On 18 June, Israelâs Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in a short that created quite a stir. Speaking in English, he complained about the Biden administration allegedly withholding arms to Israel.
Blaming âbottlenecksâ in weapons transfers from the US for the Israeli militaryâs operations in Rafah, Netanyahu on Washington to âgive us the toolsâ so Israel can âfinish the job a lot fasterâ.
This video baffled officials in the Biden administration, who responded by claiming not to know what the prime minister was talking about while reaffirming how much ironclad support the White House has given Israel amid its war on Gaza.
In reality, the Biden administration has only once halted a weapons transfer to Israel since its war on Gaza began last year. This was last month, when the White House paused the delivery of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs in response to Israelâs plans for an all-out assault on Rafah despite Biden telling Tel Aviv that such a move would cross his âred lineâ.
âNetanyahu is behaving like a spoiled child who is used to getting 100 percent of everything that he wants from the United States,â said Dr Nader Hashemi, director of the Prince Alwaleed Centre for Christian-Muslim Understanding at Georgetown Universityâs School of Foreign Service, in an interview with °źÂț”ș.
âWhen the United States shifts policy slightly and gives Netanyahu 99 percent of what he wants, he throws a temper tantrum.â
Domestic factors in Israel and the US
It is important to understand this politically calculated âtemper tantrumâ within the context of domestic politics both in Israel and the US.
Dr Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, told TNA that Israelâs prime minister is focused on âbeing tough and nationalistâ when addressing his domestic audience at home.
Netanyahu is positioning himself as the âshieldâ against any criticism from Washington while also âplaying the classical populist card designed to strengthen his political stature as an opponent of foreign meddling,â added Dr Landis.
Shifting blame
Dr Assal Rad, a Middle East scholar, believes that there could be some element of scapegoating. In a TNA interview, she explained that this video of him complaining about the Biden administrationâs decision to freeze the shipment of heavy bombs last month âmay serve his own domestic audience by shifting blame for the continuation of war to the United States for not providing Israel with the tools it needs to âfinish the job,â as Netanyahu saidâ.
Other experts share this assessment. âNetanyahuâs âGreatest Achievementâ is not ending Hamas, nor bringing hostages home, but the killing of civilians. He needs the war, he needs to extend it to stay in power, and he needs someone to blame before someone blames him,â Ghada Oueiss, a Lebanese journalist, told TNA.
Mouin Rabbani, a political analyst and co-editor of Jadaliyya, said Netanyahu seeks to shift blame from the Israeli military to Washington. âHis attempts to blame the Israeli military for its poor performance and failure to defeat Hamas haven't gone down well with the Israeli public,â he told TNA.
âAnd he and his fellow cabinet ministers of course reject, as a matter of principle, accepting any responsibility themselves. Blaming the nasty foreigners who hate Israel because they hate Jews by contrast works every time, even when the bogeyman is Biden, Israel's most fanatical supporter since 1948,â added Rabbani.
Working with Republicans: An old game
Netanyahu is taking advantage of dynamics in Americaâs domestic political arena to advance his own interests, which is nothing new. On 24 July, the prime minister will be in Washington addressing a joint session of Congress. This is history repeating itself.
In 1996, right after becoming Israelâs prime minister for the first time, Netanyahu came to Washington and addressed both chambers of Congress. This was at the invitation of then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich during Bill Clintonâs first term in office.
Blasting the Clinton administrationâs efforts to advance the Oslo peace process, which ran through much of the 1990s and was purportedly premised on the idea of a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu the âunityâ of Jerusalem under Israeli control since 1967.
In that speech, he âefforts to re-divide this city by those who claim that peace can come through divisionâ, which he condemned as a âgroundless and dangerous assumptionâ and pledged that there âwill never be such a re-division of Jerusalemâ.
In 2015, then-House Speaker John Boehner protocol by inviting Netanyahu to address another joint session of Congress without consulting the White House. While speaking before US lawmakers, Netanyahu harshly the Obama administrationâs efforts to negotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which passed several months later, telling members of Congress that it was a âvery bad dealâ.
Put simply, it was Netanyahuâs attempt to play off US domestic politics to undermine an American presidentâs attempts at diplomacy with Tehran.
During this election year, Netanyahu is aware that Biden has lost support from younger and more progressive elements within his partyâs base because he is supporting Israelâs war on Gaza while Republicans accuse him of failing to do enough to back Israel.
âNetanyahu knows that the Biden administration is anxious about his upcoming address to Congress. He is taking advantage of the Republicans' criticism of Biden for not going far enough in supporting Israel,â commented Oueiss.
âAt the same time, he knows that Biden is accused of complicity in the Gaza genocide. With the wave of protests on American college campuses, Biden now has a serious problem with young voters. Netanyahuâs relationship with Biden has gone from being complicated to being disrespectful,â she added.
Releasing this video the month before coming to Washington to address American lawmakers fits into Netanyahuâs plans to increase pressure on Biden to cater to the most fanatical supporters of Israel in the US.
The key dynamic in play here is Netanyahuâs quest to weaken Biden politically and contribute to conditions that lead to a second Trump presidency. For now, Netanyahu is determined to drag out the war on Gaza until Trump might return to the Oval Office for a second term.
âI believe that Netanyahu is deliberately trying to damage Biden with Israel supporters by making the false claim that the administration isnât providing him arms. He has often more or less campaigned for Republican presidents in the past,â explained Dr Juan Cole, a Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, in a TNA interview.
âIt is clear Netanyahu will take advantage of any situation, be it in the US or Israel, to protect his own hold on power and advance policies to expand Israel's occupation and oppression of Palestinians. He has shown his willingness to embrace the most right-wing extremists in Israel and the United States in order to pursue his political agenda,â Dr Rad told TNA.
âNetanyahu is the undisputed master of American politics. He has outflanked numerous presidents, by going to Congress and appealing directly to the American public. He thwarted Oslo, boxed in Obama, and outfoxed Bush. Trump has been his biggest supporter,â explained Dr Landis.
In terms of his message to his American audience in Washington, Netanyahu is obviously playing to Trump and the Republicans while also telling pro-Israel Americans to give their campaign donations and votes to Trump, not Biden.
Describing Netanyahu as the âconsummate political warrior,â Dr Landis said the prime minister now seeks revenge for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumerâs remarks in March. At that time, Schumer voiced his opinion that Netanyahu had âlost his wayâ, Israel risks becoming a âpariahâ, and âNetanyahuâs coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7â.
Preparing for a possible war against Hezbollah
Amid this current period of intensifying hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the international community has valid concerns about a major expansion of the Gaza war into Lebanon.
While the Biden administration has its concerns about Israelâs war on Gaza spilling more into Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, the White House has given Israel basically all the matches and gasoline it needs to start a new fire that engulfs Lebanon and could very easily spread from the small Eastern Mediterranean country into other parts of the region in an extremely short span of time. However, this is not enough for Netanyahu.
If Israel wages an all-out war against the most heavily armed and disciplined faction in Lebanon, Netanyahuâs government will want everything it can possibly obtain from Washington. Israeli policymakers are not naĂŻve about how much more powerful Hezbollah is than Hamas, and the fact that Lebanon is a country with strategic depth as opposed to a besieged concentration camp like Gaza.
âThere is a lot of discussion that there might be an Israel-Lebanon war. Netanyahu wants full support from the United States for that war and the Biden administration is very reluctant to support an expansion of the Gaza war into Lebanon," Dr Hashemi told TNA.
"So, heâs upset, and Netanyahu is hoping to pressure the Biden Administration by releasing the video, hoping that his strongest supporters in the United States from the Republican Party will pressure the Biden administration to give Netanyahu everything and anything that he wants when he asks for it.â
Biden won't stand up to Netanyahu
Although it is clear to officials in the Biden administration what Netanyahu is doing, there is no reason to expect Team Biden to engage Netanyahu any differently, even if officials in his administration are frustrated with the prime minister for such behaviour.
âThe Biden administration remains convinced it is assisting Israel as a state rather than Netanyahu as a leader or Netanyahu and his partners Ben-Gvir and Smotrich as a project,â said Rabbani. âTheir defensive and almost apologetic response to Netanyahuâs attacks demonstrate this.â
As Dr Landis sees it, Biden and his political allies in the US are under pressure from wealthy pro-Israel donors to avoid any rift with Netanyahuâs government. The fear is that these individuals would in increasing numbers shift their support to Trump if Bidenâs criticisms of Israel go any further.
âIt is too late for President Biden to distance himself from Israel and Netanyahu today. Should he try to, Trump will be the happy beneficiary. Billionaire donors, such as Blackstoneâs Stephen A. Schwarzman and Hedge fund manager, William Ackman have already declared that they are switching to Trump from Biden because of Biden's âabandonmentâ of Israel. Miriam Adelson and a number of otherâŠbillionaires have long since found Trump to be better on Israel, than the alternatives,â said Dr Landis.
Dr Rad shares this view that Netanyahuâs behaviour toward Biden is unlikely to lead to any decrease in support from the administration for Israel. âBased on what we have seen in the last eight months it seems quite doubtful that this will have any impact on US policy vis-Ă -vis Israel,â she told TNA.
âIn fact, Biden officials acted quickly to clear the record to assure that weapons are indeed flowing to Israel. There have been many stories over these months that claim President Biden is âfrustratedâ with Israel, yet the administration continues to unconditionally support the actions of the Israeli government in violation of international and US domestic law,â added Dr Rad.
The American president has made it clear that Israelâs prime minister will suffer âno consequences no matter what he does,â giving Netanyahu the perceived freedom to âstab his patron in the back with impunity,â Dr Cole told TNA. âHow Biden became afflicted with so serious a case of masochism is the only mystery.â
Giorgio Cafiero is the CEO of Gulf State Analytics.
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