Administration officials insisted there was no U.S. policy change, while expressing disappointment in Israel’s abrupt move to cancel a high-level official trip.
Senior Biden administration officials believed they made clear to their Israeli counterparts in nonstop talks over the weekend the possibility that the United States would abstain from — rather than veto — a U.N. Security Council resolution Monday calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
Despite the extensive weekend consultations, and with no effort by the Israeli leader to reach out to Biden directly, Netanyahu charged in a statement released by his office after the vote that the United States had “abandoned its policy in the U.N. today. ... Regrettably, the United States did not veto the new resolution, which calls for a ceasefire that is not contingent on the release of hostages.” This, the statement said, was “a clear departure from the U.S. position.
Israel had objected to much of the language, calling for removal of the word “permanent” before the cease-fire language and insisting that a demand for releasing Israelis held hostage by Hamas be tied to any stop in the fighting. The United States shared those concerns: It persuaded the sponsors to take out “permanent” and at least to put the call for a cease-fire and a separate hostage release in the same paragraph.
For Biden, who has a deep and visceral attachment to Israel and has been highly reluctant to break with Netanyahu, the breach marked the culmination of months of frustration. Since the war began with Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 Israelis and saw at least 250 hostages captured, Biden and his senior aides have backed Israel at nearly every turn.
The administration has been especially incensed at aggressive activities by the Israeli military and settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, along with announcements of new settlements it has described as illegal. White House officials have told Israel that the new construction undermines its long-term security by further angering and radicalizing the Palestinian population and preventing the possibility of a two-state solution.
Netanyahu also had a strained relationship with President Barack Obama, and the decision by the United States to abstain from a U.N. Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements in late 2016 further inflamed tensions between them. The previous year, Netanyahu had traveled to Washington to deliver a joint address to Congress blasting Obama’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran, bypassing traditional protocol and leaving White House officials incensed.
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