Pushing Israel on Iran will backfire on the US

Israel’s political discourse runs the gamut from disagreeable to downright inflammatory, but there are three issues on which a consensus exists.

The right of return poses a demographic threat to the state.

Returning to the Iran nuclear deal poses an existential military threat to Israel.

And finally, Israel’s relationship with the United States is based on shared values and common interests.

Israelis’ confidence in that third tenet could be badly shaken after this week’s visit of two top Biden administration officials who represent geopolitical views diametrically opposed to the Israeli consensus.

Robert Malley, the US special representative to Iran, was slated to visit Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain for briefings before the late-November resumption of nuclear talks with Iran.

America’s UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield scheduled stops in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Amman to discuss the moribund two-state solution. Her visit comes two weeks after the US abstained on a UN resolution that upheld the right of return for the few remaining Arabs who fled from Israel during the 1948 War of Independence, and their descendants — wherever they might live and no matter where they were born.

The right of return is not some far-fetched fantasy. Since the outbreak of the so-called “Arab Spring” in 2011, more than five million refugees from Muslim Middle Eastern states have flocked to Europe. America is plagued by its own refugee problem from Central and South America, playing out on its southern borders every day. Israel still suffers from the scourge of the more than 50,000 illegal African migrants from Eritrea and Sudan, many of whom still reside in south Tel Aviv and terrorize elderly and impoverished local residents who can’t afford to move away. The mass movement of people can happen in the blink of an eye, not to mention Israel’s many enemies who would gladly recruit mercenaries to overwhelm its borders under the guise of a right of return.

Before Malley’s departure to Israel, an unnamed senior administration official briefed the Israeli media, telling reporters: “We have made clear that a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA [the formal acronym for the Iran nuclear deal] is the ideal diplomatic outcome.”

He didn’t say for whom it was ideal, but the best guess is Iran. Israel signaled its displeasure by noting that Prime Minister Bennett would not meet with Malley, who was the lead negotiator of the JCPOA.