On June 18, the State Department declared that it is “deeply troubled” by Jerusalem’s decision to allow the construction of 4,000 new housing units in the West Bank. It appears that some or all of these units will be built outside the major settlement blocs, a deviation from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s longstanding policy preference. Elliott Abrams comments:
Why would Netanyahu agree to this? Because the far-right parties representing the settlers have more power in his government today than they have ever had before. Or to put that equation backwards, because Netanyahu is weaker than he was previously.
That brings me to the Netanyahu invitation to visit the White House. Presumably the Biden administration believes it is achieving something important by refusing to invite Netanyahu. What it is actually achieving, however, is to weaken him against those in the governing coalition who seek the kinds of things the Biden administration opposes—judicial reform and settlement expansion. The White House is thereby truly biting its nose to spite its face—weakening Netanyahu to somehow punish him and thereby leading to exactly the results it least wants. On these issues of settlement expansion and judicial reform, Netanyahu has long been a moderating force. Weakening him aids more extreme voices.
Perhaps denying him an invitation gives the president and White House staff some personal satisfaction, but doing so undermines U.S. policy goals. It’s a foolish, even childish, position, and reversing it will advance administration policy. It is remarkable that administration “experts” on Israel don’t or won’t see that.
Read more on Pressure Points: https://www.cfr.org/blog/netanyahu-invitation-and-west-bank-settlement-expansion