That President Biden couldn’t reject the possibility that Mr. Netanyahu wants to influence the U.S. election “suggests to me that the U.S. is not in the driver’s seat here,” says Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank that promotes restraint and focus on core interests in U.S. foreign policy.
“Not only is the U.S. just along for the ride, but it doesn’t even know where the destination is.”
Noting the number of instances over the past year in which Israel reportedly gave the U.S. no advance notice of potentially escalatory actions – including last month’s pager attacks in Lebanon and the bombing in Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah – she says this situation “reveals just how little leverage the U.S. has” with Israel.
“From the U.S. perspective,” she adds, “who knows what’s next?”
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