Biden and Netanyahu are preparing for a complicated new era

The two leaders have forged a four-decade relationship that oscillates between heat and combat.

When President Biden took office last year, he held the upper hand in a tumultuous four-decade relationship with longtime Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr. Biden had defeated former President Donald J. Trump, who was a close ally of Mr. Netanyahu, and the new US president has made it clear that one of his first foreign policy moves will be to revive the nuclear deal. Iranian Prime Minister of Israel hated, and constantly sought to undermine.

Meanwhile, in Israel, Mr. Netanyahu was accused of corruption, fraud and 'breach of trust. Within months, he would be ousted from office after more than a dozen years as head of the Jewish state.

Now the tables have turned.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Biden's hopes for a nuclear deal with Iran all but crumbled, and Iran began supplying missiles and drones to Russia for use in Ukraine. Polls suggest the president faces a stinging rebuke in next week's midterm elections that could end his national legislative agenda. Mr. Trump remains a potent force in American politics, likely to run again in 2024.

And on Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu secured his own return to power with a new, far-right coalition that will make him prime minister again – an endorsement of the aggressive, direct style that has been central to his clashes with Mr. Biden and other US presidents over the years.

The two leaders will find themselves in the position to clash again over issues that have long strained their relationship.

It is the most complicated relationship, oscillating between heat and combat, sometimes in the same day. But Dennis Ross, the former Middle East negotiator who accompanied Mr. Biden when he was vice president on trips to see Mr. Netanyahu, noted in an interview Thursday that the relationship was better than that between Mr. Netanyahu and the President. Barack Obama.

"Bibi's view of Biden is different from Bibi's view of Obama," Mr. Ross said, using the common nickname Mr. Netanyahu. "Bibi was convinced that Obama was trying to undermine him, and Obama was convinced that Bibi was working with Republicans to undermine him."

"He viewed Biden as someone who who he would disagree with, but Biden's heart and emotions were all with Israel,” said Dennis Ross, who oversaw Middle East diplomacy on the National Security Council under President Obama. p>

Disagreements remain President favors Palestinian state to resolve decades-long conflict with Israel Netanyahu does not Israeli PM calls 2015 Iran nuclear deal was a disaster for Israel and the region. Mr. Biden said it was the best way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. And the two men have been at odds for years on the construction of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.

>

But in the 16 months since Mr Netanyahu was ousted and then returned to power, the world has changed. Iran's leaders, concerned about protests at home, seem uninterested in going back to the nuclear deal that Mr. Trump - much to Mr. Netanyahu's delight - withdrew from in 2018.

Meanwhile, Iran is supporting President Vladimir V. Putin's war in Ukraine, selling drones and missiles to Russia for battlefield use. And the frequent source of tension, the future of a Palestinian state, is barely on the agenda these days, in part because of divisions within the Palestinian leadership. During Trump's four years in office, Netanyahu has faced little pressure from the United States to bend to the will of an American president. Mr. Trump has never challenged Mr. Netanyahu's campaign of sabotage and assassination in Iran, or his refusal to pursue a two-state solution with the Palestinians. The relationship between the two leaders did not seem to fray until Mr. Netanyahu's congress...