Joe Biden discusses security threat posed by Iran with Israel's president

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden met with Israel's president Isaac Herzog at the White House. According to a press release by the White House, the duo discussed the threat posed by Iran and its proxies and the possibility of a two-state solution to end the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The threat perception regarding Iran is particularly pronounced right now in Jerusalem and there is fear that Iran's nuclear weapons programme has reached an advanced stage. 

US President Joe Biden assured his counterpart that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon although he did not specify how the US aims to attain this strategic goal as the nuclear deal with Iran has fallen apart. Joe Biden celebrated the resolution of the maritime dispute between Israel and Lebanon, which was brokered by the United States. Before the Israeli president's visit to the White House, back in September, Israel and US launched a high-level bilateral tech talk. 

What was the goal of the tech talk?

The tech talk was launched with an eye on China, as the US has become increasingly concerned about Chinese investments in Israel's tech sector and Israeli research universities, as per a report by Axios. The dialogue is officially known as "high-level strategic dialogue on technology cooperation". The goal is to increase cooperation between the US and Israeli civilian tech sectors as Washington DC believes that China might use its leverage in other nations' civilian tech sectors to steal intellectual property and develop as a tech superpower, which is one of Xi Jinping's goals. 

Xi intends to push aside the ascent of soft tech in China i.e. firms such as Alibaba et al and instead focus on critical tech that grants China root access, which would be hard techs such as semiconductors and quantum computing. Israel has a vibrant tech sector based primarily out of Tel Aviv. The US wants to block China's access to it, which China has termed an escalatory move. The only countries with whom the US had a high-level strategic tech initiatives before Israel are India, Japan and South Korea, all potential partners in the US grand strategic aim of off-shore balancing.