US official denies Thomas Friedman's report Biden Admin. on verge of downgrading US-Israel relationship.
A White House official said this evening (Wednesday) that there is no talk within the Biden Administration about a possible "reevaluation" of the United States' relations with Israel, following Thomas Friedman's column in the New York Times in which he claimed that the US is "reassessing" its relationship with Israel.
In his column, Friedman predicted that during their upcoming meeting, US President Joe Biden will tell Israeli President Herzog that "when the interests and values of a US government and an Israeli government diverge this much, a reassessment of the relationship is inevitable."
According to Friedman, this "reassessment" would be limited to US support for Israel in international forums such as the United Nations and would not affect intelligence or military cooperation.
"Such a reassessment based on US interests and values would be some tough love for Israel but a real necessity before it truly does go off the rails," Friedman wrote. "That Biden is prepared to get in Netanyahu’s face before America’s 2024 election suggests that our president believes he has the support not only of most Americans for this but of most American Jews and even most Israeli Jews. He is right on all three counts.
Earlier, a senior Israeli diplomatic source stated that Israel had no knowledge of any such reassessment of US policy towards Israel.
The source emphasized that even if such a reassessment were made, it would not be unprecedented: "The Ford administration announced a reassessment with the Rabin government, the Reagan administration did so with the Begin government, Bush Sr.'s administration did so with the Shamir government, and Bush Jr. did so with the Barak and Sharon governments."
He added: "It's no secret that we have disagreements with the American administration regarding the creation of a Palestinian state, returning to the dangerous Iran nuclear deal, and Prime Minister Netanyahu's stance against the American 'no surprizes' policy regarding Israeli action against Iran.
Source - Israel National News/Twitter - Image - Thomas Friedman/Reuters