At a time when Israel's international isolation is increasing due to its ongoing aggression against Gaza, the dispute between Washington and Tel Aviv has begun to become public. What are the most prominent reasons for this dispute?

On Tuesday, December 12, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a new resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons, and the vote in favor of the non-binding resolution came with an overwhelming majority that reflects the extent of the increasing diplomatic isolation that Israel is suffering from.

On the same day, US President Joe Biden launched sharp public criticism of Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that international support for the war on Gaza was “eroding” rapidly, a remarkable shift in the position of the resident of the White House, the most prominent supporter of the occupation since October 7. .

A shift in Biden's position

More than two months after the Israeli army’s aggression, supported by the United States and the West, on the Gaza Strip with the aim of eliminating Hamas, it is still unable to liberate the prisoners or achieve any form of military victory to cover up its ongoing defeat since Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7th. / October.

“Al-Aqsa Flood” is the name given by the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” to its comprehensive military operation against the occupation army, which has imposed a stifling siege on the Gaza Strip for 17 years. At exactly six o'clock in the morning local time in Palestine that day, Hamas launched a Palestinian invasion of the cover settlements adjacent to the besieged Gaza Strip, where fighters from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades stormed the towns adjacent to the Strip, after they penetrated the iron wall and crushed the Gaza Division of the occupation army, in There was air cover from thousands of rockets fired from Gaza towards Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the cities of the south.

Amid the state of panic and shock that gripped the Israelis, the spread of video clips and pictures of tanks and armored vehicles belonging to the occupation army, either burned or under the control of Palestinian resistance fighters, the capture of dozens of occupation army soldiers and settlers, and complete Palestinian control over settlements, the occupying state declared that it was “in a state of war.” For the first time since the October War of 1973, it is an acknowledgment that the Palestinian resistance attack is a military attack.

From the first moment of the start of the aggression, Joe Biden announced his absolute support for Israel and promoted its misleading narrative regarding the war in Gaza. The American President’s adoption of the Israeli narrative in its entirety reached the point of questioning the number of martyrs from the barbaric bombing of the Gaza Strip.

But with the passage of time, the tone of the American discourse towards the Israeli aggression began to change noticeably without changing the level of military and logistical support, which indicates that the disagreement between the two allies is not related to the stated goals of the aggression, but rather to the method of implementing it, most likely.

But in any case, and through the development of events, it is possible to monitor the escalation of differences between Tel Aviv and Washington and the emergence of these differences from closed rooms to the public, especially at this time, in order to determine the most prominent reasons for the dispute between the two sides.

The erosion of America's "credibility" on the world stage

The American position in absolute support of Israel and its brutal aggression against the Gaza Strip has damaged the credibility of the United States as a superpower that raises the slogans of respect for international law in relations between countries. Initially, the Joe Biden administration raised the slogan that Israel has the “right to self-defense,” but this slogan, according to international law, does not apply to an occupying country that practices all kinds of oppression against the occupied Palestinian people.

The American position in support of Israel was also in stark contrast to its position on the Russian attack on Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation aimed at protecting Russian national security,” while the West describes it as an “unjustified aggressive invasion.” At a time when the Biden administration mobilized overwhelming Western support for Ukraine in the face of what it describes as a Russian “occupation” of Ukraine, the same administration and its allies provided all means of material, military, logistical, political and media support to the Israeli occupation in its aggression against Gaza.

This contradiction in the American position on the Israeli aggression caused the American position to lose support from the Global South in an unprecedented way, and this was evident in the vote to stop the war in the United Nations General Assembly, which came the first time with a majority of 121 votes, but it came the second time, Tuesday 12 December, with a majority of 151 votes, in a striking indication of Israel’s diplomatic isolation globally, which is necessarily reflected in the American diplomatic position as well.

This increasing isolation likely explains Biden's criticism of Netanyahu from closed rooms to the public. Biden warned that Israel was losing global support because of its aggression against Gaza. Biden's statements on Tuesday, December 12, came during a fundraising event for his election campaign in a hotel in Washington, DC, where he told the audience: "Bibi has a difficult decision to make," referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report by the American Foxnews network.

It is important here to mention that Israel is subjected to severe and escalating international condemnation because of the thousands of civilian casualties caused by its aggression in Gaza, most of them children and women, in addition to the complete destruction of civilian infrastructure and the destruction of more than residential buildings. However, the American position in support of Israel and rejecting a ceasefire The fire is still the same.

On Friday, December 8, Washington used its veto power to prevent the UN Security Council from approving a draft to this effect, for the second time since the beginning of the aggression.

The relationship of the American elections to Biden’s position

The other reason for the timing of the emergence of differences between America and Israel is directly related to the US elections scheduled for November 2024, in which Biden faces a major challenge to win a second presidential term.

American support for the Israeli aggression caused a sharp division within American society, and this division was reflected in the Democratic Biden administration itself, as a senior official in the State Department submitted his resignation in protest against Biden’s position, and thousands of workers in the government and federal agencies expressed their opposition to American support for Israel.

At the electoral level, opinion polls showed a sharp decline in Biden's popularity compared to the most prominent Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump. But even polls among Democrats showed a decline in Biden's popularity among young voters due to his stance in support of Israel.

But Biden remains keen to show his absolute support for Israel, and at the same time he seeks to take steps back in his support for its government, which is described as the most extremist ever.

During the election event, Biden spoke directly about that point, as he told the audience: “This is the most conservative government in the history of Israel,” noting that the current Israeli government “does not want a two-state solution.” Biden explained that in order to avoid a shift in global opinion against Israel, Netanyahu "has to change. There is a lot that needs to be done and we must be strongly supportive of Israel."

These statements may be the most public criticism that Biden has directed at Netanyahu and his government since the beginning of the aggression, which has entered its third month, even though the indiscriminate bombing and targeting of civilians in Gaza began from day one and sparked widespread global anger.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is now scheduled to arrive in Israel this week, and Biden said Sullivan will emphasize the US commitment to Israel as well as the need to protect civilian lives in Gaza.

In the same context, the presence of prisoners of American citizenship held by the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip is another reason for the American-Israeli dispute, as Washington was seeking to continue the prisoner exchange truce that lasted for a week, but Israel broke it and resumed its aggression against the Gaza Strip. On Tuesday evening, Biden met for the first time with the families of the prisoners and promised to work to return them safely. If the Israeli aggression continues as it is happening now, Biden may not be able to fulfill this promise.

The conclusion here is that the overwhelming popular anger in the region, around the world, and within America itself has begun to sound the alarm for the old American president, who is awaiting very fierce elections in less than a year in which he wants to win a second presidential term.

Voices rose within the corridors of the American administration itself, calling for a “more balanced” American position. A senior official in the State Department resigned, and employees in the ministry presented public objections to blind bias towards Israel and condoning its crimes of “collective punishment” and the deliberate and repeated targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Thus, the White House, whose media reports and public statements by senior officials indicate that America is criticizing Israel behind closed doors, began to speak publicly about what a report by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph described as “American frustration with Netanyahu.”

But Netanyahu's insistence on continuing the war on Gaza, whatever the cost, seems as if his ally Joe Biden, who is besieged by pressures internally and externally, is beginning to lose his patience.

Source: Arabic Post