The dominant position of the United States in the Middle East has, for decades, based on two pillars: on the one hand, the unwavering alliance with Israel, despite passing crises; On the other hand, the Saudi guarantee on the hydrocarbon market, initially by a cheap oil supply, today by controlling the barrel of crude. It is to turn the page on the Afghan debacle of the summer of 2021 that Joe Biden last July visited Israel and Saudi Arabia, in an attempt to reaffirm the solidity of the two pillars of the Middle East policy of his country. The rehabilitation thus offered to Prince Mohammed Ben Salman, however, was not enough to restore the American-Saudi partnership in oil matters: the de facto leader of the Wahhabi kingdom has not only refused to open the valves of his hydrocarbons production , he pact with Vladimir Putin to keep the oil prices at the highest. As if this Camouflet was not enough, Joe Biden now owes, in Israel, to deal with Benyamin Netanyahu, whose return to the head of the government can only enchant the Kremlin.
A stormy relationship
biden, whose first visit to Israel dates back to 1973, may present itself as a convinced “Zionist”, to affirm that, ” If Israel did not exist, It should be invented “, his relations with Netanyahu have never been serene. In January 2009, who became Vice-President of Barack Obama in January 2009, he joined him to obtain a ten-month moratorium from the Israeli colonization in the occupied Palestinian territories. It is in this context that he visited Israel in March 2010, coming up against the announcement by Netanyahu of the construction of 1,600 new dwellings in the eastern and occupied part of Jerusalem. An Israeli editorialist then denounces “a spit in the face of Biden”, the Israeli Minister of Defense even suggesting “to apologize for this serious blunder”. But Netanyahu is camping on his positions. After the victory of the hard wing of the Republicans in the mid-term elections in November 2010, he will go so far as to play the congress against the White House.
Never confidence will be restored between Biden and Netanyahu, which leads a real campaign, in the United States, against negotiations launched by Obama on Iranian nuclear. The Israeli Prime Minister intervenes in virulent terms in front of the two chambers of the congress gathered on this occasion, in March 2015, without managing, four months later, the American rallying in the multilateral agreement on Iranian nuclear. This means that Netanyahu is delighted with the accession to the White House, in January 2017, of Donald Trump. This multiplies the gestures in favor of the Israeli Prime Minister: denunciation of the Iranian nuclear agreement, in May 2018, followed, shortly after, the displacement of the Embassy of the United States in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem ; Recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the occupied Syrian territory of the Golan, in March 2019; Or the Abraham Normalization Agreements between Israel and four Arab States, without mention of the Palestinian issue, from September to December 2020. Despite the commitment of Netanyahu in favor of Trump’s re -election, it is Biden who enters into The White House in January 2021. The current American president believes, wrongly, having finally got rid of Netanyahu, which leaves the presidency of the Israeli government in June 2021, but it seems guaranteed to come back, after the recent elections .
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