Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in Washington, but he was not met at the airport by the US President, Vice President, or even the US Secretary of State in an official snub.
Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday while speaking from a position of power in the political sphere of America because of the incredible influence of AIPAC.
Netanyahu has successfully postponed the Gaza ceasefire deal he previously agreed to, kept himself in power and out of jail, and contributed to the decision of US President Joe Biden to leave the race for a second term as president. Netanyahu is betting on Trump.
A meeting between Netanyahu and Biden is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, but insiders believe the meeting will be called off, and the blame will be diplomatically placed on Biden’s case of Covid-19. Biden had been low in the polls, and faced mounting criticism. But, very recently he and his advisors had made a firm decision to stay in the race and prevent President Donald Trump from a second term.
Biden was counting on being able to stop the war in Gaza. Had he successfully ended a war which has taken the lives of some 38,000 Palestinians, with 60% of whom are women and children, and secured the release of Israeli hostages, he had a good chance of winning votes from Americans who see the Israeli military brutality on unarmed civilians as completely contrary to American core values of human rights and justice.
Biden’s blind support of Israel through weapons transfers, despite war crimes and atrocities committed by the Israeli Defense Forces, has angered many Americans, including the staff of the White House and US State Department. Biden pinned his re-election hopes on his ceasefire deal, which Hamas and Israel agreed to. But then, Netanyahu reneged on his agreement with Biden on the ceasefire, and this is when Biden and his advisors decided to throw in the towel.
Experts are pointing to an intelligence assessment provided to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi which concludes the ceasefire talks in Doha may not progress until November because of Netanyahu’s belief that Trump will win. Netanyahu and his Jewish extremist administration will then likely enjoy a free hand in Gaza, which includes plans to annex Gaza and the West Bank.
On July 11, Biden proudly announced his imminent cease-fire deal, saying his proposed framework was “now agreed on by both Israel and Hamas.” Biden added,
“We’re making progress, the trend is positive, and I’m determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now.”
On Monday, according to the White House, Israel “affirmed its full support for the deal as outlined by President Biden and endorsed by the UN Security Council, G7, and countries around the world.”
But, in a shocking betrayal, Netanyahu turned course and decided to buy time until Trump, “the best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House” takes office.
Netanyahu has consistently delayed the Gaza cease-fire talks in Doha by preventing his negotiating team from travel, and now he has created new demands, despite Hamas agreeing to big concessions.
He must appease two far-right cabinet members, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have threatened to dissolve his government if he signs a cease-fire deal with Hamas.
Regardless of enormous pressure from the Israeli public, who demand a deal to release the Israeli hostages after 10-months in captivity, Netanyahu has stuck to his policy of buying time at the expense of the hostages, their families, and the future of Biden.
Even before Biden’s current political troubles Netanyahu was engaged in regular slow-walking of the cease-fire talks
Israel agreed to the Biden cease-fire proposal on May 27. The came the bombshell, which even shocked Netanyahu’s chief negotiator, Mossad head David Barnea. Netanyahu insisted on keeping an Israeli military presence in two corridors: along the border with Egypt, the so-called Philadelphi corridor; as well as along the Netzarim corridor that cuts through the center of Gaza. Both sides had thought that issue was not an obstacle.
“The hostages are suffering but they are not dying,” Netanyahu said. Barnea, has warned that the female hostages in particular may not survive much longer.
The Israeli public is outraged that Netanyahu has left Israel without completing the cease-fire deal which would ensure the release of Israeli captives.
Ben-Gvir said in a cabinet meeting recently,
“Making a reckless deal now would not only endanger Israel, but would be a slap in the face of Trump, and a win for Biden.”
Netanyahu angered Trump when he congratulated Biden for winning in 2020 at a time when Trump was trying to overturn the election. Later, Trump would say in an interview referring to Netanyahu, “F**k him”.
In 2018, Netanyahu hit the jack-pot when Trump pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. In his last speech to Congress in 2015, Netanyahu infuriated Obama by urging that the nuclear deal be scuttled. Israel’s longest-serving premier has virtually made his career in Israeli politics by billing himself as the only one who can manipulate the US.
Biden had insisted that opening up negotiations toward a two-state solution is necessary. Netanyahu and his administration refuse to consider a peace plan, and voted overwhelmingly on July 18 to oppose a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu and his coalition allies who are Jewish extremists have a powerful allied segment of the American society: the Republican Evangelical Christians. When Netanyahu came to office, one of his two main goals was to increase Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and finally to annex the whole Occupied Palestinian territory. Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are settlers.
Many of the Jewish settlers in the illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank are American citizens who migrated to Israel. The have many organizations promoting solidarity between Evangelical Christians in the US, who are overwhelmingly Republicans and Trump supporters, and the settlers. These groups host Republican politicians on trips to the West Bank settlements, including US House Speaker Mike Johnson, who visited prior to becoming Speaker.
On Friday, the top UN court ruled the settlements were illegal, and it has been US policy to regard them as illegal, and an obstacle to a two-state solution.
Israeli Jews and American Evangelical Christians, who both hold extreme right-wing political views, have formed grassroots alliances while working to convince Trump and the Republican Party to drop longstanding US support for a Palestinian state, arguing it rewarded the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
A May poll in Israel revealed that just 33% of Israelis support a two-state solution and 32% of Israelis favor Israel annexing the Occupied West Bank.
The settlers are betting on Trump and his right-wing Evangelical Christian supporters to annex their homes into Israel, thus displacing permanently the 3 million Palestinians who live there, and permanently depriving the Palestinians their freedom and human rights. Netanyahu is betting on Trump to keep him out of jail.
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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from Another Day in the Empire
