Blinken: US Will Judge the Next Israeli Government on Policies, not Personalities

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, December 4, that the Biden administration will judge with the incoming hardline Israeli government, based on the policies that it implements and not by the individuals slated to fill senior roles in the next coalition.

“We will gauge the government by the policies and procedures, rather than individual personalities” said Blinken in the keynote address at the annual conference of the dovish J Street conference in Washington.

“We will hold to the… standards we’ve established in our relationship over the past several decades. And we will speak honestly and respectfully with our Israeli friends, as partners always should.”

Blinken took the opportunity to again congratulate presumptive prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — eliciting an audible hiss from a handful among the 1,000-plus conference attendees — and welcomed his commitment to lead a government “that in his words, will work for the benefit of all residents in the State of Israel without exception.”

The remarks come amid speculation that Biden officials will not engage with some of the most far-right members of Israel’s emerging government, such as Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich, who is slated to become finance minister, and Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir, who is set to become national security minister. (TOI / VFI News)

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. - Proverbs 18:24