ABSTRACT
The Biden administration has been equally eager to avoid public spats and has been solicitous of Israeli concerns despite its interest in returning to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). During the presidential transition in the United States, it appeared that Israel and the incoming Biden administration were on a collision course with respect to Iran policy. Despite the growing Iran challenge, Bennett and his coalition partners made a concerted effort to be more accommodating to the new US administration. Israel’s assassination and sabotage operations subsided after the 2015 agreement and resumed only after the US withdrawal. Some analysts believe that Israel no longer has a viable military option given Iran’s retaliatory capabilities and the impossibility of destroying all of Iran’s nuclear assets through military strikes without American assistance. But the United States’ willingness and ability to constrain Israel would be significantly reduced in the absence of a working nuclear agreement.
