This week, U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demonstrated yet again why theirs is the foreign policy world’s worst marriage.

They don’t share the same goals. They don’t trust each other. And they just can’t seem to communicate.

It is no wonder that both—as well as those close to each of them—spend much of their time hoping for a divorce and a chance at happiness with a new partner. The reality, however, is that those hopes are not likely to come to fruition and we may be enduring the consequences of this dysfunctional relationship for quite some time to come.

The most obvious sign of the failure of the two sides to communicate came earlier this week. President Biden stated that based on what his team was telling him, a deal for the release of hostages held by Hamas and for a ceasefire in Gaza was imminent. He said, in fact, that he expected it by Monday, March 4.

Netanyahu’s response was swift and, as has become the pattern with him, directly contradictory to the word and the spirit of what Biden said. The Israeli prime minister said that such a deal happening on that timeline was news to him. He added that any agreement to release the hostages would merely postpone— rather than halt—an Israeli ground operation of Rafah.

Admittedly, the entire issue of a ceasefire has been clouded by a swirl of contradictory statements and competing points of view, as often happens in complex negotiations.........

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