U.S. President Joe Biden (left) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) meet in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 18, 2023. (Photo by GPO/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
GPO | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Visible tensions are emerging in the historically close relationship between the White House and Israel as the war in Gaza becomes a worsening humanitarian disaster and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resists the Biden administration’s push for a change of course.
While Biden loudly supports Israel’s stated goals of defeating Hamas and rescuing the hostages the Palestinian militant group captured during its October 7 rampage in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, he and Other government officials have voiced increasing criticism over the manner in which Israel conducts its operations in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israel’s relentless airstrikes and increasing ground invasion, as well as cutting off water and electricity supplies in Gaza, have killed more than 30,000 Palestinians. And Israeli restrictions on aid being allowed into the besieged, blockaded enclave have pushed more than 500,000 people into starvation, according to the United Nations.
Still, the Biden administration has refused to withdraw the military aid it provides to Israel and has consistently provided it with diplomatic protection at the United Nations, often being the only country to veto international calls for a ceasefire.
An aerial view of heavily damaged buildings, part of which collapsed, following Israeli attacks in Rafah, Gaza on February 12, 2024.
Yasser Qudih | Anadolu | Getty Images
Biden has also emphasized what his administration calls the need for an independent Palestinian state as part of the path to lasting peace – something Netanyahu vehemently opposes. The right-wing Israeli leader has also rejected Biden’s proposals to give the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority a leading role in Gaza’s future once the war ends.
“These and other divisions are putting the entire US-Israel ‘special relationship’ under pressure like I have never seen in my lifetime,” Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told CNBC. “The relationship [between Biden and Netanyahu] is absolutely terrible.”
A Politico report from early February quoted unnamed Biden administration officials calling the president a “bad guy.” His spokesmen denied this, saying the leaders had “a decades-long, respectful relationship in public and private life.”
Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz (l.) meets US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, at the US Capitol on March 5, 2024.
Roberto Schmidt | AFP | Getty Images
The reported rift appeared to deepen when Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz, a longtime rival of Netanyahu and seen as a moderate, visited Washington this week at the invitation of the White House. According to a report from Axios, the visit “furious” Netanyahu, “who instructed the Israeli embassy in Washington not to participate in the visit or support Gantz in any way.”
Gantz reportedly faced a barrage of sharp questions and criticism from the government over Israel’s handling of the Gaza war.
CNBC has reached out to the White House and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office for comment.
Election worries and “election campaign mode”
As the U.S. general election approaches and promises a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump, Biden faces a domestic political challenge over his support for Israel’s war in Gaza, particularly from many young liberals and Muslim and Arab Americans.
This threatens to cost him crucial votes, especially in swing states. Vice President Kamala Harris issued a sharp statement calling for a ceasefire in a speech on Sunday: “The people of Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane.”
And during his State of the Union address on Thursday, Biden lamented the extent of suffering in Gaza, saying: “To the leadership of Israel, I say this: Humanitarian assistance must not be a secondary consideration or bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives must be a priority.”
He was later heard on a hot microphone expressing his frustration with Netanyahu and saying the two leaders needed to hold a “come to Jesus meeting.”
A man explains the importance of voting “unaffiliated” while handing out leaflets outside the Islamic Center of Detroit to urge voters to vote “unaffiliated” in Tuesday’s Michigan primary election in Michigan, U.S., February 26, 2024 ” to choose.
Mostafa Bassim | Anadolu | Getty Images
But Netanyahu insists that a ceasefire would jeopardize the momentum of Israel’s armed forces and that “total victory is within reach.” Some observers say his rhetoric is aimed at staying in power, as his domestic approval rating is at its lowest point in his more than 16 years at the top.
“It seems to me that Netanyahu is in full campaign mode and that his main issue right now is opposing the emerging Biden strategy and the president himself,” said Nimrod Novik, a member of the Israel Policy Forum, which is dedicated to moving forward Two-state outcome of the conflict.
Particularly telling, Novik said, was “Netanyahu’s decision to pre-empt the emerging Biden strategy – which offers Israel a way out of Gaza, hopeful change in the West Bank, and Saudi normalization and regional integration – by distorting and portraying this unprecedented offer. “It’s an imposition.”
“The prime minister is focused on securing and strengthening his ever-shrinking base,” he said of Netanyahu. “This base takes as hard a line as it can get and responds best to nationalist machismo like his promise to protect Israel from Biden’s imaginary creation of a Palestinian state.”
About 200 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, cooking gas and fuel enter the Gaza Strip during the humanitarian standoff between Israel and Hamas in Gaza City, Gaza, November 28, 2023.
Ashraf Amra | Anadolu | Getty Images
“I looked at it [Biden] The government expresses that it is fed up with Netanyahu’s policies, from haggling over every truck of humanitarian aid to announcing settlement expansion in the West Bank at such an explosive moment to provocations on the Temple Mount on the eve of the Muslim holy month Ramadan. Novik said.
But this is largely ignored in the Israeli government, he noted. “What might sound like a scream in Washington is barely a whisper in Jerusalem.”
Ibish had similar observations.
“All American support, especially from Biden personally, is being met with complete ingratitude and actually contempt,” he said of Netanyahu’s government.
“If Biden got more cooperation from Netanyahu [and] He would not evade the Israelis, albeit cautiously and subtly. After all, this is an election year and he will have to be very careful.”
Unparalleled support
Yonatan Freeman, a lecturer in international relations and media at the Hebrew University of Israel, believes that the historically close relationship between the two countries will replace relationships between individual governments and leaders.
“I think from a bird’s eye view, we really need to focus on the U.S.-Israel relationship. And I can’t remember any other war that Israel has fought in which it received so much support from a U.S. government,” Freeman said. “To give just one example, the air transport of U.S. military equipment to Israel was almost instantaneous…it never stopped.”
Still, there is a broad perception among Israelis and many American Jews that former President Donald Trump was the most pro-Israel president in U.S. history.
“I think this could be crucial in some of the swing states where we have large Jewish and Israeli-American populations.” About a quarter of Americans also identify as evangelical Christians, a group that is typically very pro- -Israeli set.
“So yes, this is something that could impact the election,” Freeman said, adding that Biden’s hopes for normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia are also on hold for now.
“That would win him big points on Israel, but also on foreign policy, where Biden is seeking success on the world stage,” he said. “But it seems like there aren’t many.”
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2024-03-11 19:33:33
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