Act 1. The stage is set. The key players are Barack Obama, who wants to manufacture a break with Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, looking to navigate a hostile administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden.
During Biden’s visit to Israel, the Obama administration stages a scandal, claiming that it was deliberately insulted because the local Jerusalem municipality routed some housing that the administration belatedly opposed through an approvals process.
Hillary Clinton spends an hour (and later brags about) yelling at Netanyahu over the phone. Biden refuses to come down for an hour to an event and a glass trophy being awarded to him ends up being broken.
The media plays up an invented scandal while spreading the narrative that it was Netanyahu who was creating a crisis.
Act 2. Dramatis Personae: Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu and Barak Ravid, the Axios-employed propagandist acting as a point man for the Biden administration’s influence operation to remove Netanyahu and stop the war on Hamas while preventing any action against Iran.
Here’s how it plays out.
Biden publicly blocks previously approved military aid to Israel, and slow-walks other aid. Netanyahu mentions this in a video. The Biden administration fumes and cancels a meeting on Iran. Ravid writes all of this up with lots of “anonymous sources” from the administration and the Israeli left.
The second act is even more absurd than the first, because Biden was touting his “extreme pressure” on Israel in a recent video.
But when Netanyahu mentions it, it’s a “scandal” and an “insult.”
Cue the media narrative campaign.
Barak Ravid/Axios: “Scoop: White House cancels meeting, scolds Netanyahu in protest over video.”
Barak Ravid/Axios: “White House baffled by Netanyahu’s claim Biden is withholding weapons.”
Baffled!
Barak Ravid/Axios: “Scoop: U.S. put a hold on an ammunition shipment to Israel.”
All of this is a scam. The goal is to abandon Israel and convince liberal American Jews to blame Israel for the breach.
It’s the same Obama playbook being run again.