The Daily - Netanyahu and Biden: A History

Episode Date: May 20, 2021

It has been more than a week since the latest escalation between Israel and Hamas, and President Biden has been taking a cautious approach.The president has stressed Israel’s right to defend itself, but he seems reluctant to place too much pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.Mr. Biden has known Mr. Netanyahu for decades. Is that a help or a hindrance?Guest: Michael Crowley, a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times. Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Background reading: Mr. Biden has maintained his public support toward Israel even as he adopted a somewhat sharper private tone with Mr. Netanyahu, a calculus shaped by their longtime relationship.Among Democrats in Congress, attitudes toward Israel have grown more critical as the party base expresses concern about the human rights of Palestinians.Here’s what to know about the conflict between Israel and Hamas.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, as the United States tries to de-escalate the war between Hamas and Israel, a look at the complicated personal history and delicate diplomacy between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kevin Roos spoke with our colleague in Washington, Michael Crowley. It's Thursday, May 20th. Michael, it's been more than a week since this latest escalation between Israel and Hamas that has left more than 200 people dead, including dozens of children, the majority of the victims Palestinians. In any conflict like this, the U.S. typically wants it to be over as soon as possible

so that they can minimize the death toll, the number of people who are hurt or injured, the amount of damage. But it wasn't until this week that we heard from President Biden that he supported a ceasefire. So what's the story behind that? So President Biden has been very cautious in his approach to this conflict and really has repeatedly stressed his support for Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas missile attacks. And that is very much in line with traditional U.S. policy. And so President Biden spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu twice. In a conversation with Netanyahu on Tuesday, Biden did use the phrase ceasefire, but stopped short of calling for one or calling for an immediate one. All he would say is that he supported a ceasefire. And then on Wednesday, we saw a statement that went a little bit farther. And now President Biden is saying that he expects a de-escalation

on the path to a ceasefire. So he is creeping closer to this call for an immediate ceasefire. But again, in keeping with this supportive posture he's been taking and an apparent effort to preserve his relationship with the Israeli leader, he's not going as far as many members of his party would like him to. That's interesting. So you're saying that he has a lot of options in how to respond to this, one of which would be to call for an immediate ceasefire. but he has sort of slow walked up to that point, saying first that he supported a ceasefire, but not exactly calling for one, then saying he supported de-escalation on the way to a ceasefire. But still, President Biden has not publicly called for an immediate

ceasefire. Like he's not going on TV and saying that even if he's kind of gradually ramping up his rhetoric. That's right. There's a real reluctance, obviously, to squeeze Netanyahu too hard. So I think it's fair to say that what Biden has done publicly so far really amounts to half measures. And politically in the U.S., that's almost a lose-lose situation for him. We are asking that the Biden administration come forward in a strong statement of support for our closest friend and ally in the Middle East, Israel. Republicans are on the attack, saying that Biden is insufficiently supportive of Israel. What he needs to say is that he expects Iran and Hamas to stop terrorizing the people of Israel

and the people of Israel can expect the United States to stand with them all the way until Hamas is destroyed. Meanwhile, Democrats are essentially in an uproar, saying, what is taking so long? What are you waiting for? Children are dying in Gaza. You have to stop the violence. And we saw a dramatic punctuation of that on Tuesday. President Biden traveled to Detroit for an event that had nothing to do with foreign policy. And he was confronted on the tarmac when he landed by Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who essentially got up in his face

and read him the riot act on this and essentially said that the debate in Washington is totally slanted in favor of Israel. And by not coming down harder on the Israelis, that President Biden was betraying his commitment to human rights. Prime example of the kind of pressure that President Biden is facing. The daughter of Palestinian immigrants, Congresswoman Tlaib. Tlaib, who reportedly confronted President Biden on Israel, saying U.S. support is enabling

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to commit crimes against Palestinians. But it is not just Congresswoman Tlaib. More moderate Democrats like Senator Bob Menendez and Congressman Adam Schiff are also calling on the administration to do more to protect Palestinians and end the violence. Now Democrats of all ideological stripes. Just last night, Senator John Ossoff joined by 28 Senate Democrats from both wings of the party called for an immediate ceasefire.

And even Jewish Democrats like John Ossoff and Jerry Nadler, who are increasingly willing to criticize Israel and its policies toward the Palestinians in terms that really would have been seen as kind of taboo a generation or maybe even 15 years ago. So nobody seems to be happy with President Biden's public response so far. That's right. But there's more to the story. And in our reporting with my colleague, Annie Carney, we learned that President Biden has been taking a tougher tone privately with Prime Minister Netanyahu than is reflected in these public statements. Huh. We don't know a lot of the specifics. President Biden conveyed to Prime Minister Netanyahu that in terms of domestic political pressure, especially from Democrats in Congress, as well as international pressure, that time was running out.

And it's clear from that that President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu have not been sort of direct confrontations so much as kind of laying out the political reality that President Biden faces in the U.S. A little bit of like, help me help you. Well, I think that's right. And something that's really interesting here is these are two very, very experienced politicians. They are very political animals and they have known each other for a very long time. What is that relationship like? Well, so this relationship goes back to the 1980s when Biden was a young senator and Benjamin Netanyahu was working in the Israeli embassy in Washington. At that point, Biden, like most Democrats in the Congress, was a very strong supporter of Israel who put a heavy emphasis on questions of Israel's security. He's thinking about Israel as a state whose very survival is at risk. And how can the

United States protect and defend this country? And that, of course, has been one of the highest priorities of Benjamin Netanyahu, as it is for all Israeli politicians. And it's a conversation that the two men started in the 1980s into the 1990s. Netanyahu is elected prime minister in 1996 and is defeated a few years later in 1999. When he loses office, Biden sends him a letter praising him, saying that he had actually taken some political risks in peace negotiations with Palestinians that were hosted by the U.S. And Benjamin Netanyahu responds to Biden's letter saying to him very warmly, you were the only American politician who wrote to me after my defeat. And that was a sign of this personal

connection that the two men made early on that has lasted ever since. And what's happened to that relationship in the years since 1999? So Netanyahu was out of office for many years. Then in 2009, Barack Obama is elected, Joe Biden comes in as vice president. And Bibi Netanyahu returns to the prime ministership of Israel. So these men are reunited again at a very high level. And in a very complicated new context, Netanyahu was never comfortable with Barack Obama's views or policies towards Israel and thought that he did not take Israeli security seriously enough. And Joe Biden was seen by the Israeli government as someone who they could

communicate with more effectively. In fact, the Israeli ambassador to Washington during Obama's first term told me in my reporting for my story yesterday that Biden became his main point of contact. And Biden was perceived by the Israeli government as a close friend of Israel. Sort of their friend in the Obama administration. That's right. And so in 2010, it's Joe Biden who was sent over to Israel for a high level diplomatic visit, which is in part designed to try to get relations between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government onto a good, more positive footing, as Obama is trying to get a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians, among other things. As part of that effort, the Obama administration made clear that it hoped the Israeli government

would limit new settlement construction in Palestinian areas. What happens, but Joe Biden shows up in Israel and on the first day, the Israeli government announces plans for new settlement construction in Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem. And this is seen as a total slap in the face of the Obama administration, Obama himself, and White House officials are totally enraged by this. Joe Biden has a dinner planned that night with Benjamin Netanyahu. And top White House officials are on the phone with Biden and his staff saying, get on your plane and fly out of there. Dinner is canceled. Don't do it. We have to show how outraged we are and how unacceptable this is. But Joe Biden disagrees and he overrules that council. And he overrules that council.

He argues that it's better to talk to Netanyahu, not to escalate the situation publicly, to try to reason with him one-on-one. He's got this rapport with this Israeli leader he's known for decades. And he says, essentially, I can do more by going in, talking to him, reasoning with him in this kind of shared language we speak without blowing up the situation into a big diplomatic crisis. And in that episode, I think you might see a kind of omen of how things have played out more than a decade later. things have played out more than a decade later. Biden chooses not to create public diplomatic drama, and he chooses the more direct leader-to-leader approach over the kinds of diplomatic theater. And everyone who has worked in a senior role for President Biden will tell you that his theory about foreign policy is that foreign policy is driven by personal relationships. But that approach may be running up against some serious limits here when it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu.

We'll be right back. Michael, it sounds like President Biden is just in a really, almost intractably awkward position. Like he's got members of his own party calling for him to respond more strongly to Israel, but he's also got his multi-decade relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu. And he's got this, you know, historic relationship between the U.S. and Israel that he's trying to preserve. But it just sounds like he can't please everyone. So given this spot that he's in, how do you interpret his actions over the last week? Yeah, I think you're right. This was sort of the last thing he wanted to have to deal with at a

time when he has so many other things to focus on, both domestically and in foreign affairs. And now it's become really a political crisis for him that doesn't have an easy solution. But in a funny way, this increasing political pressure he's feeling from the Democratic Party may be giving him a little bit of an out here. He can kind of point his finger at the Democrats in Congress who are pressing very hard for an immediate ceasefire and say to Netanyahu, look, you know, this isn't me. This is a political reality in Washington that I have to deal with. You know, let's work this out together.

They have a mutual interest here. Biden wants to make this crisis go away so he can focus on the rest of his agenda. He wants to take the political heat off of himself and not incur any more damage within his own party. And Netanyahu also needs to worry about the political climate in the United States. he can't afford to see his country lose support in the Democratic Party. But then help me understand why Netanyahu cares so much about this broader American attitude toward Israel. Like, why is he so scared to lose the American public's support and the support of the U.S. Congress in particular? Well, since its founding, Israel has grown into a wealthy, strong nation state, but it still

remains hugely dependent on the United States for vast amounts of military aid and all kinds of vital political support and protection around the world, including repeatedly, for instance, at the United Nations, where sentiment runs often very strongly against Israel. And so for Netanyahu and any Israeli leader, it has long been essential to maintain strong support in both parties for Israel to ensure that America continues to play that kind of protector role. That bipartisan consensus has been weakening over several years. There is a new wave of sympathy for the Palestinian cause and plight that was not there before. And to the extent that that could break this bipartisan consensus that has been so supportive of Israel, that is very, very dangerous for Netanyahu and for the future of his country. And so Joe Biden can say to Netanyahu, I can help you lower the temperature in Washington,

and you can work with me to try to bring an end to this conflict that is creating a political crisis for me. So there are a lot of different factors at play here in this very complicated game these two leaders are playing. How is Netanyahu responding to this hitch from Biden that, you know, he needs Biden's support because otherwise he's going to lose Democrats, maybe lose the American public, this kind of good cop, bad cop routine almost? How is Netanyahu responding to that? Well, one thing he does is this past Sunday, he goes on a Sunday morning network talk show. I'm John Dickerson in Washington today on Face the Nation. In this case, CBS's Face the Nation. Big audience, big visibility.

Good morning, Mr. Prime Minister. Thank you for being with us. Good morning. And he makes a pretty defiant and unapologetic case. We were attacked by Hamas on our national day, Jerusalem Day, unprovoked attacks on Jerusalem, and then thousands of rockets and missiles on our cities. And I think any country has to defend itself. It has a natural right of self-defense. We'll do whatever it takes to restore order and

quiet. He says that he will never compromise Israel's security. And then I think most sort of powerfully, he essentially turns the question around. But we're not going to just let them get away with it. Neither would you. I mean, you just imagine what would have happened if you had 2,900 rockets fired on Washington and New York and others. I think you would understand our position. I think you do, actually. And says, what would you Americans do if you were in our shoes? What would you do if a terrorist group that was organized around the goal of destroying the very existence of your country was raining thousands of rockets down on cities like New York or Los Angeles.

What would you do if it happened to Washington and to New York? You know damn well what you'd do. You know damn well what you would do. So as Netanyahu is privately managing his relationship with President Biden, Netanyahu is privately managing his relationship with President Biden. He's also very publicly going on TV and waging this kind of direct PR campaign with the American public. That's right. He understands that he cannot afford to lose American public opinion. He can afford to lose liberal Democrats, some of whom have been critical of Israel for years. He can probably afford to see some more moderate Democrats getting a little wobbly in the heat of a crisis that will

hopefully pass. But he really needs to shore up broader American public opinion and, from his perspective, prevent the further spread of this new form of thinking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Michael, what you're describing are basically two different approaches, where President Biden has this sort of public restraint and this more forceful private conversation, while Netanyahu is making a very forceful case both in public and presumably in private. And it's making me think about that story from 2010, where Israel sent this very clear signal by expanding these settlements while Joe Biden was in Israel, basically humiliating him and the Obama administration. And yet Biden decided to still prioritize preserving this relationship, staying in Israel.

And so I guess my question is like, did that approach actually do anything? Is there any evidence that staying and having dinner with Netanyahu and trying to repair this relationship helped or made any difference? Because it seems like the situation has only gotten worse since then. No.

Netanyahu, since 2010, has only moved to the right on the issues that the Obama administration was pressuring him on, and on questions like new settlement construction, has only continued to press forward, defying calls from the United States, from the international community. Of course, there was a four-year period where he was completely empowered by President Donald Trump. But Biden could argue that things would potentially have been worse and that maintaining a line of communication to Netanyahu might have fended off other things that he never did do. But it's really hard to see what Biden gained in that particular moment. So then I guess I'm wondering why President Biden continues to think this is the right strategy,

to press not in Yahoo, but only in private. So we can't know for sure. One explanation is that Biden is largely following a playbook that has been used in Washington for decades. Another is his very deeply held belief in the importance of personal relationships between world leaders. It's something he has talked about over and over again. And it's just a kind of almost ideology for Biden that you work things out with another leader. You understand the political constraints they face. You give them space. And so we can't know

for sure, but his actions are consistent with those worldviews. I also think that we can't discount the likelihood that Biden has a lot of genuine, substantive sympathy for the situation that Netanyahu is in. I think that Biden has major disagreements with Netanyahu's larger policies towards the Palestinians, settlement construction in particular. But when it comes to rockets being fired into Israel from Gaza, I think that Biden thinks that that is a very legitimate security concern. So part of this is just what does he think is reasonable for Netanyahu to be doing? But it's important to note that there is more to the story than that. And I think the question, you know, if and when we get a ceasefire and we come out of this military exchange, it will go back to the thing that started all of this, which is violence within Israel between Israelis and Arabs that has been

building to this point for years. And that Netanyahu's critics say he is partly responsible for because of his policies towards the Palestinians, because of his empowerment of religious nationalistic forces within the country. And that is a tougher subject for Biden to take on. And we will have to see how he addresses that part of it once the shooting and the rockets and the bombs stop. It seems like you're describing basically a situation in which the walls are kind of closing in on President Biden. He's trying to stake out this middle ground between where more progressive Democrats are and where Netanyahu wants him to be. And that feels like it can't last forever because, you know, we're seeing all these images of death and destruction in Gaza.

A lot of other countries, including in Europe, are now calling for an immediate ceasefire. A lot of other countries, including in Europe, are now calling for an immediate ceasefire. So I guess I'm just wondering how long President Biden has before events are going to essentially force his hand. How long he can walk this tightrope. I think that, you know, there are signs that President Biden is kind of reaching the breaking point and he is running out of patience. It's impossible to avoid the reality of what's happening in Gaza, which is really now a humanitarian crisis. And after the White House released its summary of his Wednesday call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Netanyahu came out and essentially said, these operations will continue until they have met their objectives.

And we don't know what that means. It could mean that he's talking about many days or even weeks. It could be a face-saving way for Netanyahu to essentially say, nobody tells me what to do, but in fact, he's getting ready to wind things down. There's just no telling. So the question is, at what point does Joe Biden change course in a more dramatic way? And it almost feels like a race against the clock. Is Netanyahu willing to wind down his military operations and agree to a ceasefire before the Biden administration reaches what it perceives as a breaking point,

where it has to totally change its strategy and take a much more aggressive approach toward the Netanyahu government, which could precipitate a new political crisis between the United States and Israel. Thank you, Michael. Thank you for having me. The Times reports that by Wednesday evening, there were tentative signs that negotiations over a ceasefire were making headway. A senior official with Hamas said that he expected an agreement within a day or two.

But analysts warned that even if a ceasefire were reached, it could quickly break down. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. Thank you. its borders to travelers who have been fully vaccinated with an approved shot and to unvaccinated travelers from countries deemed safe from the pandemic. The Times reports that the shots required to enter the EU's 27 countries will include vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca. Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca. And 423 days after it began shutting down, New York took several major steps towards reopening on Wednesday by lifting its mask requirements for those who were vaccinated,

ending capacity requirements for most businesses, and resuming 24-hour-a-day subway service. It's like a relief. It's like World War II. When they declared the end of the war, that feeling. City and state leaders, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, called it a key set of milestones in a return to normalcy, but acknowledged that the transition might be awkward, said that uncertain situations would arise, and urged residents to remain cautious. My personal advice is wear a mask when you're not sure.

If you just prefer to wear a mask, that's okay. Whatever you want to do in that case is fine. Today's episode was produced by Jessica Chung and Rochelle Banja, with help from Rob Zipko and Robert Jemison. It was edited by Paige Cowett and Rachel Quester, and engineered by Chris Wood. Special thanks to Nate Schwepper. That's it for the daily i'm michael babarro see you tomorrow