President Joe Biden treats Israel's government worse than he treats Iran's leadership, according to The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
"Why does President Biden go out of his way to snub, criticize, and give marching orders to the government of Israel?" the WSJ Thursday night opinion column begins.
"At least rhetorically, the President and his Administration treat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his governing coalition worse than they do the ruling mullahs in Iran."
The editorial board said that Biden's foreign policy in the Mideast is focused on "staying Israel's hand and reshaping the region with Iran on board."
Tensions exist between the Biden and Netanyahu administrations due to the Israeli government's judicial overhaul and settlement expansion plans.
Netanyahu and allies have proposed a series of changes to the Israeli legal system aimed at weakening what they say are the excessive powers of unelected judges.
Tom Nides, Biden's outgoing ambassador to Israel, said the U.S. must speak up to stop Israel from "going off the rails."
"When Mr. Netanyahu was most vulnerable, in late March, Mr. Biden needlessly decreed that Israel 'cannot continue down this road' on judicial reform," the WSJ editorial board wrote.
"The Prime Minister had already changed course and agreed to moderate the reforms — a domestic Israeli affair in which the U.S. President has no business. Mr. Nides publicly instructed Mr. Netanyahu, as if with his chauffeur, to 'pump the brakes.'"
The WSJ board said that the Biden administration's "piling on" shows Israelis the U.S. sides "with their opposition parties."
"This is no way to treat a democratic ally and no way to pursue U.S. interests while Mr. Netanyahu's Likud Party is in power, as it has been for most of the past 25 years," the WSJ board wrote.
The opinion column said that while Biden "undermines the Netanyahu government, Hamas and other Iranian proxies are gaining power in the West Bank, activating another front against Israel."
"Perhaps most disappointing has been the failure to extend the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords," the WSJ board wrote. "The Saudis are the prize, but Mr. Biden's open hostility drove them to hedge their bets by signing a Chinese-brokered deal with Iran instead. Normalization with Israel may have to wait for a U.S. President interested in rallying a coalition to contain Tehran."
During an interview with CNN broadcast Sunday, Biden was asked whether he would invite Netanyahu to the White House.
"No, not in the near term," he said.
Biden also said Netanyahu's cabinet is "one of the most extreme cabinets I've seen, and I go back to Golda Meir."
"There are some very extreme elements," the president told CNN. "They are a part of the problem … particularly those individuals in the cabinet who say, We can settle anywhere we want. They have no right to be here [in the West Bank], etc."
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