https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-a-breach/
White House officials have increasingly concluded that Netanyahu is focused on his own political survival to the exclusion of any other goal, and is eager to position himself as standing up to Biden’s push for a two-state solution. During a news conference last month, Netanyahu publicly rebuked Biden over his support for a Palestinian state, saying an Israeli prime minister needs to be “capable of saying no to our friends.”
“Netanyahu is playing to his politics at home, and if he thinks it helps him to trash Biden publicly, he’ll do it,” said Frank Lowenstein, a former State Department official who helped lead Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2014.
One of the biggest reasons Biden has not been quicker to criticize Netanyahu, aides say, is his decades-long relationship with the prime minister. Biden often says he tells Netanyahu, “I love you, Bibi, even if I can’t stand you.”
Netanyahu has at times helped reinforce Biden’s view of Israel as a heroic bulwark against global antisemitism. During one visit when Biden was vice president, Netanyahu showed him photos of grossly antisemitic depictions that came from Hamas and argued such incitement was the reason he could not make peace with the Palestinians, according to a person familiar with the interaction, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a private exchange.