Senator Tim Kaine, a former vice-presidential nominee and leading foreign policy voice in the Democratic party, has said Joe Biden now understands that Benjamin Netanyahu “played” him during the early months of the war in Gaza but “that ain’t going to happen any more”.
In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, Kaine accused the prime minister of making Israel “dramatically less safe” and hurting its longstanding relationship with the US, and said the US president had come to realise the limits of his influence.
The Democratic senator for Virginia is best known nationally as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election, a race they lost to Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence. The Biden ally is a member of the Senate foreign relations and armed services committees.
Kaine has repeatedly reiterated his backing for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas following the terrorist attack six months ago that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage. But he has joined other Democrats in expressing growing consternation over a hardline military response that has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and spurred a looming famine.
Biden embraced Netanyahu early in the conflict but had little to show for it as Israel continued to rain bombs on Gaza, causing mass displacement, threats of famine and disease and, last week, the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers. Protesters have condemned Biden for miscalculating the extent of his sway over Netanyahu.
Kaine reflected: “I do believe he felt like that relationship and the true compassion that he had for Israel over his career would lead him to be listened to by the Israeli leadership. I think he is enormously frustrated that he’s been trying to give advice, not like a foe would give it – ‘I think this is better for you if you listen to me. I’m not just saying this is better for me; I’m saying this will be better for you.’”
Kaine, who is promoting his first book, Walk Ride Paddle: A Life Outside, is direct in his criticism of Israel’s leadership. “Benjamin Netanyahu, in my view, has made Israel dramatically less safe during his long tenure as prime minister,” he said.
“He’s going to end up being one of the most successful politicians and most destructive public servants to be on the world stage in the last quarter century, because he’s successful if you measure it by maintaining his own position but, in terms of what he has done that has made Israel less safe and less secure, there’s a real lesson there. You can be successful as a candidate and as a politician but end up being unsuccessful or even destructive as a public servant.”
The senator, who last December raised concerns over the Biden administration’s decision to transfer weapons to Israel without congressional oversight, added: “I think President Biden has turned the corner and realised he’s not going to be able, through the force of the relationship, to convince Benjamin Netanyahu to be anything other than who he is.”
Biden has become increasingly critical as the war drags on and the civilian death toll mounts, including thousands of children. In an interview recorded last week and broadcast on Tuesday on Univision, the president said of Netanyahu: “I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach.”
In a 30-minute phone call last week, Biden issued a stark warning to Netanyahu that future American support for the war depends on the swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers. Netanyahu subsequently approved measures to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including the reopening of a key crossing destroyed in the 7 October attack.
Kaine noted: “They turned water back on in northern Gaza. They allow bakeries to start to operate again in Palestine. They announced they’re pulling troops back in southern Gaza, and there’s probably more that they’re going to do, because I think he finally heard in Joe Biden’s voice, ‘Yeah, I’m a friend but you played me and I know you played me; that ain’t going to happen any more.’”
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He added: “I feel strongly that Benjamin Netanyahu has made Israel less safe in dramatic ways and is now hurting the US-Israel relationship, which has been fairly steady and easy to be counted upon.
“What needs to happen? We need to get a hostage deal and an extended ceasefire and in that moment flood more humanitarian aid into Gaza. If that happens, you’ll see de-escalation in the Red Sea and with Hezbollah and with the Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria, and then we have to have a discussion about a future for Palestine.”
The war appears to have become one of the president’s biggest electoral vulnerabilities, expressed by tens of thousands of “uncommitted” protest votes during the Democratic primaries and angry heckling at his speeches. Demands for Israel to bring the conflict to a swift close are increasing across the political spectrum with Trump, the Republicans’ presumptive nominee to face Biden in November, saying that Israel is “absolutely losing the PR war” and calling for an end to hostilities.
Kaine, who is himself seeking re-election to the Senate, noted the concerns. “The situation in Gaza is a thousand times more important than the election,” he said. “We’re trying to find a way to get it right and, if we get it right, things will work out and, if we don’t get it right, things may not work out. But it’s because the issue is so important.
“Donald Trump’s dealing with his own uncommitted. In Virginia, Nikki Haley got 40% of the vote and 60% of voters say there’s no way they’ll vote for Donald Trump. It’s the same in any race. Each side has to make their case to their own and try to recruit some others.”