Biden Has First Phone Call With Israel’s Netanyahu

February 17, 2021 Diplomacy, Joe Biden

U.S. President Joe Biden made a long-awaited first phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday after a delay that had seen Washington deny it was snubbing Israel’s leader.

There had been speculation that the Democratic president was signaling displeasure over Netanyahu’s close ties with former President Donald Trump, who called the right-wing leader two days after his inauguration in 2017.

The delay in the traditional courtesy call was also widely regarded by analysts as a sign that Biden did not want to be seen boosting Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s March 23 elections. “It was a good conversation,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office where he was meeting U.S. labor leaders.

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Netanyahu, who removed a picture of himself with Trump from his Twitter profile on Jan 11, has no cause for complaint about the delay in Biden call. He got far too close with the previous president, so it’s no surprise that he is on the outs with this one.https://t.co/FJHSBjX4AG

— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) February 17, 2021