It was reported recently that, after a very heated phone call between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Biden hung up on the prime minister of Israel, while discussing the Palestinian tax revenue dispute. A dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was caused as the Israeli government has refused to release some tax revenues it collects for the Palestinian Authority that it says would go to the terrorist group Hamas. But President Biden got frustrated during the call between him and Netanyahu after the Israeli leader backtracked on a previous solution to the Palestinian tax revenue dispute, U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios.
One U.S. official told the outlet that there was a feeling that Biden “is going out on a limb for Bibi every day and when Bibi needs to give something back and take some political risk he is unwilling to do it.” It was also reported by Axios that the Biden administration is raising concerns that limiting funds to the area could lead to a collapse and eventually further conflict in the West Bank, while a partial transfer of the tax revenue is something that the Palestinian Authority refuses to accept. But the Palestinian Authority did accept Biden’s temporary solution on the matter, as he suggested that the partial funds Israel is keeping go to Norway until an agreement is reached.
However, it was reported that Netanyahu changed his mind and told Biden that he thinks the Palestinian Authority should accept what funds Israel wants to provide, adding that he doesn’t trust Norway, even though he accepted the proposal previously. The U.S. official and source told the outlet that this is what triggered Biden’s frustration, telling him that he expects the president to figure the situation out, which was followed by Biden simply saying that “this conversation is over,” reported the Daily Caller.
But the conversation was a little bit downplayed by another U.S. official who said that Israel reportedly “just said they’re still working through things on their end” and has not turned down the solution involving Norway quite yet. Throughout the Israel-Hamas war, this heated conversation between the two world leaders has reportedly been the most tense and frustrating conversation the two have had, a U.S. official said, and while the Israel-Hamas war is still going on, reports have increased detailing rising tensions between Biden and Netanyahu.
Some sparkles of this conflict between the two world leaders were also felt at a campaign event back in December, where Biden told donors that Israel is losing global support, claiming that Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but that right now it has more than the United States, as It has the European Union. “It has Europe. It has most of the world supporting them,” adding that Israel “is starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place.” He even went as far as to say that Netanyahu needs to change his government.
Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
