https://arab.news/8rpqn
In an excerpt from Bob Woodward’s new book, “War,” the journalist reports that President Joe Biden’s frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu burst out in expletives in the spring of this year, with Biden exclaiming that Netanyahu is “a bad guy” and using some stronger words. Despite a decades-long friendship between the two, Netanyahu has ignored every significant demand that Biden has made during the current war in Gaza. Yet, Biden has been unwilling to really use US leverage to pressure Netanyahu to change course.
Biden is not the first president to express annoyance with Netanyahu — or to employ expletives. Even before Netanyahu became prime minister, he so annoyed senior members of the George H.W. Bush administration, in his role as an Israeli diplomat, that he was temporarily banned from visiting the State Department.
After Netanyahu became prime minister, he annoyed President Bill Clinton during a joint press conference in 1996, prompting Clinton to ask his advisers, “Who’s the (expletive) superpower here?” After losing an election in 1999, Netanyahu was elected prime minister again in 2009, when President Barack Obama was in the White House, and their relationship was frosty at best. Netanyahu had a warm relationship with President Donald Trump during Trump’s presidency, but after Netanyahu called Biden to congratulate him on his 2020 presidential win, Trump was angry at what he saw as the Israeli PM’s disloyalty, reportedly also using an expletive against Netanyahu.
Yet, despite his tendency to frustrate and annoy US presidents, Netanyahu often gets what he wants from Washington. Indeed, it seems that he can usually ignore any requests or demands from the president, despite the billions of dollars of annual funding and other forms of support that the US consistently provides to Israel. American leaders often try to use diplomatic and political relationships to persuade Netanyahu to make minor policy changes, but they have been mostly unwilling to suspend economic and military aid when he refuses requests to stop taking steps that undermine peace efforts.
Despite his tendency to frustrate and annoy US presidents, Netanyahu often gets what he wants from Washington.
Kerry Boyd Anderson
Historically, US leaders have demonstrated a willingness to place significant pressure on Israel or to break with Israeli leaders on issues that presidents see as vital to US security and interests. In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower forced Israel and its allies to withdraw from the Suez Canal. During the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations, Henry Kissinger — though generally favoring Israel — viewed the Middle East through the lens of the Cold War and was willing to pressure Israel when he believed it served US interests.
In 1991, Bush withheld $10 billion in loan guarantees to Israel over disagreements about settlement expansion — an unusual case. Obama proceeded with the nuclear deal with Iran, despite vehement objections from Israel.
However, the US has not seen Israeli-Palestinian peace as a core national interest. Certainly, some presidents have seen peace as a helpful aspiration that could also boost their legacy, but — at least during Netanyahu’s years in power — they have not seen it as worth spending large amounts of political capital on. This has allowed Netanyahu plenty of space to sabotage any efforts toward a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu intentionally undermined peace efforts during the Clinton administration, as Clinton later acknowledged. Netanyahu ignored calls from the administration to pause settlement expansion and take other steps. However, Clinton and many of his officials placed most of the blame for the failure of peace talks on the Palestinians and did not use the strongest leverage they had with Israel to promote greater concessions.
During the George W. Bush administration, Netanyahu remained influential but was not prime minister. The Bush administration was closely aligned with Israel and, by the time Netanyahu returned to power in 2009, the West Bank settler population had expanded drastically.
Netanyahu has repeatedly and brazenly ignored Biden’s demands. Biden fumes but continues providing huge amounts of aid.
Kerry Boyd Anderson
Obama’s rise to the presidency raised hopes that the US might finally have a president who would be willing to use the billions of dollars in aid to Israel as leverage to compel it to make concessions for peace. Certainly, the relationship between Netanyahu and Obama became increasingly frigid, but Obama’s focus was on reaching a deal to block Iran’s nuclear development. Obama was willing to ignore Netanyahu’s warnings about Iran but proved unwilling to spend significant political capital to pressure Israel toward peace with the Palestinians. Settlement expansion in the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip continued.
Trump had no interest in pushing Israel to make peace with the Palestinians and Netanyahu was able to pursue his policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians without facing objections from the White House.
Biden entered office clearly assuming that he would have some influence with Netanyahu, given Biden’s pro-Israel approach and long-standing relationship with Netanyahu. While Biden’s team might claim some small diplomatic wins, Netanyahu has, in all fundamental areas, repeatedly and brazenly ignored Biden’s demands. He has not offered a day-after plan for Gaza, taken more effective efforts to protect civilians, consistently allowed sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza, accepted ceasefire proposals for Gaza or accepted a ceasefire proposal for Lebanon. He has directly rejected Biden’s insistence on a two-state solution. Biden fumes but continues providing huge amounts of aid and weaponry.
Whoever is the next president should recognize that Netanyahu will ignore any demands from Washington that he does not like, as long as the president is unwilling to credibly and seriously threaten suspending aid. It is odd that a country would provide billions of dollars to another without expecting some significant influence and concessions in return, but such is the US-Israel relationship.
- Kerry Boyd Anderson is a writer and political risk consultant with more than 18 years of experience as a professional analyst of international security issues and Middle East political and business risk. Her previous positions include deputy director for advisory with Oxford Analytica. X: @KBAresearch