US President Joe Biden welcomed his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog to the White House this week in a rare official foreign outing for the ceremonial head of state.
Relations have been strained between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following months of protests against the Israeli government's attempts to curb the power of the judiciary over the elected Knesset parliament and government — which have sparked huge protests.
Richard Becker told Sputnik that Biden was anxious to "cover himself in the eyes of those who are the arch supporters of Israel in the United States."
But at the same time, Washington is seeking to pressure Tel Aviv to fall in line on a range of issues.
"The Biden administration wants to stress to Israel that while it has 'ironclad support', it's critical of the direction that the government is moving," Becker said. "And so they invite Herzog and give it bigger publicity."
While the role of the Israeli president is mainly ceremonial, it can take on greater importance during national emergencies or political crises, the peace campaigner explained.
"So having Herzog is kind of is both a slap at Netanyahu," Becker noted. "Netanyahu won't care very much, but it's really a way to keep things going with the support for the state of Israel and in the eyes of the Israeli supporters in the United States to maintain that."
The commentator pointed out that the relationship between the US and Israel had to be viewed through the prism of Washington's view of its ally in the Middle East.
"All the talk about sympathy for Jewish people and Zionists... is really just talk," Becker stressed. "The reality is the real importance of the state of Israel is that it's an extension of Pentagon power... in what has been one of the most critical areas of the world, the Middle East."
"Israel cannot really come to terms with the other countries in the Middle East because it's really a military outpost of the United States," he added.
Meanwhile the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a motion rejecting comments by Democrat Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal that Israel was a "racist" state.
Journalist Eleanor Goldfield told Sputnik that she wished more Jews like herself around the world would "call out" Israel over its treatment of the Palestinian people, arguing that its cheek-by-jowl relationship with Washington only fuelled anti-Semitim.
"If you look at the history of Israel and US relations, they are very, very tight to the point where extreme right wingers rightfully point out that the US kind of just does what Israel says," Goldfield said.
"Israel's existence and the US' continued support for it actually gives rise to anti-Jewish violence," she argued, recalling that she had heard people at protests "saying things like: 'Man, the Jews just control our government'."
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