There’s only one way out of this Gaza war and Netanyahu is blocking it. Joe Biden must force him from power | Jonathan Freedland

The Israeli leader opposes the viable way forward and now acts only for himself. The US president must save Israel from its PM

Joe Biden's bond with Israel and the Jewish people runs so deep he is said to feel it in his kishkes (that's guts", for the non-Yiddish speakers among you). Biden demonstrated that early in the current crisis by visiting Israel within days of the 7 October massacre, which saw 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, killed, many tortured and mutilated. He demonstrated it again, just as swiftly, with the dispatch of two US aircraft carriers to the region, aimed at deterring Hezbollah and its Iranian backers from attacking Israel from the north - his one-word message: Don't." And he showed it once more just last week, wielding the US veto at the United Nations - making Washington all but a lone voice against the global chorus demanding that Israel end its offensive in Gaza, which has left so many thousands dead.

But there is one last act of service Biden needs to perform for the sake of the Israel he has stood with so long, a task he is uniquely able to execute. He must push Benjamin Netanyahu from power - and do all he can to ensure he does not return. Right now, the focus of US-Israeli relations is on the clock, on how long Washington will give its ally -which it arms - to pursue its stated goal of defeating Hamas, even at the cost of terrible death and destruction in Gaza. Hints that Biden's patience is wearing thin are getting louder. This week he warned that Israel is starting to lose [international] support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place". The signals are that Israel has until the middle or end of January to keep up what the White House calls high-intensity military operations". After that, it will have to move to a different phase" - one that consists of focused, targeted raids on Hamas strongholds, with fewer civilian casualties.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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