Biden and Bibi back off their feud but suspicion lingers at home

The animosity reached a fever pitch last week when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S., said in a floor speech that Netanyahu “has lost his way,” becoming beholden to right-wing extremists, and it was time for new elections. Netanyahu shot back quickly, saying it was “inappropriate” to “go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there.”

Biden stopped short of endorsing Schumer’s call for a new Israeli election, but he said his fellow Democrat “made a good speech, and I think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans.”

People familiar with the administration’s strategy say Biden’s team, like Schumer, has adopted what they call a “strategy of distinction” — criticism of Netanyahu while reaffirming support for Israel. Netanyahu has done something similar, casting himself as the only one who can stand up to Biden’s demands for an independent Palestinian state.

‘Weird’ dynamic

“You have this weird corrosive dynamic where both men see advantage or virtue in picking a fight with the other for their own political fortunes,” said Michael Singh, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “In a way that masks what I think has been a pretty cooperative relationship between the U.S. and Israel throughout this conflict.”

Although a person familiar with the matter said Biden’s team has discussed the possibility of restricting military aid to Israel in some manner, Biden told MSNBC that the U.S. would never “cut off all weapons” to Israel.

Still, there are precedents. In 1975, President Gerald Ford ordered a “reassessment” of U.S. policy toward Israel, slowing the sale of F-15 fighters and freezing other arms deliveries when it refused a fuller withdrawal from parts of Egypt after the 1973 war.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan delayed delivery of F-16 warplanes after Israel bombed the Beirut headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization. And in 2014, President Barack Obama’s administration delayed delivery of Hellfire missiles during a round of fighting in Gaza.

Biden could follow suit, delaying the supply of weapons from F-35s to heavy bombs. Yet such a move would pose its own political problems at home, especially with Jewish voters and other supporters of Israel. And there are signs that the two sides continue to cooperate even as their leaders squabble.

There has been tentative, and halting, progress toward a cease-fire and hostage deal. An accord with Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, would shift global discourse away from tensions.

Instead, there would be relief on both sides produced by the release of hostages and prisoners and the prospect of many more truckloads of humanitarian aid entering Gaza. The shooting and bombing would stop for at least six weeks, and efforts by the U.S. to bring together Israel and Saudi Arabia on on a longterm accord would accelerate.

“What’s really surprising is not that this is happening but that it took so long to happen between Biden and Bibi,” Singh said of the tensions between the two leaders. “We’re five or six months into this, and President Biden has been quite supportive of Israel far longer than anyone would have thought.”

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(With assistance from Jordan Fabian, Jennifer Jacobs and Josh Wingrove.)

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