Even though the two nations occasionally disagree, the United States supports Israel as a staunch ally and “deep friend.” John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, stated on Wednesday.
In light of the recent incidences of tension, Kirby was responding to a reporter who asked him to assess the general status of relations between the United States and Israel.
US President Joe Biden made it plain to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their phone call on Sunday that his “support for Israel’s security will remain unwavering,” according to Kirby.
There won’t be any change there. And [Biden] has been one of Israel’s most ardent defenders and allies during his entire public career.
” Kirby added, “he has also expressed his concerns over these plans, these planned judicial reforms, and he has communicated it publicly and, of course, privately. And over the weekend, he reiterated what he had already said: “We urge Israeli leaders to look for a compromise as quickly as possible.”
Kirby made his remarks a day after Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, was called. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman “conveyed concern” on the Knesset’s partial repeal of the 2005 Disengagement Implementation Law during a meeting at the Department of State.
Before the Ramadan, Passover, and Easter holidays, the two “discussed the importance of all parties refraining from actions or rhetoric that could further inflame tensions,” according to the State Department.
The Israeli parliament repealed articles of the 2005 law prohibiting Israelis from entering and settling in some areas of northern Samaria on Tuesday. Twenty-one communities in the Gaza Strip were destroyed and evacuated due to the so-called disengagement law.
According to Netanyahu, the decision to partially undo the “discriminatory and humiliating” law that drove Jews from their “historical homeland” was a great idea.
The rejection of a Palestinian people earlier this week by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was likewise criticized as “offensive” by the United States on Tuesday.
Smotrich stated, “Jacques’ truth must be told with all our might and without confusion: He said there is no such thing as Palestinians—because there is no such thing as a Palestinian people,” on Sunday at a memorial for the late Likud activist Jacques Kupfer.
“We need to tell the truth without caving into the lies and historical distortions and without giving in to the hypocrisy of BDS and the pro-Palestinian organizations,” Smotrich continued.
Despite these instances, Israel “remains a solid ally and a deep, deep friend in the region, I’d say even around the world,” Kirby emphasized on Wednesday.
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