‘Bad timing’: Netanyahu to visit China amid US-Israel tensions

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited to China, marking his fourth state visit to the country.

Netanyahu’s office said he had informed members of the U.S. House of Representatives about the visit as they met with him on Tuesday, adding that the Biden administration was updated one month.

The prime minister also stressed to the members of Congress that the “security and intelligence cooperation between the US and Israel is at an all-time peak, and emphasised that the US will always be Israel’s most vital ally and irreplaceable ally.”

His upcoming visit comes at a delicate time, with Netanyahu still awaiting an official invitation from President Biden to visit him at the White House, something pundits have highlighted as the clearest expression of U.S. anger towards the Israeli government on a variety of issues.

The judicial overhaul, aggressive Israeli settlement expansion, clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque, racist remarks by far-right ministers against Palestinians, and settler terrorism in the West Bank are among the issues that have caused great friction between the U.S. and Israel since Netanyahu took office.

The visit was therefore described as both “bad timing” and a “strategic mistake” by two former Israeli military intelligence chiefs.

Tamir Hayman, who is currently the Managing Director for The Institute for National Security Studies, said: “China is an important country for Israel but, as always, the context makes the difference and the context is the American refusal to invite the Prime Minister for a visit in Washington. Because of this refusal and the escalating crisis with the US, a visit at this time is a serious mistake.”

“It will not make the White House invite Netanyahu, on the contrary, it will cause more anger in the administration. Therefore, this is tactically bad timing,” Hayman added.

Former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin also criticised the visit, saying: “If someone in the prime minister’s circle thinks it’s smart to act like (Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed) bin Salman and travel to China to annoy Biden and show him that Israel has another strategic option, he’s making a serious mistake and doesn’t understand the importance of the competition between the geopolitical superpowers of the 21st century.”

China and Israel established full diplomatic relations in 1992, increasing bilateral ties significantly since then.

Today, China is Israel’s largest trading partner in Asia. In 2022, Israel imported goods worth £13.8 billion from China.

Despite the U.S. considering Chinese influence across the world a direct threat to its national security, Israel has attempted to maintain close ties with Beijing and Washington at the same time.

Netanyahu described his first state visit to China in 1998 as “friendly”, with China’s leader, Jiang Zemin, receiving him “warmly.”

“He was genuinely interested in learning about the Jewish people and Israel, which were already held in high regard in China thanks to our contributions to Chinese agriculture. Jiang Zemin expressed to me his great admiration for the legacy of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu wrote in his memoirs from 2022.

Netanyahu however, admitted that he, like most Western leaders, “walked a fine line with China.”

“On the one hand, I wanted to open the enormous Chinese market to Israel and also lure Chinese investments to Israel, particularly in physical infrastructure. On the other, I was totally frank about setting clear limitations on what types of technologies we would share with China, stopping when it came to military and intelligence fields,” he said.

Netanyahu last visited Chine in 2017 where he met with Xi Jinping.