‘Those who elect the prime minister of Israel are the citizens of Israel and no one else,” read a statement Tuesday night issued by an official whom Channel 12 identified as “the most senior Israeli political source you can imagine.”
“Israel is not a protectorate of the US but an independent and democratic country whose citizens are the ones who elect the government. We expect our friends to act to overthrow the terror regime of Hamas and not the elected government in Israel,” the statement continued.
The statement was issued a few hours after a segment of the US intelligence community’s annual report on national security threats was leaked dealing with appraisals of Israel’s political scene.
The report said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “viability as a leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties that pursue hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in doubt.”
The report continued: “Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. A different, more moderate government is a possibility.”
Given that it is rare for such an intelligence assessment of another country’s domestic political scene to find its way into the public domain, this one clearly antagonized officials at the highest levels in Jerusalem, believing that this was a thinly veiled attempt by officials in the Biden administration to impact Israel’s domestic political situation. And that interpretation explains the angry, quasi-anonymous response.
If the senior official’s hunch is correct and the US is trying to tip the political scales in Israel, it is a mistake, though not one without precedent.
It is a mistake because it is simply bad form for one country to meddle in the internal politics of another, especially a close ally.
For years, Netanyahu himself has been blamed for doing precisely this by supposedly supporting Mitt Romney in the 2012 US presidential race against Barack Obama. He was also never forgiven by many Democrats for what they claim was his attempt to meddle in internal US affairs when he gave his famous speech to Congress against the Iranian nuclear deal in 2015.
US attempts to influence Israeli politics
But Netanyahu did not invent the wheel here. For decades, the US has sought to tip the political scales in Israel.
In 1992, then-US president George H.W. Bush withheld loan guarantees badly needed by Israel knowing this would help Yitzhak Rabin defeat Yitzhak Shamir in that year’s election.
In 1996, Bill Clinton did everything short of handing out leaflets for Shimon Peres to get him elected over Netanyahu. In 2022, President Joe Biden tried to prop up then-prime minister Yair Lapid by visiting here in July, even though new elections were to be held four months later that would pit Lapid against Netanyahu.
The problem with trying to interfere in another country’s elections is not only that it is wrong and breeds resentment – trust the country’s citizens to know what is good for them – but, as has been the case when US presidents looked to unseat Netanyahu, it often backfires.
Clinton, Obama, and Biden all did what they could to turn the public against Netanyahu, but in each case, it had the opposite effect.
Following Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in 2015, Obama’s refusal to meet him in Washington just weeks before an Israeli election was designed to signal to the Israeli public the president’s displeasure with the prime minister. The administration believed that the Israeli public valued a good relationship with Obama more than they liked Netanyahu. They were proven wrong.
Israelis are mature enough and intelligent enough to know what is good for their country and do not need America’s help in choosing their leaders. Likewise, the American people do not require input from Jerusalem to determine who should be its president.
Here’s a rule the US and Israel would be wise to honor, especially with the US approaching its election in November and Israel likely facing its new election in the not-too-distant future: You stay out of my elections, and I’ll stay out of yours.