Biden and Bibi will break gradually, then suddenly

If there is ever to be a rift between the US and Israel, it began this week. Two months ago, US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraced in shared sorrow and resolve. Now, many thousands of civilian Palestinian deaths later, the two have said as clearly as diplomacy allows that they want to go in different directions. Speaking to donors at a fundraiser in Washington, Biden characterised Israel's bombing of Gazans as "indiscriminate."That's hard to prove legally. But Biden was driving at something else. Israel is losing international support, even from its friends.

- ANDREAS KLUTH

And as long as the US keeps backing Israel at the UN and supplying many of the bombs it's dropping on the Gaza Strip, Washington risks losing international credibility in tandem. That loss will compromise its ability to manage other crises.

Devastating memes are circulating on social media, purporting to show the hypocrisy of Western leaders like Biden and his European counterparts as they decry civilian suffering in Ukraine but dismiss it as "the price of war" in Gaza. Such images feed perceptions in Asia, Africa and South America that the US applies a double standard, one for foes and another for friends, even as it professes to care about a "rules-based order." With all that on his mind, Biden last week conceded that right-wing members of Netanyahu's cabinet seem bent on "retribution" against Palestinians generally, not just on eliminating Hamas terrorists. He's no longer trying to hide his frustration that Bibi, as Netanyahu is known, rejects America's proposed long-term goal of a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.