Trump and Biden both pretended to be fighting Netanyahu
Alleged US-Israeli tensions are largely theatrical, masking continued bipartisan support and strategic alignment behind the scenes.
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Donald Trump could end the war tomorrow and force the Arab regimes to invest in rebuilding Gaza, but he isn’t doing it (Illustrated by Mahdi Rteil to Al Mayadeen English)
Unnamed sources, leaks and partisan writers are all again informing us that the US President is taking on Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Although it can seem somewhat confusing at times, to understand it better, simply look back to how the same playbook was used to provide cover for the past administration in Washington.
Prior to US President Donald Trump’s trip to the Arabian Peninsula, a series of stories emerged that seized the world's attention. “Trump has had enough with Netanyahu”, “he’s cut off direct contact”, “a ceasefire will be imposed”, “the White House is going to recognize a Palestinian State”, were all sold to the public. Some prominent analysts even took this seriously and the Trump-Netanyahu schism became the prevailing narrative.
To begin with, the Israeli PM is certainly an unlikable figure, not only amongst the global public but also among world leaders, yet this has never translated to any kind of serious break on policy positions.
Even former US President Barack Obama expressed his displeasure with Netanyahu in 2011, thinking that nobody could hear him following a press conference. At the time, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had told the American President of Netanyahu, “I can’t stand him. He’s a liar,” to which Obama replied: “You’re tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day”.
Obama was embarrassed by the Israeli Premier, especially during the 2015 Nuclear Deal talks, when Netanyahu decided to visit Washington without informing the American President, going on to deliver one of his infamous speeches to Congress where he received bi-partisan standing ovations.
As for Joe Biden, monthly updates on the American leader's alleged feud with Netanyahu were provided through media leaks always citing anonymous sources. This began with reports that as early as December 2023, Biden had shouted at the Israeli PM on the phone before hanging up on him.
The situation in Gaza grew worse and worse by the month, as the Israelis threatened their infamous invasion of Rafah for some five months. President Biden, we were told, was playing hard ball and imposed a “red line” with Rafah. The corporate media was flooded with reports about how the Biden administration was going to punish the Zionist regime for daring to invade, we were even informed that Egypt could officially tear up its normalization agreement.
The invasion of Rafah took place, around 1 million Palestinians were displaced, Egyptian soldiers were shot, thousands of people were murdered and the US did nothing. In fact, the weapons supplies kept flowing, with the only restriction being one placed on 2,000 pound bombs.
Gaza even began experiencing widespread famine, while limited aid supplies trickled in. Joe Biden’s response? A failed 320 million dollar aid pier, that only appeared to have been used properly one time, which is when the Israelis ran a special forces operation to retake captives and killed around 300 Palestinian civilians simultaneously.
In October of 2024, Bob Woodward's best selling book ‘War’ led to a week of new headlines about the alleged Biden-Netanyahu feud. Woodward claimed that the American President had called the Israeli Premier a “bad f***ing guy” and a “f***ing liar”.
At each critical juncture, when the Israelis are about to inflict a massive atrocity against Palestinians, have just assassinated senior leaders and are on the verge of conflict with Iran, or are openly starving civilians in Gaza, the theatre commences like clockwork.
Similarly, the so-called Trump-Netanyahu schism is a theatrical media invention for optics and strategically initiated as a psychological warfare operation. Note how the media outlets that are pushing the most prominent and controversial developments between Trump and Netanyahu, are almost always the likes of Israel Hayom or the Jerusalem Post.
Israel Hayom is the most widely consumed Israeli media outlet amongst Zionist settlers themselves and is funded by Miriam Adelson, the richest Israeli Billionaire who just so happened to have bankrolled the Trump campaign. The Jerusalem Post is nothing more than a Zionist tabloid at this point and has long lost its credibility as a reliable source.
Then we have the Axios reports from Barak Ravid, a former Israeli military intelligence officer from Unit 8200. Al-Arabiyya also contributes to the media campaign, as do American outlets, always citing anonymous sources.
Now, as mentioned above with Barack Obama, personal sentiments of US Presidents towards a particular Israeli leader like Netanyahu, have not translated to solid policy shifts. If Trump has an agenda of drawing down American presence in West Asia, this was already pre-planned and is not coming as a result of any Trump-Netanyahu feud.
American foreign policy towards its Israeli allies can be compared to WWE. While the audience watches two wrestlers insult each other and fight in a ring, everything that you see was agreed upon in private and is simply playing out in a choreographed fashion for public consumption. Assuming that anything beyond theatre is occurring, without solid evidence and facts on the ground, pits analysts in the territory of children who watch WWE and believe in its authenticity.
Now, yet, in the WWE, are there occasional mistakes, injuries, or even real fights that could break out between two individuals? Yes, it is possible and happens, but eventually things correct themselves and it is back to the original script. Or, perhaps the writers see it fit that they amend the script to further encourage public consumption.
Donald Trump could end the war tomorrow and force the Arab regimes to invest in rebuilding Gaza, but he isn’t doing it. It is always possible that there will be a change in American-Israeli policy, even a change that will eventually scape-goat Netanyahu for the entire genocide, but this is all controlled and there is no break in US-Israeli relations.
If the US was actually about to punish the Israelis, we wouldn’t see them exercising a free hand to constantly bomb and conquer more land in Syria, strike Lebanon daily, continue their destruction of the refugee camps in the West Bank, invade and starve Gaza; nor would the Israelis be meeting with the US envoy prior to his Iran nuclear deal indirect talks.
It’s very simple, the theatre is a trick, a psychological warfare operation and at the very least enables the US-Israeli alliance to buy time so that they can implement their next scheme.