Six months into Israel's conflict with Hamas, the solid support U.S. President Joe Biden's White House gave to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has taken a serious hit.
Following the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers, a clash over a possible military operation in Rafah, and Israel's failure to provide a vision for the "day after" the war in Gaza, there has been a "precipitous drop" in the standing of the Israeli prime minister both in the White House and Congress, Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels tells Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer.
"World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres is a close friend of Joe Biden. And when seven of his employees are killed, that made it personal for the president in a way that unfortunately 30,000 Palestinian casualties has not been," he said, sparking an unprecedented tough phone call from the president to Netanyahu in which Biden "really put his foot down."
Behind the scenes at the White House, Samuels said, officials are "incredibly frustrated, and I think they feel a little personally betrayed by Netanyahu as well.
"I think they really believe that they have been going out on a limb providing coverage and support when it is becoming extremely unpopular both within the United States and in the international community. So I think there is a very real sense of resentment," Samuels said.
Also on the podcast, Hadar Susskind, President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now discusses his organization's support for Congress conditioning aid to Israel, a stance that has traditionally been controversial within the world of American Jewish advocacy groups but is gaining traction on Capitol Hill.
As Susskind sees it, "aid to Israel is endangered" because Israel's behavior in Gaza and the West Bank "often does not align with American policy and American values. When that happens, you will see far greater pushback, as we are seeing right now [with] people saying aid should be cut."
As a result, "if you want there to be a path for U.S. aid to Israel to continue, that aid, like all the other aid we give every other country, "needs to be conditioned."
Susskind, a longtime progressive activist in Washington, also discussed the perception that there is an epidemic of antisemitism on the U.S. left.
"I still think it is overwhelmingly actually on the far right," he contends. "That's not to say it doesn't exist on the left. It does, and I've seen it, but... so much of what is reported breathlessly as horrible antisemitism on college campuses is college students chanting 'Free Palestine.' You may dislike that – it might make you or your kid on campus uncomfortable – but I personally don't believe that saying 'Free Palestine' is itself an antisemitic act."
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
'For Israel, against Bibi': Why Israelis in NYC are protesting their own government
Inside the Global Investigation that Exposed Israel's Agents of Chaos
Is Netanyahu's corruption trial the real reason for Israel's judicial overhaul?
'Fauda' creator on the show's fourth season and Israel's third Intifada
Israel's former military intel chief is worried, and not about Iran
‘Democracies can become tyrannies’: Why Alan Dershowitz fears Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul
Israel's Jewish Fundamentalists are in Power. Here's What You Should Know
‘Corrupt and dangerous’: Benjamin Wittes on Israel’s judicial overhaul
Netanyahu can no longer control the pyromaniacs around him
‘Time to resist’: Top Israeli civil rights activist prepares for Bibi's ‘nightmare government'
Israel's new far-right government will turn back the clock for women
The law professor fighting to stop a 'disaster for Israeli democracy'
Haaretz Live from Washington: What next in Israeli politics?
Will Netanyahu's far-right allies ignite a third Intifada? Listen to Amos Harel
'Israel is a red state, U.S. Jews are blue voters': Eric Alterman on U.S.-Israel ties
Trump lost, Biden won: what the midterms mean for Israel
From Bibi to the midterms, a dramatic election season for U.S.-Israel ties
Israel election: Understanding Bibi's comeback
Israel Election: What's Behind the Rise of the Far Right
Israeli Election: these surprises could tip the scales on Tuesday
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Jim & Bill (It‘s Another Day)
HauntingLive
Dr. Paul’s Worldviews
The Ben Shapiro Show
Morning Wire