Friedman: These are Netanyahu's acrobatic tricks to defeat Harris and return Trump to power

The New York Times published an article by commentator Thomas Friedman in which he said: “If President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris needed any reminder that Benjamin Netanyahu is not their friend, is not America’s friend, and, most shamefully, is not a friend of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, the killing of six Israeli lives by Hamas while Netanyahu was prolonging negotiations should make that clear. Netanyahu has one interest: his political survival, even if it undermines Israel’s long-term survival.”

Netanyahu has one interest: his political survival, even if it undermines Israel's long-term survival.

Friedman told Harris that this will undoubtedly push Netanyahu to do things in the next two months that could threaten her chances of election and enhance Donald Trump's chances, and she should be concerned about this situation.

“Mr. President,” he said to the president, “please, please tell me that Netanyahu has not been deceiving you. I have had repeated conversations with him, each one followed by your optimistic predictions about an imminent ceasefire in Gaza — and then he tells his underlings something else.”

He noted that Netanyahu was one of the reasons he had this rule about Middle East reporting: “In Washington, officials tell you the truth in private and lie to you in public. In the Middle East, officials lie to you in private and tell you the truth in public. Never trust what they tell you in private – especially Netanyahu. Only listen to what they tell their people in public, in their own language.”

Netanyahu, he said, was whispering to American leaders, in his phone calls, in English, that he was interested in a ceasefire and a prisoner release agreement and was thinking about the necessary preliminaries for what the author of the article calls the “Biden Doctrine.” But as soon as he hung up the phone, he was telling his base, in Hebrew, things that openly contradicted the Biden Doctrine, because they threatened the “Bibi Doctrine,” Netanyahu’s nickname. But what is each of their principles?

He asked: What is the Biden principle, what is the Bibi principle, and why are they important?

He responded by saying that the Biden Doctrine is based on regional alliances with partners extending from Japan, South Korea and the Philippines in the Asia-Pacific region to India and the Gulf, and even NATO in Europe.

Israeli generals repeatedly told Netanyahu that there were many effective alternative means of controlling the Philadelphi Corridor and that supporting Israeli forces stuck there would be difficult and dangerous. They could retake the corridor at any time they needed to.

They are security and economic alliances designed to counter Russia in Europe, contain China in the Pacific and isolate Iran in the Middle East, he said, referring as usual to Biden’s efforts to push for normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Since the Gaza war last October, the Biden team has been wisely trying to integrate the Biden Doctrine with the Gaza ceasefire and the prisoner exchange deal, emphasizing the important advantages for both Israel and America: It could lead to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, bring about the return of the hostages, and give the exhausted Israeli army and reserve forces a much-needed break, since a ceasefire in Gaza would force Hezbollah to cease fire from Lebanon as well. A ceasefire would also create the conditions for the UAE, Morocco, and Egypt to send peacekeeping forces to Gaza in partnership with a revitalized Palestinian Authority, so that Israel would not need a permanent occupation there, and Hamas would be replaced by a legitimate, moderate Palestinian government.

Biden, he noted, was telling Netanyahu that Israel could find sustainable Arab partners for a safe path out of Gaza and find Arab allies for the regional coalition it needs to confront Iran’s regional coalition of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iraqi militias. Biden’s view: Israel’s security today must be viewed in a much broader context than just who patrols the Gaza border.

But Biden’s doctrine directly collided with Bibi’s doctrine, which focuses on doing everything possible to avoid any political process with the Palestinians that might require a territorial settlement in the West Bank that would break Netanyahu’s political alliance with the Israeli far right.

To this end, Netanyahu has for years ensured that the Palestinians remain divided and unable to take a unified position.

Netanyahu has done everything he can to discredit and humiliate the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, who has recognized Israel, embraced the Oslo peace process and cooperated with Israeli security services to try to maintain peace in the West Bank for nearly three decades.

He noted that Netanyahu’s survival became even more important after he was indicted in 2019 on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. Now he must remain in power to stay out of prison, if convicted.

So when Netanyahu narrowly won re-election in 2022, he was prepared to team up with the worst of the worst in Israeli politics to form a governing coalition that would keep him in power, he explained. He teamed up with a group of Jewish extremists that a former head of Israel’s Mossad described as “horrible racists” and “far worse” than the Ku Klux Klan.

When Netanyahu won the election by a razor-thin margin in 2022, he was prepared to ally with the worst of the worst in Israeli politics to form a governing coalition that would keep him in power.

He explained that these Jewish extremists agreed to allow Netanyahu to assume the position of prime minister as long as he maintained permanent Israeli military control over the West Bank and, after October 7, over Gaza as well.

They effectively told Netanyahu that if he agreed to a Biden deal between the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian Authority – or agreed to an immediate ceasefire to return Israeli prisoners and release Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails – they would topple his government. Because these things would be a prelude to implementing the Biden Doctrine and a possible regional settlement one day in the West Bank.

Netanyahu got the message, he said. He declared that he would end the war in Gaza after Israel achieved “complete victory,” but he never specified exactly what that meant or who would rule Gaza in its wake. By setting such an unachievable goal in Gaza—where the Israeli military has occupied the West Bank for 57 years and, as the daily clashes show, has not achieved “complete victory” over Hamas militants there—Netanyahu has set the stage for when the war in Gaza will end. Which will be when it suits his political survival needs. That is certainly not today.

He pointed to Netanyahu’s announcement on Monday that he was willing to sacrifice any cease-fire with Hamas and the return of prisoners if it meant Israel had to give in to Hamas’s demands to evacuate its military posts on the 8.7-mile Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, which Hamas has long used to smuggle weapons but which the Israeli military did not consider important enough to occupy even during the first seven months of the war.

He also confirmed that Israeli generals have repeatedly told Netanyahu that there are many effective alternative means of controlling the corridor now and that supporting the Israeli forces stuck there would be difficult and dangerous. They can retake the corridor at any time they need to.

Friedman commented that it is all a scam. As Haaretz military correspondent Amos Harel explained, what is really happening is that Netanyahu’s allies on the right are dreaming of re-settling Gaza, while “Netanyahu, under the cover of security interests, is essentially protecting his political position. He is fighting for the safety of his ruling coalition, which could collapse if the deal is approved.”

What is really happening is that Netanyahu’s allies on the right are dreaming of re-settling Gaza, while Netanyahu, under the cover of security interests, is essentially protecting his political position. He is fighting for the safety of his ruling coalition, which could collapse if the deal is approved.

Regarding the US presidential election, Friedman stressed that Netanyahu knows that Harris is in a bind. If he continues the war in Gaza until “total victory,” with more civilian casualties, Harris will either have to criticize him publicly and lose Jewish votes or bite her tongue and lose Arab-American and Muslim-American votes in the key state of Michigan. Since Harris will likely find it difficult to do either, it will make her look weak in the eyes of Jews and Arab Americans. The writer would not be surprised if Netanyahu chose to escalate in Gaza between now and Election Day to make life difficult for Democrats running for president.

Netanyahu may be doing this because he wants Trump to win and wants to be able to tell Trump that he helped him win. Netanyahu knows that many of the rising generation of Democrats are hostile to Israel — or at least to the Israel he is creating.

Then, if Trump wins, Friedman says he wouldn’t be surprised if Bibi declares his “complete victory” in Gaza achieved, and agrees to a ceasefire to recover any captives still alive.

Friedman believes that in this case, Netanyahu wins, Trump wins, and Israel loses, because the situation in Gaza will remain as it is now.

Netanyahu knows Harris is in a bind. If he continues the war in Gaza to “total victory,” with more civilian casualties, Harris will either have to criticize him publicly and lose Jewish votes or bite her tongue and lose Arab-American and Muslim votes in the key state of Michigan.

Gaza will still simmer. Israeli forces will still occupy it. Israel will become an ever more pariah state, with more and more talented Israelis leaving for jobs abroad. But Bibi will have another term in office—and that’s all that matters.

If Harris wins, Bibi knows he only needs to snap his fingers, and pro-Israel lobby groups in Washington like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Republicans in Congress will protect him from any negative backlash.

Friedman sarcastically predicts that one day in the future, Netanyahu will honor his “dear friend of many years, President Joe Biden” with the establishment of a new settlement in Gaza, called in Hebrew Givat Yosef, which means: “Joe’s Hill.”