"Netanyahu can either reject any collaboration with Palestinians to end the Gaza conflict and beyond and go down in history as the leader who presided over Oct. 7, or he can work with the U.S., Europe, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states and be the Israeli leader who delivered a Palestinian state able to guarantee Israeli security and opened the road to peace with the Saudis and the wider Muslim world," New York Times' Tom Freidman said the Biden administration relayed to the prime minister.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Friday after they had not communicated directly for a month as relations between them have grown strained. White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday that the two leaders discussed developments in Gaza and the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
In an answer to a reporter's question Kirby said there was no chance to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as long as Netanyahu was in power. Netanyahu said in a televised press conference on Thursday that Israel must maintain security control over Gaza and the West Bank.
Biden tells reporters that Netanyahu's statements were not a final rejection of U.S. proposals and that a demilitarized Palestinian state was still an option. He said there are other examples of countries that do not have a military.
Friedman wrote that Netanyahu was using the dispute with Biden into as a political advantage in what he hopes would be his bid to stay in power after the failings leading up to and on October 7. despite Biden's immediate show of support in the wake of the Hamas massacre and his rush of military aid that has caused opposition within his own Democratic Party during an election year.
"It looks as if President Biden will be running in two races this year: one in America against Donald Trump and one in Israel against Benjamin Netanyahu," Friedman who is considered to have close ties with the president, wrote.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a press conference on Thursday
(Photo: Yariv Katz )
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the two men had a "good conversation," lasting for 40 minutes, during which Netanyahu "reviewed Israel's actions in various sectors and reiterated Israel's commitment to achieving the war’s objectives, including the return of Israeli hostages."
NBC reported on Wednesday, that the Biden administration was bypassing Netanyahu in plans for post-war Gaza, discussing the future of the Strip and the region with Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab nations.
Quoting officials, the American broadcaster said the U.S. president had grown frustrated with Netanyahu as evidenced by the lack of communication between the two leaders in recent weeks after they had spoken regularly in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7.
"The officials said the Biden administration is trying to lay the groundwork with other Israeli and civil society leaders in anticipation of an eventual post-Netanyahu government. In an attempt to work around Netanyahu," NBC News said in the report.
The U.S. has come out in support of Israel in its war and its objectives to eliminate Hamas as a military power and remove its leaders from their rule over the embattled Strip, but Netanyahu had rejected any discussions of negotiating an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the eventual establishment of a Palestinian State, a prerequisite for Saudi Arabia in a possible normalization deal with Israel and in its involvement in the rebuilding of Gaza without Hamas.
U.S. Secretary of State Atony Blinken, who visited the region for a fourth time since the war began, reportedly told Netanyahu that "ultimately there is no military solution to Hamas, according to the officials, and that the Israeli leader needs to recognize that or history will repeat itself and violence will continue." But, the officials said, Netanyahu was unmoved.