JERUSALEM — The Israeli government is urging the Biden administration to take a more aggressive approach toward Iran’s nuclear program while seeking to avoid the kind of confrontation with the White House that at times marked the tenure of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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       The six-month-old coalition government under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is waging a campaign of speeches and public statements highlighting Israel’s fear that ongoing nuclear negotiations in Vienna will restore the 2015 accord between Iran and world powers. That agreement offered Iran relief from economic sanctions in return for limits on its nuclear program and was vehemently opposed by both Netanyahu and Bennett as too weak.

       But unlike Netanyahu, who banned his ministers from even talking with the administration about negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, the current government is actively engaged. Bennett has dispatched envoys to Washington, including Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea. The prime minister has discussed Iran directly with the president.

       Bennett has said that an acceptable deal would be “longer and stronger” and include dismantling some of Iran’s current nuclear capabilities. Israel is urging that negotiators to “put an agreement on the table that is reasonable,” said an Israeli official involved in discussions about Iran with the U.S. and other countries. Israel also wants any deal to go beyond nuclear concerns and address Iran’s ballistic missile capability and expansive activities in the region, such as support for proxy groups.

       Israeli officials admit that their approach hasn’t changed Biden’s desire to restore the previous deal, which President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from, or to craft something like it. Several of the recent meetings exposed the wide divide between the two governments, according to several people familiar with the exchanges.

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       Bennett, in a tense Dec. 10 call with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, requested unsuccessfully that the plug be pulled on the talks. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid asked Blinken in Washington earlier this month that sanctions relief — Tehran’s overriding demand — be taken off the table, the foreign ministry said.

       Of particular concern to Israel, according to officials in three Israeli ministries, is that an interim agreement could be reached to buy time for a permanent accord. Such a stopgap deal could require Tehran to limit its uranium processing in exchange for a partial lifting of sanctions. “The money the Iranians will receive will reach our doorstep in the form of terrorism and missiles,” Lapid told Blinken, according to the Israeli foreign ministry.

       While Israeli officials have yet to sway the administration, they say they believe their concerns are getting a better hearing in Washington than Netanyahu’s demands did during the Obama administration.

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       Israel has long alleged that Iran’s nuclear program is secretly developing a nuclear weapons capability and that the 2015 deal did not end Tehran’s determination to get a bomb.

       Iran, however, has repeatedly denied that it has any intention of building a nuclear bomb. Nor has Tehran renounced its pledge in the 2015 deal “that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.” Iran dramatically ramped up its uranium enrichment after Trump pulled out of the deal and reimposed sanctions but has stopped short of enriching the material to weapons-grade.

       Mounting U.S. and European frustration over Iran’s uncompromising stance at the Vienna talks gives some Israelis hope that a revival of the nuclear deal may still be avoided. Israel has been heartened by private American assessments that Iran’s recently elected hard-line government, under President Ebrahim Raisi, may not be dealing in good faith, according to three senior Israeli officials.

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       “Our views are closer than they have ever been with this administration, in part because the Iranians are proving us right,” said a senior Israeli government official familiar with the talks.

       During recent meetings, U.S. officials agreed on the need for greater joint military cooperation with Israel centered on Iran’s behavior in the region and more intelligence cooperation regarding Iran’s nuclear assets, according to a senior defense official regarding Gantz’s meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

       U.S. and European negotiators have criticized Iran for trying to revisit a range of issues that negotiators had already settled. On Wednesday, Iran agreed to replace surveillance cameras at one centrifuge manufacturing site, but Israeli officials dismissed the step as an empty gesture.

       Israel has insisted that it won’t be forced to live with an agreement that it views as insufficiently tough on Iran. If Israel deems that Iran is on the threshold of securing a usable nuclear weapon, Bennett — like Netanyahu before him — says he would be willing to take military action to derail the program.

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       “On this question, I don’t think it matters who is the prime minister,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu. “I don’t think there is a prime minister who would not take this step.”

       Netanyahu and his right-wing political allies continue to deride the original Iran nuclear agreement.

       But some of his former security officials, including Amos Yadlin, former head of military intelligence, have publicly questioned Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the deal. They note that Iran was undeterred by Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign and has since moved significantly closer to having a capability to build a warhead and the missile technology to deliver one.

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       Still, even analysts who regret Trump’s actions say Israel will have little choice but to take military action if Iran’s progress brings it to the brink of being able to deploy a nuclear weapon.

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       “In the end, I don’t think Israel can just let the pieces fall where they may if and when Iran crosses the nuclear threshold,” said Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser who supported the 2015 agreement.

       But critics have questioned whether Israel would be able to carry out the kind of long-range strike needed to cripple Iran’s nuclear facilities, which are spread across the country and often deep underground. Military analysts also say that Israel’s preparations for such an attack have been hamstrung because of political disagreements over funding.

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       The U.S. has also declined to speed the delivery of recently ordered midair refueling tankers that would facilitate the operation, according to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth, leading some critics to accuse the White House of trying to tie Israel’s hands.

       In November, the government appropriated $1.4 billion for Israeli military chief Aviv Kohavi to begin arming and war-gaming for a possible strike.