Benjamin Netanyahu has brought the U.S.-Israel relationship to the breaking point.

The tensions between the Biden administration and Netanyahu’s government have grown steadily worse since Israel’s invasion of Gaza. But until recently, the U.S. side was inclined to keep disagreements in the background, hoping to avoid a direct clash with the Israeli prime minister that could undercut U.S. leverage with its ally. In the past few days, however, the relationship has gone from bad to worse. Now neither side is making an effort to hide the divergence in their goals and views.

We have gone from leaks about President Joe Biden thinking Netanyahu was an “asshole,” to Biden publicly making his unhappiness over Israel’s Gaza war policy a centerpiece of his recent remarks. Then, over the weekend, Biden declared that if Israel went ahead with its planned operation in Rafah, it would be crossing a “red line.”

Netanyahu’s public response was to say he would ignore the “red line” and that Israel would proceed with the Rafah operation. He argued that his red line was avoiding another Oct. 7-type attack—implying that further operations in Gaza would help ensure Israeli security, a statement that itself contradicted an earlier Biden observation that Israel’s Gaza operations were actually putting Israel at greater risk.

While Biden walked this back somewhat by saying,........

© The Daily Beast