when the president Joe Biden took office last year, he got the upper hand in a tumultuous four-decade relationship with Benjamin Netanyahulongtime Israeli prime minister.
Biden had beaten the former president Donald Trumpwho was a close ally of Netanyahu, and the new US president made it clear that one of his first foreign policy initiatives would be restart the deal nuclear power with Iran that the Israeli prime minister hated and constantly tried to undermine.
Meanwhile, in Israel, Netanyahu has been accused of corruption, fraud and breach of trust.
Within months, he would be removed from office after more than a dozen years as the leader of the Jewish state.
Now things have changed.
Biden’s hopes for a nuclear deal with Iran nearly collapsed and Iran began supplying Russia with missiles and drones for use in Ukraine.
Polls suggest the president will face a harsh reprimand in next week’s midterm elections that could put him put an end to its national legislative agenda.
Trump is still a powerful force in American politics, and is likely to run again in 2024.
And on Thursday, Netanyahu secured his return to power with a new far-right coalition that will once again appoint him prime minister, in support of the aggressive and direct style that has been at the center of his clashes with Biden and other US presidents. During the years.
The two leaders will find themselves in a position to clash again over issues that have long strained their relationship.
It’s the most complicated of relationships, swinging between heat and combat, sometimes on the same day.
But Dennis Ross, the former Middle East negotiator who accompanied Biden when he was vice president on trips to see Netanyahu, said in an interview Thursday that the relationship was better than Netanyahu and the president. Barack Obama.
“Bibi’s opinion of Biden is different from Bibi’s opinion of Obama,” Ross said, using the common nickname for Netanyahu.
“Bibi was convinced that Obama was trying to weaken him, and Obama was convinced that Bibi was working with the Republicans to weaken him.”
“I saw Biden as someone I wouldn’t agree with, but Biden’s heart and emotions were all with Israel,” said Dennis Ross, who oversaw Middle Eastern diplomacy at the National Security Council during the Obama presidency.
disagreements
Disagreements remain.
The president favors a Palestinian state to resolve the decades-long conflict with Israel.
Netanyahu no.
The Israeli prime minister called the 2015 Iran nuclear deal a disaster for Israel and the region.
Biden said it was the best way to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
And the two men have been at odds for years over the construction of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.
But in the 16 months that have passed since Netanyahu was ousted and then returned to power, the world has changed.
Iranian leaders, worried about protests at home, seem uninterested in returning to the nuclear deal that Trump, much to Netanyahu’s delight, withdrew in 2018.
Meanwhile, Iran supports the president’s war Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, selling drones and missiles to Russia for use on the battlefield.
And the frequent source of tension, the future of a Palestinian state, is not on the agenda these days, partly due to divisions within the Palestinian leadership.
During Trump’s four years in office, Netanyahu came under little pressure from the United States to bow to the will of an American president.
Trump has never questioned Netanyahu’s campaign of sabotage and assassination in Iran, nor his refusal to seek a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
The relationship between the two leaders didn’t seem to crumble until Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his victory in 2020, prompting the former president to accuse his Israeli counterpart of disloyalty.
Netanyahu had postponed the call for several hours to congratulate Biden, worried about angering Trump, the candidate he openly preferred.
But the delay was ultimately of little use. Biden returned the favor, taking weeks to make a first phone call with Netanyahu.
And, partly due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the two men didn’t meet in person before Netanyahu lost his job.
As vice president, Biden has often found himself at odds with Netanyahu or his administration.
More than a decade ago, according to former officials, it was Biden who complained during a meeting in the Situation Room that Israel, under Netanyahu’s leadership, had been too hasty in updating the secret computer code to sabotage the nuclear enrichment facility. of Natanz in Iran.
The malware has spread around the world and its disclosure has led to the unveiling of the story of a secret program, codenamed Olympic Gamesled by both countries.
On other occasions, Biden has expressed concern that Israel’s killing of nuclear scientists was undermining the effort to reach a diplomatic deal to limit its production of nuclear material.
Political disagreements between Biden and Netanyahu sometimes seemed to fuel personal animosity.
During a visit to Israel in March 2010, the Netanyahu government announced the construction of new settlement projects in East Jerusalem, a territory that would be the subject of negotiations on the borders of a Palestinian state.
Biden, who just hours earlier had spoken expansively about the security relationship between the two nations, was surprised by the announcement and anger.
That night, Biden delayed by more than 90 minutes his arrival at a dinner with Netanyahu and his wife, a diplomatic reprimand intended to clear up his displeasure.
(Netanyahu said he was not involved in the settlement decision or timing of the announcement during Biden’s visit.)
Trajectory
After Netanyahu was ousted from his party in 2021, he lashed out at the Biden administration in his final speech, likening hesitation to tackle Iran’s nuclear program to a former U.S. president’s failure to deal with Hitler more quickly. During the Second World War. .
“In 1944, at the height of the Holocaust, the President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelthe refused to bomb the railway leading to the death camps and he refused to bomb the gas chambers, which could have saved millions of people, “Netanyahu said.
The relationship between Netanyahu and Biden dates back decades, when Biden was a member of the Senate foreign relations committee and Netanyahu was Israel’s deputy ambassador to Washington.
Biden has often spoken fondly of Netanyahu ever since, despite their political differences, once describing to him giving him a photograph with a warm caption:
“Bibi, I don’t agree with what you say, but I love you.”
“Biden has this instinctive attachment to Israel,” Ross said. The belief that Israelis feel “essentially threatened” by their opponents, Ross said, has led Biden to be more inclined to understand Netanyahu’s point of view.
After Netanyahu became prime minister in 1996 and then lost office three years later, Biden was the only American politician to write him a letter after his election defeat, Ross said.
In moments of greatest friction between Netanyahu and Obama, it was up to Biden to play pacifier.
But there were sharp moments when the differences came to light.
In 2015, Biden refused to attend a speech given by Netanyahu to Congress after the Israeli leader accepted an invitation from Republican House Speaker John Boehner without notifying the White House.
The speech was devoted to opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal, and Biden’s absence exacerbated the dispute between Netanyahu and the Obama administration over the wisdom of the deal.
That deal froze Iran’s business for several years, until Trump canceled and the Iranians resumed nuclear fuel production.
As president, Biden used his first political capital to seek a return to the deal Trump tore.
It advanced at a time when Netanyahu was politically weak.
But even in those days, Biden promised to support to Israel, whoever its leaders are.
This was shown during Biden’s visit to Israel in mid-July when he met with the government of Yair Lapid.
Biden was clearly relaxed and enjoying the ride, especially with respect to his next stop, Saudi Arabia.
He visited Netanyahu, in what was described as a warm but brief meeting.
Netanyahu later said he told Biden that the United States must threaten Iran with more than economic sanctions or a defensive military partnership between states in the Middle East.
“We need one thing,” he said.
“A credible offensive military option is needed.”
Netanyahu will no doubt insist on this as prime minister now that negotiations to re-enter the nuclear deal are stalled.
With Iran producing more and more enriched uranium at levels close to bombs, it will certainly require more sanctions and more threats of military action.
And with little prospect of a diplomatic solution, Biden may have less room to back down.
Biden, for his part, will likely put pressure on Israel to take the side contain Russiaa step Israel refused to take, saying it must work with Moscow on Syria.
Each of these problems takes a different form than when Biden took office.
History suggests it inevitable stresss with Netanyahu, born out of different national interests, are bound to emerge quickly.
c.2022 The New York Times Company
Source: Clarin
