against United States President Joe Biden on Iran’s nuclear program, the reopening of the American consulate in East Jerusalem, and Israeli settlement building, during his meeting with the American leader at the White House in August.

The Biden administration is holding indirect negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program, which have been stalled since June. The new administration has also announced plans to reopen its Jerusalem consulate, which had served Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and acted as a de facto US mission to the Palestinians.

When the Trump administration moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, the mission was subsumed into the embassy as the Palestinian Affairs Unit, which was regarded by Palestinians and others as a major blow to their diplomatic standing. Israel opposes the reopening of the consulate.

The administration has also voiced support for a two-state solution and has been reported to convey its disapproval of settlement construction to Jerusalem on multiple occasions.

Bennett, a former director of the settlement umbrella movement who opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, reassured the settler leaders that construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem would not slow despite US pressure.

“We know what the Democrats are saying,” Bennett told them. “The settlements are illegal and all that. They told me to build less. Guys, you know where I’m coming from. I’m committed to you — as it was, so shall it remain.’”

“I told Biden ‘no’ three times,” he said during the September 9 meeting with leaders of the Yesha Council settlements umbrella group, sources present told Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site.

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