- Mar 11, 2015
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Netanyahu is picking a fight with Israel’s best friend: Joe Biden
By Max Boot
All the way back in 2019, Benjamin Netanyahu became Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. In the past year, since assuming his nation’s highest office for the third time, he has cemented his reputation as Israel’s worst prime minister. And now, by picking a needless and reckless fight with President Biden, Israel’s closet ally, he is only compounding the damage that he is doing to his own country.
While publicly backing Israel, Biden has tried to work behind the scenes to convince Netanyahu to be more discriminate in the use of firepower in Gaza, to curb settler violence in the West Bank and to plan for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to take charge of Gaza after Hamas is defeated. Yet Netanyahu doesn’t seem to be listening.
Last week, Biden’s frustration broke into public view. Speaking at a campaign fundraiser, the president stressed that he would provide “Israel what they need to defend themselves and to finish the job” against Hamas but also noted, accurately, that Israel is “starting to lose” international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing.” He went on to say that Netanyahu needs to “strengthen” the PA. “You cannot say there’s no Palestinian state at all in the future.”
Instead of accepting this constructive critique from a friend, Netanyahu chose to strike back publicly against Biden. He released a video rejecting Biden’s call for the Palestinian Authority to rule in Gaza. “I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,” he said, referring to the 1993 Oslo accords that created the Palestinian Authority. “Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.”
No wonder nearly half of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank support Hamas: They have seen their hopes of statehood dashed as right-wing Israeli governments continue to expand settlements in the West Bank and to resist making any concessions to the Palestinians. If Israel winds up the war against Hamas by simply reoccupying Gaza, as now seems likely, it will be giving birth to a new generation of anti-Israel militants. That is what Biden is warning against.
Netanyahu is ignoring Biden’s wise words of counsel because his coalition allies are anxious to annex the West Bank and opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state. Bibi plainly hopes to stay in office by promising to block a two-state solution, no matter how much damage that does to Israel’s long-term security interests or its alliance with the United States.
Netanyahu has decided he won't respect a US president. We are the ones who give Israel the most money. We are the ones that have made Israel a military power and we are the one who have given Israel nuclear capability.
The last leader who we empowered in the ME who refused to listen was Saddam. It's time to end our support of this government and Israel until that punk Netanyahu is gone. That's what Biden should do. Leave Bibi without American support and watch how quickly he ends the bombing and works to get a 2 state solution.
