Nothing has shattered progressives’ sympathy for Israel like Netanyahu’s rhetoric and actions, Democrats say, particularly the high civilian death toll in Gaza.
When former US president Barack Obama hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office in 2014, the Israeli leader lectured him about Gaza’s future, a Palestinian state and an Iranian nuclear deal in a tone that Obama found condescending and dismissive.
But Netanyahu has led the change with a strategy of aligning himself with the American right, former aides say – a decision that underlies his growing rift with Biden, who personifies the traditional Democratic affection for Israel. Representative Elise Stefanik, a member of her party’s congressional leadership, recently travelled to Israel to assure members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament: “There is no excuse for an American president to block aid to Israel.”Some Israeli leaders are worried that Netanyahu is permanently wrecking the unified American support for Israel.
“Historically, Israel has always had a lot of support in the United States and around the world, and that’s because it was home to Jews who suffered unspeakable crimes during World War II,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust. Biden, who was then vice president and had known Netanyahu from his years on the Senate foreign relations committee, would often use private meetings to try to smooth over tensions, aides recalled.One such incident came when Obama delivered a speech at the State Department in May 2011 that, among other things, laid out proposed parameters for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
Biden disagreed, warning Obama that doing so would be a “black mark” on his legacy. Obama moved ahead with the abstention anyway. By the time Biden took office, the rift between Netanyahu and Democrats was so marked that the president withheld the traditional White House invitation for almost a year.
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