Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged new US President Joe Biden to “strengthen” a long-standing alliance between the two countries, partly to confront the “threat” posed by Iran.
“I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the US-Israel alliance, to continue expanding peace between Israel and the Arab world and to confront common challenges, chief among them the threat posed by Iran,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader was speaking in a video congratulating Biden moments after he was sworn in as US president, replacing Donald Trump.
Netanyahu, who has referred to Trump as the “best friend” Israel has had in the White House, noted Wednesday that he had “a warm personal friendship going back many decades” with Biden.
Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said it was “not sorry” to see Trump depart, calling him “the world’s main source and sponsor of oppression, violence, and extremism” and partner in “Israeli aggression” against the Palestinians.
Biden “must correct the wrong historical path of American policy which is oppressing our people,” and end policies aiming at “destroying the Palestinian cause”, said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
The Palestinian presidency lashed out at Netanyahu, who on Sunday announced that Israel approved 780 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, ahead of a March general election.
All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are regarded as illegal by much of the international community.
– ‘Welcoming Biden with settlements’ –
But Trump’s administration, breaking with decades of US policy, declared in late 2019 that Washington no longer considered settlements as being in breach of international law.
“Netanyahu is welcoming Biden with settlements,” said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, on Wednesday.
“The atmosphere is very strange, it is very un-American”, said 36-year-old Jason Sheffield, adding the security zone and heavy police presence “is unethical to freedom” and “very scary.”
For most Americans, the inauguration was watched on social media and TV.
Streets were nearly empty and many businesses in downtown Washington were boarded up, some due to the pandemic and others because of recent violent protests.
In recent years, tens of thousands of people have been close enough to the inauguration ceremony to see the president take the oath of office at the great domed Capitol building that hosts Congress.
The crowd has been massively pared down due to virus contagion concerns — normally 200,000 passes would be distributed among lawmakers to hand out to their constituents.
– ‘Today is kind of joyous’ –
This year it was one ticket for each of the 535 members of Congress and one guest each.
On top of that, Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol building two weeks ago to try to undo Biden’s election win, prompting extra heavy security.
“All of the security services have gotten together and essentially shut down movement into Washington DC,” G. Alexander Crowther, a research professor at Florida International University and a retired Army colonel, told AFP.
The number of National Guard troops — which is on top of thousands of police officers — is about three times the roughly 8,000 on hand for Trump’s inauguration.
Those troops would, outside a pandemic year, be guarding crowds on the Capitol grounds and many thousands more packing the roughly 700-acre (280-hectare) National Mall.
The 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama, America’s first Black president, drew an estimated 450,000 spectators to the Mall.
Yet some people defied the warnings and strolled the car-less streets to see what they could of America’s handover of power.
“I think today is kind of joyous,” said downtown Washington resident Sheila Callahan.
“As soon as Trump’s helicopter took off from the White House, people (in her neighborhood) were up on the roof cheering.”
“His only aim is to destroy the two-state solution.”
Under Trump, the United States also recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided” capital and moved its embassy there, sparking Palestinian outrage.
In his own reaction to Biden’s inauguration, Abbas said in a statement that “we are impatient to work together for the peace and stability of the region and the whole world,” declaring he was ready to open a peace process that meets the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
Jibril Rajub, a senior official from Abbas’ Fatah party, earlier said “we hope that the presence of Biden will be a chance to apply international law and resolve the conflict, establishing an independent Palestinian state and putting an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
Trump’s administration also withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and imposed tough new sanctions on the Islamic republic, Israel’s arch-foe — another move welcomed by the Jewish state, which encouraged Europe to follow suit.
But Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said Tuesday the incoming administration was ready to return to the deal as long as Iran respects its commitments.
The Jewish state has also reached a series of normalisation agreements with its Arab neighbours under the Trump administration.
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