He tried to undermine it.. Does Gantz’s visit to Washington constitute a strong blow to Netanyahu?

The visit of Minister of the Israeli War Council Gantz (left) to Washington angered Prime Minister Netanyahu (Al Jazeera)

Political analysts told Al Jazeera Net that the visit of Minister in the Israeli Government's War Council, Benny Gantz, to the United States represents a strong blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has become a burden on the American administration, and has failed to free the prisoners held by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Israeli newspapers revealed yesterday, Monday, that Netanyahu refused to give Gantz’s visit to Washington an “official character,” and not only that, but he tried to undermine it.

She also indicated that Netanyahu ordered his ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, not to attend the meetings held by Gantz with American officials, and that he "moved in recent days to prevent Gantz from reaching any official understandings with the administration of (US President Joe) Biden."

However, the US administration, represented by Vice President Kamala Harris, officially received Gantz yesterday, the day after she criticized Tel Aviv for not allowing sufficient amounts of humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera Net monitors the backgrounds of this visit, its reasons, and its repercussions on the Israeli and American scenes with a number of researchers and political analysts.

Visit wallpapers

Writer and political analyst Majed Ibrahim said that this visit comes “in light of the continued failure of the Israeli occupation to achieve any achievement on the ground, and the continued faltering agreement on a truce or ceasefire, especially with Netanyahu’s position of obstacles, contrary to the desire of the American administration.”

Ibrahim added - in an interview with Al Jazeera Net - that this was accompanied by Netanyahu not informing his partners in the government coalition of the details of the negotiations with Hamas, as well as his request for information about the living prisoners held by the resistance without informing the government, which did not set this condition in the first place, and which the resistance rejected.

Not far from that, the writer specializing in American affairs, Muhammad Al-Minshawi, says that the political competitors inside Israel have run out of patience with this war, and this is the approach that the Prime Minister is pushing for.

He added that Gantz had imagined that the aggression on the Gaza Strip would continue for days or weeks and end, after which early elections would be held and those responsible would be held accountable for the great loss that Israel suffered on the seventh of last October, but Netanyahu seems to want to prolong the war forever. end.

As for the researcher at the German Robert Bosch Academy, Muhammad Darawsheh, he believes that inviting Gantz to visit the United States is a strong blow to Netanyahu, who was elected more than a year ago as prime minister and Washington has not yet extended an invitation to him to visit it. This is the first time in history that an Israeli prime minister has not been invited to visit. Washington: This demonstrates the large and real gap in positions and trust between Netanyahu and the US administration.

Why is Netanyahu angry?

Darawsha added that this American embrace of Gantz is something that Netanyahu is aware of politically, and knows that it is a weakening of his standing and a blow to his electoral future. Therefore, it can be said that the date of the current March 4 is the beginning of the electoral battle inside Israel, and the two conflicting heads will be Gantz and Netanyahu.

What is more dangerous is that the United States - as the researcher at the German Robert Bosch Academy believes - is betting on Gantz’s “rational voice” in the Israeli government, and it can attract many countries in the world that will bet on that, including also Arab countries.

But Al-Minshawi said that Netanyahu has become a burden on Washington and on Biden himself, and “hence America may have seen Gantz as a suitable alternative when he visits the White House and meets with the Vice President and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.”

For this reason, "the Israeli Prime Minister opposed this visit, and instructed the embassy in Washington to boycott the visit and not cooperate with Gantz in arranging his meetings."

As for political analyst Majed Ibrahim, he believes that the visit aims to punish Netanyahu because of his insistence on continuing the intensive targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip, contrary to what was asked of him before the beginning of the third phase of the war, in addition to his committing massacres that embarrass the Biden administration, the most recent of which is the flour massacre in Gaza.

The Israeli interior

This visit also reflects the political clash inside Israel, as there is a coalition government that brought together various elements from across the political spectrum, and it is clear that the aggression on Gaza brought them together in the beginning, “there is no voice that rises above the sound of battle,” as Al-Minshawi says, but Gantz’s visit reveals another change.

Al-Minshawi says that it is a big message to the Israeli interior that there are voices other than Netanyahu, and that they can communicate with the pillars of decision-making in the American capital, which is the largest supporter of the Israeli aggression.

However, the Biden administration - as Al-Minshawi says - does not identify its foreign relations in an important file such as the Palestinian-Israeli file, “and I believe that the American administration today sees Netanyahu as a burden on it within the framework of its vision for what will happen after the end of the battles in the Gaza Strip.”

As for Darawsheh, he disagreed slightly with the previous opinion, and said that Netanyahu has actually become a very large burden on the American government, and a very large burden on the military system, the economy, and the Israeli people.

But he added that it is not easy to get rid of Netanyahu politically, as he still maintains 64 members in the Knesset within the government coalition, compared to 56. Therefore, his opponents need 5 members from within the Likud Party for Netanyahu to fall.

Speaking of electoral numbers, Ibrahim says that according to the latest opinion poll conducted in Israel, if elections were held today, Gantz’s party would obtain 39 seats, compared to Likud, headed by Netanyahu, obtaining only 17 seats.

He added that for this reason, Gantz wants to exploit any opportunity to disengage from the government coalition, provided that this leads to its downfall, although he links this step to the appropriate timing that does not affect the course of the war.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu continues to push for this step through attempts to marginalize him and become more stringent in prisoner negotiations.

The American interior

The shadows of Gantz's visit did not go far from the American interior, as Al-Minshawi says that the United States is going through a hot electoral season, and there is a message that was a slap in the face of the current administration, and in the face of President Biden, in the Michigan state elections.

The specialist in American affairs added that Washington has other accounts than those of Tel Aviv. The United States believes that the continuation of the Israeli aggression during the month of Ramadan will be very harmful to its policies around the world and its Arab and Muslim allies, because of its great symbolism for more than a billion Muslims around the world and Eid al-Fitr that follows it. .

Ibrahim pointed out that a Fox News poll said that 65% of American voters were dissatisfied with the president’s performance in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, so Biden fears losing support among Muslim voters in the key states that will decide the expected confrontation with his potential rival, Donald Trump.

The writer and political analyst believes that there will be an imminent public confrontation between the US administration and Netanyahu, with Israel blaming the failure of the Hamas prisoner negotiations, and the United States may avoid using its veto power against anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council, or even imposing conditions on the supply of prisoners. Weapons for the Israeli army.

As for the researcher at the German Robert Bosch Academy, he went further, and said that Gantz’s visit represents a clear American interference in Israeli affairs, and that the official reception for him, and his meetings with US administration officials, aim to create a dynamic that would lead to destabilizing the current government in Israel, and pushing towards the establishment of an alternative government. .

Darawsha returned to point out that the Biden administration was involved and paid a very high price as a result of embracing Netanyahu and giving Israel a wide range of diplomatic support at the United Nations, and financial support that reached 14 billion dollars, in addition to the expanded military support during this aggression against Gaza.

Source: Al Jazeera