Why did the Knesset sabotage Biden’s plan for Iran?

President Biden’s decision to withdraw his candidacy, and the ensuing political drama, is pushing many issues off the media agenda, including some related to Israel-US relations. One such issue is last Wednesday’s Knesset resolution opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state. This is yet another provocation, the latest in a series of Israeli bitter pills the outgoing president has been forced to swallow. It is by no means certain that the successor to the president who defined himself as a “Zionist” will show the same tolerance that characterized Biden.

The Knesset’s outright rejection of a future Palestinian state shows that Netanyahu’s coalition is not content with poking President Biden in the eye just once; it insists on jabbing another finger into the same sore eye. With this resolution, the Knesset is sabotaging the administration’s plan to establish a regional alliance against Iran’s growing aggression. A cornerstone of this plan requires the normalization of Israel-Saudi relations. As a condition for such a historic shift, Riyadh demands that Israel acknowledge a future political horizon based on a two-state solution. Thus, the Knesset’s decision blatantly undermines the American strategy by placing an obstacle in the path of Jerusalem-Riyadh relations.

The Americans find it difficult to understand the meaning of Israeli ingratitude. The Biden administration stood by Israel in its difficult hours and has generously provided military, economic, and diplomatic support. In Washington, they also struggle to comprehend why Israel is acting against its own security interests. Since the horrors of October 7, it should be clear to every Israeli that a security concept based on the logic of “a people that dwells alone” is a childish illusion.

Israel’s dependence on the American superpower is clear, and it has no substitute. Israel would not have been able to intercept the 300 missiles and drones Iran launched into its territory three months ago without American assistance. A regional alliance led by Washington against the various threats Iran and its partners pose is not an American phantasm; it is a vital Israeli strategic interest.

The language of the Knesset’s resolution reveals that it is not content with just one poke in the American eye. The decision states that “the Knesset of Israel firmly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River….” The Knesset says nothing about opposing a Palestinian state east of the Jordan, which goes to show that the old idea that “Jordan is Palestine” has not faded at all. Veteran Foreign Ministry officials remember the PR paper distributed in the wake of the political changeover in 1977, asserting that the Palestinian state already existed, in Jordan. To support this claim, the paper explained that the majority of Jordan’s citizens were Palestinians and Jordan itself had been part of Mandatory Palestine.

An eloquent and enthusiastic spokesperson who promoted this argument was none other than Benjamin Netanyahu. Both as a young student in the United States, when he participated in a public debate with Prof. Fouad Ajami (1978), and more than a decade later, as deputy foreign minister before the Knesset plenum (1989). There, he argued that Arabs in Jordan and in the territories shared a singular Palestinian identity: “There is no reason why the Palestinian people should have two states, one west of the Jordan and the other east of the Jordan.” The “Jordan is Palestine” mantra was pushed out of the official political discourse, due to the understanding that Israel has a security interest in the stability of the Hashemite kingdom. Moreover, stating it as Israel’s preferred solution to the conflict would be met with strong opposition from Washington. Both Democratic and Republican administrations continue to see Jordan an important strategic partner: in the regional alliance designed to curb the Iranian axis, in the war against jihadist terrorism, and in promoting American interests in the intense great power rivalry playing out in the Middle East. The Knesset’s decision raises suspicion that, even though the slogan “Jordan is Palestine” has been deleted from the Foreign Ministry’s lexicon, the idea still festers in the right-wing political camp.

On this issue too, questions will arise in the US: Why doesn’t Israel understand the importance of Jordan’s stability for its own security? Doesn’t it fear that Palestinian rule in Jordan would bring the Iranian Revolutionary Guards closer to its eastern doorstep?

It seems that there is no longer any interest in solving the riddle of whether Benny Gantz supported the harmful decision out of naivete or opportunism, at least among those disillusioned with him. But more significant is the fact that the Knesset resolution was passed by coalition members on the eve of Netanyahu’s Washington visit. The resolution stymies the regional strategy the administration is advancing and deploys contempt and defiance against it in what is now a turbocharged election season.

Past governments were careful to cultivate bipartisan sympathy for Israel and were careful not to indicate a preferred candidate for the US presidency. Netanyahu’s coalition ignored the enormous aid Biden has provided to Israel, flagrantly disregarded his positions, and openly yearns for a Trump victory. If our relations with the United States continue to be conducted through arrogant gambles on the November election results, they are bound to deteriorate, even if Trump wins.