Israel's former UN envoy regrets tweet asking Biden to call Netanyahu

Israel's former UN envoy has said he regrets the phrasing of a provocative tweet imploring Joe Biden to phone their prime minister, denying that the move was coordinated with Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

“I didn’t formulate the tweet, but I take responsibility for it,” Danny Danon told Army Radio on Thursday, in an apparent attempt to distance himself from the phrasing of the post.

“The choice of words was not successful but I stand behind the message.”

"The tweet was not coordinated with the prime minister or his adversaries,” he added.

A day earlier, Mr Danon’s tweet – which included an out-of-service phone number at the Israeli foreign ministry – fuelled speculation that the Israeli government was directing him in order to pressure Mr Biden, or that perhaps he was trying to embarrass Mr Netanyahu.

Analysts then debated whether Mr Biden, who is expected to enjoy less warm relations with Mr Netanyahu than his predecessor Donald Trump, was deliberately snubbing the Israeli leader to send a message.

“A call will come. But a clear message is being sent. Netanyahu was Trump’s third call. To quote Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” tweeted Aaron Miller, a senior fellow with the Carnegie Endowment.

Speculation focused on recent controversial actions by Mr Netanyahu of which Mr Biden may have disapproved, including the alleged assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist, strikes against pro-Iran forces in Syria and plans to expand settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank

But one Israeli analyst had a more prosaic explanation for the lack of a call: Mr Biden likely had not called to avoid endorsing Mr Netanyahu so soon before he contests the next Israeli elections in March.

Writing in the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, Herb Keinon noted that Mr Biden had spoken with Netanyahu on November 20, after he had won the US election but before the Israeli election had been called.

Mr Keinon also noted that the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already talked to Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi twice, while National Security adviser Jake Sullivan and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had both spoken with their Israel counterparts. “All those calls show that Biden’s failure to phone yet is not about Israel,” he wrote.

He continued: “The new US president will not do anything now that could be interpreted as interfering in the election, or that could be used by Netanyahu to boost his campaign.”