When something important happens in life, you can often tell who is important in someone’s thoughts or level of esteem by whether or not they get a phone call from someone.
I remember when I would come home from deployments when I was in the military there was a list of about a half dozen people I would call to let them know I was home. One time, I had forgotten to call someone and the next week I got a call from them asking if everything was ok.
It is always important to keep up with your friends. I have a friend in the town I grew up in that I talk to all the time but only see once I year when I have to travel back home. Every single time we go out to eat to catch up so we don’t lose contact. Joe Biden isn’t exactly keeping up with his friends.
Since President Biden took office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been waiting for the traditional courtesy call from the Oval Office. After all, both Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama reached the prime minister within days of taking their oaths of office.
But three weeks into his term, as Biden has worked deep into his Rolodex of world leaders without dialing Netanyahu’s Balfour Street office, much of Israel’s political class is ready to declare it a full-blown diplomatic snub. In the president’s “thundering silence,” some see a long-feared frosty tumble from the warm embrace Netanyahu enjoyed with Trump.
“Biden and his aides aim to tell Netanyahu, ‘You’re nothing special,’” security analyst Yossi Melman wrote in the daily Haaretz. “‘The personal connection and chemistry you had with Donald Trump not only fail to advance your standing in Washington, they’re an obstacle.’”
Officials in both capitals have dismissed the idea that Biden’s call log carries any coded rebuke of Israel or its head of government. The White House says that Biden is dialing region by region and that the Middle East is coming up.
The president’s first calls, to Mexico and Canada, and to European and Asian capitals, addressed issues including immigration, trade, climate change, NATO and containing China, according to reports. The White House has also been consumed by a raging pandemic and economic crisis.