The press took notice of the fact that President Biden hasn’t had a talk with Benjamin Netanyahu as of yet.  Here is the question from a reporter and the dance that followed:

Speaker 8:
Correct me if I wrong, but the president hasn’t spoken yet with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He has not. Isn’t that surprising?

Jen Psaki:
I don’t know that it’s surprising less than two weeks into an administration. He hasn’t called every foreign leader yet. He certainly would love to spend more time talking to foreign leaders. His first love is foreign policy. But I expect he’ll continue to have additional engagements in the weeks ahead. And, obviously, we have a long and abiding relationship with Israel, important security relationship. I’m sure they’ll discuss that and a range of issues when they do connect.

The delay is probably to give them time to figure out what they are going to do. They have a few parties that will be very interested in that conversation.

First on the list of course is Israel.  Netanyahu is hoping that the relationship continues along the same trajectory that was established by President Trump. With the Biden team talking about re-entering the Iran deal though, Israel has broadcast they don’t feel the need to do any talking. From the Times of Israel:

Channel 12 news cited “a very senior Israeli official” as saying: “If Biden adopts Obama’s plan, we will have nothing to talk about with him.” The official was referencing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by former president Barack Obama in 2015.

Other nations that have a vested interest include France and Russia that worked out sweet trade deals with Iran that went into went into effect when the sanctions were lifted. China is also a big player because they have worked out a 400 billion dollar deal over 25 years with the Mullahs. And because the dollar is largely the worlds reserve currency, any other country that wants to use the international banking system might find road blocks.

Then there are the domestic pressures. You have the squad in congress that is boisterously anti Israel. They have gone on record siding with terrorists against the Jewish state. And don’t forget to include J-street in the hate crowd.

The forces internal to the US can largely be papered over by the supporting press. Israel is the wild card. If President Biden thinks he can go down the same road as Obama, he might get an awakening. Israel has been making a lot of friends in the middle east recently, largely due to Mr. Trump’s efforts.  Some of these friendships may involve arms going to some of these countries for encouragement. Is Joe willing to slap some of our mid east friends to spite Israel?  I’m betting the answer is yes, but he may not want to say it to Benjamin directly.