The many wars of Benjamin Netanyahu - opinion

Israel is fighting wars on all fronts. There’s Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Palestinians on the West Bank, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran by proxy. Those are just the enemies. Then there’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s battles within his cabinet and across a nation deeply divided over his domestic and war policies.

If that’s not enough, he is going to Washington next week where he can be counted on to inflame that conflict zone as well.

This trip to Washington is pure partisan politics. That is so obvious that US Ambassador Jack Lew felt compelled to plaintively say he “hopes that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress next week will include a bipartisan message.”

Netanyahu, a compulsive meddler in American partisan politics, just couldn’t resist Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s election-year invitation to help promote the Speaker’s message that Republicans are more supportive of Israel than Democrats and President Joe Biden.

It is an old strategy initially aimed at attracting wealthy Jewish donors, not Jewish voters. Jews vote overwhelming Democratic but the targeted audience for these efforts has been expanded to include a key pillar of the party’s base – evangelical Christians like Johnson.

Netanyahu and the current Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, had a bit of a falling out a while back but both men are pragmatic opportunists ready to set that aside when they face a common enemy – Biden and the Democrats.

Johnson made Democratic leaders an offer they couldn’t refuse in an election year, and they reluctantly endorsed the Speaker’s invitation. Biden has refused to meet his old friend Bibi at the White House as a show of great displeasure over the prime minister’s anti-democratic judicial coup and, more recently, deep differences over conduct in the Gaza war. Faced with the prime minister of a close ally coming to address Congress, Biden has no choice but to meet with him.

Biden's ceasefire framework

The US president has put forth a plan to end the fighting in Gaza and bring home the hostages that he thought Netanyahu had endorsed. But the prime minister keeps coming up with new “non-negotiable” demands, hardening old ones, and reneging on prior commitments, particularly as Hamas appears close to accepting the proposal. Their meeting may be a chance to pin him down.

Many in Israel and abroad feel Netanyahu is needlessly and tragically prolonging the war because the longer it goes on, the longer he can hold on to power and avoid going back to court to face three separate corruption trials.

The Egyptians and Qataris, who are mediating the ceasefire and hostage deal, are publicly frustrated with his antics.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who enjoys good relations with his American counterparts, supports the US proposal and puts a higher priority on the return of the hostages while some are still alive. That could get him fired because the extremists, whom Netanyahu relies on to stay in office, are insisting the war continue because they want to reoccupy Gaza, drive out the inhabitants, and build settlements.

“We are doing politics instead of reaching agreements,” Gallant has said. Many in the security establishment want to see a ceasefire in Gaza so the hostages can be brought home and the IDF can rest and focus on the growing threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon. Netanyahu has accused the IDF leadership of “defeatism.”

The IDF’s chief spokesman, Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Netanyahu’s call for “absolute victory” is unrealistic. “The idea that it is possible to destroy Hamas, to make Hamas vanish, is wrong,” he added.

Former IDF spokesman Peter Lerner told CNN, “There is no political strategy.” The government “led us to defeat” by losing “international trust.”

When Bibi flies to Washington next week he will bringing some props for his speech: families of some hostages. But at home, tens of thousands of Israelis have been protesting regularly against what they feel is Netanyahu’s putting his political survival ahead of the survival of their loved ones, and that he exploits them by showing false sympathy for their ongoing plight.

Many feel that Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has spent more time helping, meeting, and talking with them than their own prime minister; several hostages are American. The prime minister may try to use the families traveling with him to demonstrate his concern, but that is a transparent ploy given his policies in Gaza.

Now that Trump is the official Republican nominee, Netanyahu can be expected to meet with him and probably his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance. The Israeli leader has a long history of preference for Republicans, who are more amenable to his right-wing policies than the largely liberal Jews.

“Netanyahu has been working against Biden for months now, attacking his administration in English and briefing journalists that he is to blame for the Israeli government’s lack of a real war strategy,” writes Haaretz’s Amir Tibon. A poll this month showed 54% of Israelis believe Netanyahu is prolonging the war for political reasons, he reported.

Several Democratic lawmakers are expected to boycott Netanyahu’s speech in protest of his war policies and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Biden and most Democrats want an early ceasefire leading to peace negotiations and eventually to Palestinian statehood.

Republicans are not similarly troubled, instead echoing Netanyahu’s complaints that Biden is not doing enough for Israel. Trump has called the president “a very bad Palestinian” who doesn’t want to help Israel “finish the job.”

Netanyahu (R-Jerusalem) has a history of intruding in partisan American politics. Democrats remember how he colluded with Republicans in 2015 to oppose the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal. This time, Republicans are echoing his accusation that the Biden administration is not giving him all the weapons he wants. His message – send me arms, not advice – is likely to be more provocative than productive.

He seems unable to comprehend that the more he feuds with Israel’s critical American ally, his country’s European partners and its Arab friends, and the Israeli public, the greater the projection of weakness and the more it emboldens Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.

Congress is not his real audience. Nor are other friends and allies. The audience he is aiming for is back home. He wants the Israeli electorate to see their prime minister on the world stage, getting standing ovations in the US Capitol, and sitting in the Oval Office with the president. It’s the kind of kavod – honor – he can’t get at home.

Israel’s standing in Washington hasn’t been this low in many years, thanks largely to Netanyahu. He will have an opportunity next week to show whether he can turn that around and end this war, or if this trip is just another PR stunt.

The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former American Israel Public Affairs Committee legislative director.