WASHINGTON DC – Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu finally spoke to one another on Wednesday, for the first time since 21 August.
The call came at a moment when the US leader says he opposes Israel’s suggestion that it might strike Iran’s oil facilities in response for Tehran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this month.
However, Biden, seeking to avoid regional conflagration that might draw the United States into a spiralling conflict, has failed to draw any red lines for Netanyahu that might see US weapons shipments to Israel suspended, or other meaningful action taken by the White House to force the Israeli leader to change direction.
On the first anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, it was notable that there was no call with Netanyahu on Biden’s calendar. Instead, his personal outreach to the Israeli people marking one year of horror in the Middle East was conveyed via a phone call between him and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a largely ceremonial figure.
When Biden and Netanyahu finally spoke on Wednesday, the Israeli side made it clear that the intent of the call was to tell Biden about Israel’s seemingly imminent plans to strike Iran. Vice President Kamala Harris also participated in the call.
When asked if he was urging Netanyahu not to strike Iran’s oil facilities, the US President said he would not negotiate in public.
The website Axios, citing three US officials, claimed Israel’s assault will be “significant”, and will target both military and clandestine targets in Iran. It remains unclear whether Israel plans to bomb Tehran’s oil infrastructure, a move Biden has indicated he opposes.
With the White House eager to avoid being caught off guard by Israel’s reprisals against Tehran, Netanyahu abruptly forced his own defence minister, Yoav Gallant, to cancel a planned visit to Washington this week aimed at soothing ruffled American feathers. Gallant was reportedly hoping to brief Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about Israel’s military plans, but Netanyahu insisted the visit could not occur until he had briefed Biden personally, and the Israeli war cabinet had backed his retaliatory plans.
The call between the two leaders came just hours after explosive allegations were published relating to their atrophying personal relationship. Veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, in a new book, claims Biden’s irritation with the Israeli PM has boiled over at several points during in the past six months.
“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” Woodward claims Biden told Israel’s Prime Minister in April. He reports that on numerous occasions the US President has questioned Netanyahu’s truthfulness, and yelled “Bibi, what the f**k?” after an Israeli air strike killed Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran to attend the new Iranian President’s inauguration.
Separately, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last month, Biden reportedly told confidantes he was “livid” over the Israeli leader’s handling of events during the past year, expressing particular frustration over Netanyahu’s pattern of making private commitments to Biden and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and then disavowing them publicly, sometimes just hours later.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Donald Trump spoke to Netanyahu last week, fuelling suggestions in Washington that the Israeli leader is hoping for his return to the White House in January. Netanyahu’s office confirmed that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina – a top Trump ally – also participated in the call. Trump, said Netanyahu’s office, “congratulated him on the determined and powerful actions that Israel carried out against Hezbollah”.
Biden himself was asked last Friday whether he worried that Israel’s Prime Minister was attempting to influence the outcome of the US presidential election by engaging in hard-line actions against his Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian opponents in an effort further to reduce Arab-American support for Kamala Harris’s campaign.
“Whether he is trying to influence the election or not, I don’t know,” Biden said in an unscheduled visit to the White House briefing room. “No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None, none, none. And I think Bibi should remember that.”
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