RUTHFULLY YOURS

The press is awash with negative comments about Israel’s policy on Ukraine. A rift is brewing between Washington and Jerusalem over the upcoming Iran nuclear deal. America’s ambassador in Jerusalem sharply attacks Israel’s policies. Is President Biden resuming a familiar role — that of a dishonest broker for Mideast peace?

It’s starting to look that way. This all stems from the prospect that American supporters of Israel are apt to become a political liability for Mr. Biden when he makes his concessions to Iran as part of a deal to renew the 2015 nuclear accord. The administration is beginning to distance itself from the Israeli government.

Since the Vienna talks to renew the 2015 Iran deal resumed in the fall, Tehran has insisted that its terrorist arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, be removed from the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. As diplomats close in on an agreement, America is reportedly prepared to make that concession.

“Iran poses a threat to our allies, to our partners, in some cases to the United States,” the State Department spokesman, Ned Price, acknowledged Wednesday. Yet “the most urgent challenge we would face is a nuclear-armed Iran,” which, he suggests, is the reason diplomats prompted the deal in the first place.

Iranian missiles last week targeted an area near the American consulate at Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Rather than walk away from the Vienna talks, Washington officials leaked secondhand rumors that the Iranians hit an Israeli Mossad target. What in the world justifies that kind of blame-shifting?

The Times later retracted its ill-sourced story on the subject, which by then had made the rounds across the Mideast and beyond. Mr. Price declined to respond directly Wednesday to a report on Axios and an Israeli website, Walla, that the Biden administration is considering accepting a “public commitment from Iran to de-escalation” in return for removing the IRGC from the terror list.

“Tying the delisting of the IRGC to Iran promising to de-escalate in the region makes us look naive,” a former Mideast adviser to presidents of both parties, Dennis Ross, tweeted. “For the IRGC, which admitted this week to firing rockets into Erbil, to promise to de-escalate regionally is about as credible as Putin saying Russia would not invade Ukraine.”

Jerusalem officials briefed on the matter are “concerned,” according to Walla. What is said to bother them is that America isn’t even insisting that such a promise would specifically demand no IRGC targeting of Americans and allies, including Israel. It’s a sign, officials fear, that the Biden administration just isn’t serious about Israel.

The administration initially hailed Jerusalem’s coalition government that replaced Prime Minister Netanyahu, a man despised by the American left. Now officials and their press allies criticize Jerusalem’s policies, including on Ukraine.

Prime Minister Bennett has condemned Russia. A large Israeli medical team was sent to the Ukraine-Polish border, and Israelis have built the largest field hospital near the border. Israel gives temporary visas to thousands of Ukrainian refugees and tens of thousand Jewish Ukraianians are eligible for citizenship. It stands to become one of the largest recipients of refugees among countries with no Ukrainian border.

Yet the Washington press continually highlights reports of troubles for some Ukrainians arriving at Ben Gurion Airport, and emphasizes criticism from Kiev about Israel’s refusal to send certain lethal arms — even though similar criticism is also directed at America and Europe.

Reporters also rely on administration leaks criticizing a supposed Israeli “neutrality” on the Ukrainian war, while, according to the London Financial Times, Mr. Bennett is the “primary international mediator on the talks” between Presidents Putin and Zelensky.

The American ambassador in Jerusalem, Thomas Nides, acknowledged this week that Mr. Bennett’s mediation is fully coordinated with Washington, but most of his talk with the left-leaning Peace Now group consisted of a sharp attack on Israel’s “infuriating” policies on the Palestinians.

“We can’t do stupid things that impede us for a two-state solution,” Mr. Nides said, according to the Jerusalem Post. “We can’t have the Israelis doing settlement growth in east Jerusalem or the West Bank.”

In the same meeting Mr. Nides said a Palestinian Authority policy of paying families of terrorists for killing Israelis has “caused an enormous amount of problems.” Rather than criticizing the policy, he simply said it gives “haters” an excuse not to support Ramallah.

As Mr. Nides acknowledged, peace negotiations between Jerusalem and Ramallah are dormant and no resumption is envisioned. Yet as negotiations over an Iran deal heat up, his condemnation of “settlements” can become politically useful.

That is because a wide array of Republicans and Democrats, including members of the progressive wing of the party, vocally oppose ending any sanctions on the Iranian regime, as any new deal would entail. “If we lift the sanctions, how are those dollars likely to be spent?” Representative Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York, asked the Jerusalem Post. “I have no reason to think those dollars will be spent on an Iranian Build Back Better Act.”