Amb. Friedman: It’s ‘Despicable’ that Biden Won’t Meet Netanyahu

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman said Thursday that it is “despicable” that U.S. President Joe Biden is refusing to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the latter’s election in November.

“This idea that Biden can get away with not meeting with Netanyahu. … One the one hand we preach about democracy and how important it is, and [yet] we refuse to meet with Israel’s democratic leaders,” he said.

Friedman was one of the most consequential ambassadors to Israel in U.S. history, playing a key role in forging the Abraham Accords, a series of peace agreements between Israel and several Arab states in the region.

Friedman blamed the leadership of the American Jewish community for the impasse as well, because it had joined the Israeli left in condemning Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms, and had not criticized Biden.

In March, Biden declared that he would not meet with Netanyahu, even after the latter suspended his judicial reforms. Biden contradicted U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides, who had promised a meeting as an incentive.

Friedman also commented on the slowdown in peace talks in the region since former President Donald Trump left office, and the Biden administration tried to undo his legacy, refusing to say “Abraham Accords” at first.

While Biden accepted, eventually, that the Abraham Accords were a success, Friedman said that Biden was trying to force the Palestinian issue onto the signatories — even though they had been able to make peace precisely because they had moved beyond the Palestinians’ grievances. Biden is trying to replace the Abraham Accords with the “Negev Summit,” Friedman says, and emboldening Arab demands of Israel in the process.

He added that Biden had lost the opportunity to advance peace by showing solidarity with Arab countries against Iran, and that Arab nations were moving toward China because of perceptions of U.S. weakness.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.