Netanyahu faces doubts from Israeli military leaders over war in Gaza

For months, even years, military officials in Israel have often disagreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

A diplomatic spat between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Biden administration comes amid tensions between Netanyahu and his own military. The Israel Defense Force’s top spokesman made public the military’s concerns about Netanyahu’s claim that Hamas can be destroyed. Nick Schifrin discussed the criticism and how it plays into the strains between Netanyahu and Biden with Laura Blumenfeld.

Geoff Bennett:

Today, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated criticism the Biden administration calls untrue and unfair, that the U.S. has withheld weapons Israel needs to fight the war in Gaza.

The diplomatic spat between the prime minister and the Biden White House comes as simmering tensions between Netanyahu and his own military boiled over.

Nick Schifrin is here with more — Nick.

• Nick Schifrin:
• For months, even years, military officials in Israel have often disagreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but most military criticism of Israel’s longest-serving leader is made anonymously or after retirement. This week, though, Israel’s Defense Forces’ top spokesman made public the military’s concerns about Netanyahu’s repeated claim of total victory over Hamas.

• Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Spokesperson, Israeli Defense Forces (through interpreter):
• The political echelon has to decide and the Israel Defense Forces will implement. But this business, this business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear, it’s simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public. If we don’t bring something else to Gaza, then at the end of the day, we will get Hamas.

• Nick Schifrin:
• So how significant is this public criticism by the military of the prime minister? And how does it play into the diplomatic tensions between Netanyahu and the Biden administration? For answers to that, we turn to Laura Blumenfeld, a former senior policy adviser on the State Department’s Israeli-Palestinian negotiating team and currently a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
• Laura Blumenfeld, thanks very much. Welcome to the “NewsHour.”So, how significant is this public military criticism of the prime minister? Laura Blumenfeld: I think it’s very significant.I think the IDF recognizes, while they may be winning militarily, they’re losing morally, and that has long-term strategic implications for Israel’s security. This idea of indecision, I think what they’re saying to the prime minister is, take a position and defend it. The prime minister cannot be an undecided voter. We need you to support our ask for Ultra-Orthodox fighters. Our forces are depleted. Number two, we have a political horizon that we’re looking for that we can aim for militarily, and we don’t want to occupy the Gaza Strip after the war. I remember spending time with the last military commander of Gaza before Israel withdrew, and he wore what I recall was the Gaza mask.It was this combination of dust, sweat, and the smell of regret. We rode around in a Jeep while kids were throwing stones at him, and he said: “This is the most morally corrosive thing for our state and ultimately for our security.”

• Nick Schifrin:For Netanyahu, this is not only about what is now a public spot with the military. It’s also tensions within his coalition. And, this week, he released a statement saying — quote — I demand that all coalition partners get a hold of themselves and rise to the importance of the hour, put aside every other consideration, put aside all extraneous interests, line up as one together behind our fighters.”How fractious is this coalition, and how important are those tensions?

• Laura Blumenfeld: Well, look, he needs the coalition in order to exercise what he calls the cease-fire deal, which is the most important priority right now for the Israeli public. And to get to that deal, he’s going to have to keep his coalition together. There are sort of some behind-the-scenes assurances and winks from the United States that maybe Lapid and some of his opposition members will support him. But he’s got to be able to pull this through for the Israeli public. That is the number one demand and he’s responding to it, or he’s trying to.

• Nick Schifrin:The latest draft of the cease-fire proposal was made public by President Biden a few weeks ago. And so let’s turn to U.S.-Israeli relations right now. And, on Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu posted this video.

• Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister:It’s inconceivable that, in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunition to Israel.
• Nick Schifrin: Withholding weapons and ammunition.Today, John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, called that statement — quote — “not accurate and deeply disappointing and vexing to us.” U.S. officials insist that there is one and only one weapons transfer that they have frozen back in May of 3,500 unguided bombs. But Netanyahu released another statement in response to Kirby’s statement. And he said today — quote — “I am ready to suffer personal attacks provided Israel receives the ammunition it needs.”So why would Netanyahu post that video, which U.S. officials insist they did not know about ahead of time? And how significant is this public rift?

• Laura Blumenfeld: Well, this is very significant. And the theories have been flying, everything from maybe it’s a fist-bump to Trump, because he’s decided that Trump will be the next U.S. president, to he’s come completely unhinged. It’s a kind of preamble to his delivery, his speech that he’s planning on delivering to Congress, and he’s coordinating with the Republicans, who are lining up against Biden. But it sort of violates all the rules of kind of no daylight between Israel and the United States and ultimately undoes what is a key strength. I mean, if Biden, the U.S. president has your back, why would you stick a knife in his?

• Nick Schifrin: We should say U.S. officials insist privately and publicly that they’re still negotiating fine with the prime minister and his staff today. The national security adviser is meeting with his equivalent from Israel. But you mentioned former President Trump. Do you believe that Netanyahu is extending the war in order to either stay in power and/or wait for a possible Trump presidency?

• Laura Blumenfeld: Well, it’s interesting.I also wonder if he’s waiting for Trump presidency and are the Saudis waiting as well? Because there’s this grand prize of the normalization deal with Israel and also a security pact with the United States. And you can see kind of America’s allies or potential allies hedging as we get closer and closer to the election. That’s why, unfortunately, the only person who’s in a rush here to kind of clinch the cease-fire and move forward to regional integration and economic prosperity seems to the United States. I mean, one thing I learned when I worked in the State Department is you can’t want it more than the parties. They also have to have incentives.

• Nick Schifrin:And, finally, in the time we have left, Laura Blumenfeld, U.S. officials are very worried about an unintended conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. And they say unintended because they believe the leaders of Israel and Hezbollah actually do not want that war. But how high are the risks of war between Israel and Hezbollah right now?

• Laura Blumenfeld: Well, for the IDF, for the generals I have been talking to for years, this is the war they expected. In some ways, they think of the Gaza war as the warm-up and the real war is the war to the north. Precision-guided missiles, sort of PGMs, are, in one word, what has given them night sweats for years. And they’re worried because the war in Gaza is kind of a slog. The one in the north is more of survival, aimed at population centers, easily rearmed over the land from Iran. And so I think, if they could have a mini-winnable war, which is what they’re looking for, before July 24, before the prime minister comes to address Congress, they would have the win that they have been looking for ever since October 7. Ever since then, they have been trying to prove that they can be the strong Israel that everybody recognizes from the past, masters of the preemptive strike, rather than the catch-up battle that they have been struggling with ever since October 7.
• Nick Schifrin: Laura Blumenfeld, thank you very much.
• Laura Blumenfeld: Thank you.

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