Behind closed doors, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly trying to use his defiance of the U.S. (real or imagined) to score political points with his fellow Likudniks. “I am the only one who will prevent a Palestinian state in Gaza and [the West Bank] after the war,” the Kan public broadcaster quoted Netanyahu as having told the lawmakers, reported the Times of Israel. That position, ToI notes, clashes directly with the policy of the Biden administration, which has sought to revive talk of a two-state solution in order to maintain the support of the Arab world, while President Joe Biden, at the same time, continues to offer full-throttle backing of Israel.
Netanyahu reportedly also told the Likud lawmakers that the Biden administration did not want Israel to launch a ground incursion in Gaza and did not want the IDF to enter Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, under which a Hamas command center is claimed to be located. Netanyahu reportedly boasted about having gone against U.S. wishes in both of those cases.
