‘The Netanyahu-Biden conflict is indicative of the unease that has crept into Israeli-American relations’

Benjamin Netanyahu is standing up to Joe Biden. On the future of Gaza and the conduct of the war against Palestinian Hamas, the Israeli prime minister is at odds with the American president. Is this just another dispute between the two allies? Maybe not. The Netanyahu-Biden conflict is indicative of the unease that has crept into Israeli-American relations over the last 20 years.

In the last century, the White House has repeatedly had to raise its voice to be heard by its Israeli protégé – to whom the United States provides annual military aid that now exceeds $3 billion dollars (€2.7 billion). And Israel usually complied. This no longer works. Something profound has changed in this old couple. The US abstention from a United Nations vote on Monday, March 25, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, is the latest manifestation of this.

Read more Subscribers only US allows adoption of Gaza ceasefire resolution, without asserting a change in course

For weeks, Netanyahu has been resisting Biden’s injunctions. Fully aware of the singularity of the massacre perpetrated on October 7, 2023, by Hamas, the Islamist wing of the Palestinian national movement, Biden defended Israel’s right to retaliate. America has supplied and continues to provide its ally with the munitions required for an intense bombing campaign.

A complex truth

Five months later, Hamas is reported to have suffered substantial losses: some 10,000 dead among its combatants. But the Palestinian civilian population, women, children and the elderly, have borne the brunt of the campaign – more than 20,000 dead, Hamas says, and no doubt many more under the rubble. Gaza City is devastated, famine looms and more than 1 million people have taken refuge in the south, at Rafah.

The US president wants the town of Rafah to be separated; the head of the Israeli government wants to continue the war there. The two men also disagree on what the post-war period should look like: the long march toward a Palestinian state for the former and business as usual “before” (October 7 and the war) for the latter.

Read more Subscribers only Netanyahu rebukes Washington after Gaza resolution abstention

Was Biden too complacent, refusing to make US assistance to Netanyahu’s ultra-right government conditional? The truth is more complex. The relationship between Israel and the US has evolved since the end of the Cold War. The recipients have emancipated themselves from the sponsor. They have acquired a margin of diplomatic autonomy. They have forged links with the major and medium-sized emerging powers. Without breaking with Washington, Israel has developed its relations with Russia, China, India and many others.

World opinion denounces the bludgeoning of Gaza. But at Tel Aviv airport, the flight schedule is that of a country connected to the whole planet. While relations with the US remain privileged, they have lost their exclusive character. Strictly in terms of state-to-state relations, Israel is less isolated than ever: None of the Arab countries that have recognized it have broken off relations because of the war in Gaza. China remains one of the main investors in Israeli high-tech. Strategic dialogue continues with Moscow. No one, not the Americans, not the Europeans, not the Chinese, not the Russians, is making relations with Israel conditional on a halt to settlement activity on the West Bank – which continues unhindered.

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