President Biden has begun a tricky maneuver: breaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Gaza war strategy — while sticking with Israel and its fight against Hamas, which is still holding hostages, Axios’ Barak Ravid writes.
Why it matters: No one incident led Biden to start changing his course with Netanyahu, whom he has known for 40 years. It’s an accumulation of events and decisions by the prime minister over the past few weeks, U.S. officials tell Axios.
Between the lines: Biden hoped for weeks that he could use the war to push his Saudi mega-deal after the fighting. But in many ways, Biden sees Netanyahu as the one responsible for the deal slipping away.
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Behind the scenes: The U.S. officials said Biden — and many other senior officials at the White House and the State Department — are extremely frustrated by what they see as ungratefulness by Netanyahu.
Zoom out: Biden has reached a point three of his predecessors — Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump — also arrived at in their relationship with Netanyahu.
- Clinton managed to break with Netanyahu without hurting his pro-Israel record. Obama distanced himself from the prime minister but lost the Israeli people in the process. The consequence of Trump’s break with Netanyahu will be known only if he gets re-elected.
Approved ~ FS
Bugs Marlowe
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