WASHINGTON DC – President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister 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. But Biden, seeking to avoid regional conflagration that might draw the United States into a spiraling 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, the personal outreach from the US leader to the Israeli people marking one year of horror in the Middle East was conveyed via a phone call between Biden and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a largely ceremonial figure.
When Biden and the Prime Minister finally spoke on Wednesday, the Israeli side made it clear that the intent of the call was to 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 Mr Netanyahu not to strike Iran’s oil facilities, Biden 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 that he opposes.
With the White House eager to avoid being caught off-guard by Israel’s reprisals against Tehran for this month’s Iranian missile attack, 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 Biden and Netanyahu came just hours after explosive allegations were published relating to the two leaders’ atrophying personal relationship. Veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, in a new book, claims Biden’s irritation with the Israeli leader has boiled over at several points during in the past six months.
“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy”, Woodward claims Biden told the Prime Minister in April. Woodward reports that on numerous occasions Biden has questioned Netanyahu’s truthfulness, and yelled “Bibi, what the f**k?” after an Israeli airstrike 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 that 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’s emerged that former President Donald Trump spoke to Netanyahu last week, fueling suggestions in Washington that the Israeli leader is hoping for Trump’s 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 Netanyahu 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 Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign.
“Whether he is trying to influence 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”, he insisted.
