Danielle Pletka, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said of the staff in Biden’s administration: “They hate Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu].”
She added in an interview with the Times of Israel: “Everybody hates Bibi. So what’s new?
“The problem is the things they hate Bibi on are things where there is quasi-unanimity within the Israeli public and within the Israeli government, or at least within the national security cabinet.”
John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America added: “There’s no doubt that the Biden administration’s rhetoric toward Israel generally, and toward Netanyahu specifically, has been systematically and purposefully sharpening for weeks.
“If Netanyahu is choosing now to escalate tensions, there’s probably no better issue for him to do it over than rejecting alleged international efforts to compel Israel to stop short of destroying Hamas’s military capabilities, which is clearly a goal that is widely supported by huge swaths of the Israeli public across the political spectrum.”
Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the US, said: “This is the worst crisis between the countries in almost 70 years.”
President Biden has called for a ceasefire in the conflict having allowed Israel to strike Gaza for months.
Various reports have outlined how his relationship with Netanyahu has suffered.
It has been reported that Biden has branded the Israeli leader a “f****** bad guy” and an “a**hole” in private discussions.
