Wartime relations between U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sank to a new low on Monday with the U.S. allowing passage of a Gaza cease-fire resolution at the United Nations and drawing a sharp rebuke from the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu abruptly scrapped a visit to Washington this week by a senior delegation to discuss Israel’s threatened offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah after Washington abstained in a Security Council vote that demanded an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and the release of all hostages held by the Palestinian militants.
The suspension of that meeting puts a major new obstacle in the way of efforts by the U.S., concerned about a deepening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, to get Netanyahu to consider alternatives to a ground invasion of Rafah, the last relatively safe haven for Palestinian civilians.