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Now, as Israel’s war in Gaza enters its third month, the pain is back.
Biden, in his strongest terms, reiterated the increasing criticism of the destruction caused by the Israeli military attack on Hamas: more than 18,000 Gazans died and a sudden humanitarian crisis.
In addition, the president criticized Netanyahu for the “reckless bombing” that destroyed Israel’s international support, arguing that the prime minister is looking at the most dangerous members of his right-wing government.
“Bibi has a tough decision to make,” Biden said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname, at a Washington fundraiser on Tuesday. “I think he has to change, and this government in Israel is very difficult for him to move.”
Netanyahu responded in a quickly produced video, clearly rejecting one of the president’s main requests: to revive the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank to control Gaza after the war. Netanyahu recently announced his intention to keep Israeli forces in Gaza forever.
“I want to make my position clear – I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,” he said, referring to the 1993 Oslo agreement that was intended to create a landmark map of the road to peace in between Israel and Palestine and to end Palestine. self control. The right wing of Israel hates the deal.
“I will not allow, after the great sacrifice made by our citizens and fighters, for us to put in Gaza people who teach terrorism, support terrorism, finance terrorism,” he said. this.
The spat was cheered by Netanyahu’s supporters, who dismissed any calls from Biden or other leaders to back off the military offensive in Gaza until Hamas is eliminated as a fighting force. Some of Netanyahu’s top allies, including Defense Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have supported many calls for Israel to reoccupy Gaza forever.
Although Ben Gvir and political ally and fellow resident Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, have been excluded from the emergency war cabinet that makes security decisions, the two are still holding Netanyahu to facing to the right. The two led an effort this week to vote down measures to allow Palestinian agricultural and construction workers from the West Bank to enter Israel for the first time since October 7.
“This is a different group,” Biden said Tuesday. “Ben Gvir and the company and the new people, they do not want anything far reaching a two-state solution.”
Critics have accused the prime minister of trying to stabilize his position at the risk of damaging relations with Israel’s most vocal critics of a key part of the war. Netanyahu has fallen in the polls since the surprise attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel.
More than two-thirds of Israelis say they expect Netanyahu to take responsibility for failing to stop the attacks and, after the war, leave office. The Israeli media is full of reports of defections within the prime minister’s Likud party.
“Israel is at war, and Netanyahu Just Announced His Re-Election,” is the title of an analysis by Netanyahu biographer Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz Tuesday.
Even some supporters rejected the prime minister.
“We are fighting here,” said Michael Oren, Netanyahu’s ambassador to the United States, in an interview on Wednesday. “This is not the time for politics.”
Biden stands in increasing isolation for his full commitment to Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas, even as calls for a more comprehensive end to it spread throughout the world. On Friday, the United States approved a resolution to prevent the termination at the United Nations Security Council. On Tuesday, the General Assembly of the United Nations held a temporary vote to support the same request.
“The only thing standing between us and an international release is the president of the United States,” Oren said. “I cannot for the life of me see a national policy that comes against the PA (Palestinian Authority).”
Biden used much of his speech to reaffirm Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, and Oren said he didn’t think the spat would shake Biden’s commitment to the war of Israel.
“But it doesn’t help,” he said.
The relationship is clearly growing strained as Israel rages against calls to roll back the Gaza Strip.
A sign with Biden’s picture has been hanging for weeks in front of the American embassy in Jerusalem that reads “Thank you Mr. President” was replaced last week with a poster by Rep. Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican who has fed three university presidents for being anti-religious. campus.
Criticism of Biden is growing in Israel but it is still overflowing with gratitude.
“We respect and cherish the President of the United States,” said the Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi in a post on X. “But we live here … There will be no state Palestine here. We will never go back to Oslo.”
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, meanwhile, issued a statement on Wednesday that any ceasefire would be a “gift” to Hamas. “Israel will continue the war against Hamas with or without international support.”
The cost of that war was thrown into sharp relief after Wednesday’s announcement of one of the deadliest days for Israeli forces fighting in Gaza, with 10 soldiers reported from those killed the day before, including a high-ranking officer in the Golani Brigade. More than 100 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive in Gaza began on October 27.
For Netanyahu, there may be no local crisis in the removal of the Palestinian leadership or any idea that Palestine can be independent. He has worked to eliminate the gap for years, pursuing policies that have divided Palestine between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza. His more radical friends are more vocal, but their goals and his are mostly aligned, critics say.
In the general public, it has been many years since the two-state solution was seen as more than an expression of long-term peace negotiations, by Israel or Palestine. Now that the idea has met with a lot of skepticism in Israel, it is easy for Netanyahu to pick it up to garner support.
That worked for him for years, according to Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute.
“Netanyahu began his work a generation ago to build on the fears of the Israeli public against the Oslo process and the PA,” Plesner said. “Thirty years later, the theme is not that different. Meanwhile, Israelis fear that if the Palestinians take control of the territory, it will end up killing and killing Israelis.