In a historic move, President Biden has secured a pinky promise from Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid that the United States' $3.8 billion in annual aid money will not be used for anything bad.
"I'm so excited about this," Biden said at a press conference on Tuesday. "Prime Minister Lapid has promised me that they will use this money wisely and responsibly, and that they will not use it for anything that could be considered bad."
Lapid, for his part, seemed a bit more hesitant. "Well, I didn't exactly promise that we wouldn't use the money for anything bad," he said. "I mean, what's bad? Is it bad to defend ourselves against our enemies? Is it bad to build settlements in the West Bank? Is it bad to bomb Gaza?"
Biden laughed nervously. "Well, I guess those are all things that some people might consider to be bad," he said. "But I trust that Prime Minister Lapid will use his judgment and avoid doing anything that would reflect poorly on either of our countries."
When pressed by reporters on what specific steps he would take to ensure that Israel kept its promise, Biden said that he would be sending a team of auditors to Israel to monitor the spending of the aid money. "We're going to have a very close eye on this," he said. "And if we see anything that we don't like, we're not going to hesitate to speak up."
Some experts have expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of Biden's pinky promise. "I don't think it's worth the paper it's written on," said David Gardner, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Israel has a long history of using US aid money for whatever it wants, regardless of the promises it's made."
Others are more optimistic. "I think it's a step in the right direction," said Daniel Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Israel. "It shows that the Biden administration is serious about holding Israel accountable for its use of US aid money."
Only time will tell whether or not Biden's pinky promise will be enough to prevent Israel from using US aid money for bad stuff. But one thing is for sure: it's certainly a creative approach to diplomacy.
