Democrats increasingly suspect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to interfere in U.S. domestic politics by ignoring President Biden’s calls to negotiate a peace deal in Gaza and by confronting Hezbollah and Iran weeks before the U.S. election.
The rapidly escalating confrontation between Israel, Hezbollah and Hezbollah’s ally, Iran, has undercut Biden’s efforts to achieve peace through diplomacy.
The growing threat of a broader conflict has opened the door for former President Trump to argue that the world is “spiraling out of control” on Biden’s watch.
Biden’s polling numbers with Muslim Americans continue to deteriorate amid the mounting violence in the region, which poses a serious political liability to Vice President Harris in Michigan, a must-win state for Democrats.
Trump traveled to Michigan on Thursday to speak at a rally in Saginaw.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s relationship with even the most pro-Israel Democrats has becoming increasingly confrontational.
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Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have pressed Netanyahu for nearly a year to negotiate a cease-fire deal, and U.S. officials say that the Israeli prime minister largely agreed to one privately before later backing away.
Instead of lowering the temperature in the region as Biden had asked, the Netanyahu regime has escalated the situation by killing a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut in July and allegedly assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, in Tehran.
Then, last month, Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah by detonating explosives inside pagers and walkie-talkies controlled by Hezbollah members, killing 32 people and wounding nearly 3,000 others.
That was followed by an Israeli airstrike Beirut last week that killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, along with members of his inner circle.