U.S. analysts say rift deepens between Jerusalem, Washington
Some analysts say Biden ratcheted up the rhetoric to provide Netanyahu with the leverage to sideline the hardliners in his coalition
The tone taken by U.S. President Joe Biden in his latest conversation with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu was strident and unambiguous, signalling the potential of a real rupture between allies, U.S. media reports said Saturday.
“Biden has put Netanyahu on probation,” veteran Mideast negotiator Aaron David Miller told the New York Times. “Biden doesn’t want to fight and has given him a test he can pass, certainly on humanitarian assistance and perhaps on negotiations with Hamas. U.S. red lines have a way of turning pink. The only question is: Does Netanyahu want to fight?”
Michael B. Oren, historian and a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., who knows Biden well, provided a more auspicious reading of the crisis, saying Biden's harsh language — coupled to the universally acknowledge existential importance to the Jewish state of the "special relationship" with the U.S. — provided Netanyahu a much-needed pretext to sideline the demands of far-right hardliners in his government.
“By signaling a potential shift in U.S. policy toward Israel, President Biden provided Prime Minister Netanyahu with the leverage to overcome the right-wing radicals in his government and secure its approval of a major increase in humanitarian aid for Gaza,” he was quoted by the NYT as saying.