Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, ahead of DC trip: “The most important diplomatic visit of my life”

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Ahead of his flight to Washington this week to address Congress amid American political upheaval, Israel’s prime minister described the trip as “the most important diplomatic visit of my life.” Binyamin Netanyahu genuinely believes that Israel’s fate for generations to come will depend largely on his visit’s impact on American public opinion, which he sees as the most important and paramount future factor for Israel’s survival.

A successful visit, in his view, would provide Israel with the ammo to resist international pressure to pull back on all fronts in the coming months. Netanyahu cited Churchill’s trip to Washington in 1941, which swayed American public opinion and allowed President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign the Lend-Lease Act, giving Great Britain the materiel it needed to resist Nazi aggression, while maintaining the politically popular Monroe Doctrine of isolationism.

Israel is still the strongest power in the Middle East, but growing anti-Israel sentiment abroad requires the prime minister to reassert Israel’s legitimacy in the all-important American arena.

The critical window in Netanyahu’s eyes is the four months remaining until the presidential election in November. Contrary to Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman’s claim that Netanyahu intends to dissolve the Knesset and call a November election to avoid taking the stand in his criminal trial, Netanyahu himself is making clear that he intends to keep the right-wing government afloat for as long as possible.

The hostage deal negotiations are also taking place in the shadow of threats from allies Smotrich and Ben Gvir to quit the government if terrorists with blood on their hands are released as part of a deal. Netanyahu’s proposed solution, to exile any released terrorists from the West Bank and Gaza, as well as his intention to advance the deal during the Knesset’s long summer break, show that he’s determined to avoid elections for now.

Bibi is certainly looking forward to a decisive election in November — but in the United States, not Israel, believing that Trump’s election would fundamentally alter the balance of power in his favor. As for Trump’s harsh words for him after leaving office, Netanyahu believes that just as Trump chose his former critic J.D. Vance as his running mate, his own fault in congratulating Biden on his victory will also be forgiven, and he’ll be able to once again whisper into Trump’s bandaged ear after January 20, 2025.

One thing is certain — with or without a presidential pardon, Netanyahu is waiting eagerly for Trump’s return, and will seek to keep the balls in the air until November.

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Netanyahu is arriving in Washington for his fourth Congressional address (breaking his role model Churchill’s record) on the official Wing of Zion airplane, the craft’s maiden flight transporting an Israeli prime minister.

But the surprise Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had in store for him the day he left was much more serious than a “knock on the wing,” to borrow a phrase from Dan Halutz, former chief of staff and former Israeli Air Force commander. (“All I felt was a slight knock on the wing,” Halutz once famously responded when asked what he felt when dropping a bomb over Gaza in a targeted assassination that allegedly killed several civilians.)

Without consulting Netanyahu, the chareidi allies, or even professionals in the field, Gallant last week announced his decision to begin sending thousands of draft orders to chareidi men this Sunday, the same day Netanyahu took off for Washington. The announcement was made just at the point when progress was being made in the talks on the matter, which some in the prime minister’s office characterized as a breakthrough.

Netanyahu’s lengthy talks with Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein (a key actor in the affair, as his committee would draft the legislation), led him to the conclusion that Edelstein and Gallant aren’t broadcasting on the same wavelength. While Edelstein has pulled a trick or two in his day, Bibi and the chareidi members of the committee received the impression that the committee chairman, tasked with handling an issue only slightly less controversial than the hostage deal, was coming to the talks with a constructive attitude — unlike the defense minister in his talks with the prime minister.

Edelstein made clear in those talks that any proposal that meets the needs of the defense establishment will earn his support, rejecting Gallant’s precondition that it be approved by Benny Gantz. Netanyahu assessed in his conversations with the chareidim that a majority for a new draft law is possible, even without Gallant. But just when the plane was ready for takeoff, Gallant came along and threw a wrench in the works.

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Not for the first time, the chareidim find themselves caught in the crossfire between Netanyahu and Gallant. New Hope chairman Gideon Saar — whose name has come up as Gallant’s potential successor as defense minister, should he rejoin the government — told me this week that the pair’s acrimonious relationship is harming the state’s security interests.

But you don’t have to be a political rival of either to reach that conclusion. As Netanyahu talks about the need for total victory, Gallant intones on the need to take advantage of the window for a hostage deal, a clear hint that Netanyahu is sabotaging a deal. As Bibi declares that forming a commission of inquiry before the end of the war would hamper the war effort, Gallant stands up to speak at a swearing-in ceremony for IDF commanders and lectures Netanyahu to his face: You’re at the head, you’re responsible — face a commission.

The animosity between the two makes Gallant the most dangerous political threat to Netanyahu, who’s an expert at identifying threats, with the notable exception of October 7. Last-minute attempts to reach an agreed-upon outline in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee before Netanyahu’s flight hit a brick wall, with Gallant announcing on Friday two weeks ago that the IDF was determined to immediately send draft orders to thousands of chareidi bochurim.

It’s difficult to predict where the chareidim will go from here, and despite the blanket instructions to bochurim not to show up, that depends largely on whether draft orders are sent to bochurim currently studying in yeshivah as well.

“We chareidim have faced worse, but here in the Knesset building, we’ve never faced anything like this,” Finance Committee chair MK Moshe Gafni, Israel’s longest-serving Knesset member, told me this week.

Bibi’s attempts at downplaying the situation and reaching a last-minute accommodation will continue even after the draft orders are sent. On the eve of his flight, Netanyahu blamed the defense establishment for the relative lack of progress in the Gaza Strip over the past few months, drawing a harsh response from the defense minister and the chief of staff.

But when it comes to the chareidi draft issue, the roles are reversed: Netanyahu is trying to calm things down, while a combative defense minister turns to coercive measures that won’t lead to the enlistment of a single chareidi.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1021)