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the Road to War in Gaza. You

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at massgeneral.org-slash-cancer. The

1:09

U.S. top court has ordered Israel

1:11

to halt its offensive on Gaza's

1:14

southern city of Rafa. President Biden

1:16

saying the U.S. would withhold arms

1:18

shipments. In a special presentation. The

1:20

International Criminal Court has announced that it's

1:23

seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas

1:25

leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

1:27

Charges of war crimes and

1:29

crimes against humanity. Drawing on

1:32

years of reporting. When hopelessness

1:34

accumulates over decades, it's no

1:36

longer just dangerous, it's catastrophic.

1:39

He came out plain and simple and said, there will

1:41

not be a Palestinian state. The lead up

1:43

to the Hamas attack and the ongoing

1:45

war. There's an Israel before

1:47

October 7th, and there is an Israel

1:49

after October 7th. They wanted

1:52

this to happen, so Israel will react

1:54

with force. The whole region is destabilized.

1:56

Now on front line. Netanyahu,

1:59

America. America and the

2:01

road to war in Gaza. The

2:03

next chapter in the Gaza War could be

2:05

the hardest one yet. Words

2:09

on the screen say, I would

2:11

like to be remembered as the protector of Israel. That's

2:14

enough for me. Benjamin

2:16

Netanyahu 2016. By

2:19

the radical Islamic terrorist of Hamas. Hamas

2:24

unleashes a shocking assault on Israel,

2:26

leaving hundreds dead. The barbarism

2:28

and the savagery, stunning mankind.

2:31

Hamas taking hostages. The

2:34

response is saying Hamas will bear the

2:36

consequences of the attack. It

2:39

was 11 days after Hamas' attack on

2:41

Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu,

2:44

Israel's longest serving prime minister, was

2:46

at Ben Gurion Airport to meet

2:49

the American president. Former Netanyahu aide,

2:51

Nir Heffetz. You could

2:53

see that he was lost. He was

2:55

lost. I understand

2:58

that this is a huge, huge

3:00

tragedy for Israel, but

3:03

also for him as

3:05

part of Israel's history. Former

3:07

Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross. Benjamin

3:10

Netanyahu has always sort of prided himself

3:12

on being Mr. Security. So

3:15

for the worst day ever,

3:18

for the most severe suffering

3:21

of fatalities and casualties, in

3:24

Israel itself, for this

3:26

to occur on his watch, it

3:29

is a tragedy. He is now descending...

3:32

Peter Baker, New York Times. See

3:34

President Biden come down the stairs from

3:36

Air Force One onto the tarmac and

3:38

he heads straight for Netanyahu and he

3:40

wraps his arms around him. It

3:45

was an expression of America's solidarity with

3:47

Israel, but it also carried

3:49

a warning. It's called a bear

3:51

hug, but in Hebrew a bear hug can

3:53

mean wrapping your arms around somebody in order

3:55

to restrain them as much as to comfort

3:57

them. And that captured, I think,

4:00

the dual goals of this trip,

4:02

right? Hug them, yes, we are

4:04

with you. But caution at the

4:06

same time, be careful. This

4:09

is an extremely delicate journey

4:11

now. Israel had

4:13

just begun its retaliation against Hamas. And

4:16

later that day, Biden and Secretary

4:18

of State Antony Blinken took the

4:21

unprecedented step of joining Netanyahu's war

4:23

cabinet to discuss their plans

4:25

on the escalating civilian toll in Gaza.

4:27

Ronan Birk and the New York Times.

4:30

The fact that State Secretary

4:32

Blinken and President Biden insist

4:35

on sitting inside the

4:37

Israeli war cabinet, which

4:39

never happened in the history of

4:42

the relations between the two countries,

4:45

this is the clearest example. They

4:47

just don't trust them. They want

4:49

to be there and

4:51

make sure that things are not

4:53

getting out of control. After

4:56

9-11, we were enraged in

4:58

the United States. While

5:00

we sought justice and got justice, we also

5:02

made mistakes. Susan Glassard, The New

5:04

Yorker. It was a warning to Netanyahu

5:07

and to the Israeli people, don't

5:09

make the mistake that we Americans

5:11

made after 9-11, which

5:14

was to overreact, to

5:16

do what our enemies wanted us

5:18

to do, and to unleash a military

5:21

conflict that causes us all

5:23

sorts of additional problems. Two

5:26

months later, Gaza is in ruins.

5:29

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues

5:31

to push back against international...

5:33

...scholar and other holidogindi. The

5:35

problem is that no one knows what

5:37

will need to happen for

5:40

Israelis to feel satisfied that they've

5:43

achieved their stated objective of having

5:45

destroyed Hamas. Gaza has

5:47

become a graveyard, for sure.

5:50

Thousands of Palestinians are dead.

5:55

And so all that's left is to

5:57

just keep killing and bombing and killing

5:59

and bombing. the

20:00

president on the realities of the Middle East. Here's

20:03

the way it is. Former US Ambassador

20:06

to Israel, Martin Indik. The only one

20:08

who wanted to make clear that, even

20:11

though the previous government had signed

20:13

the agreement, that he

20:15

had some real reservations about it. And

20:18

so, I think that that's

20:21

why it got off to a bad start. And

20:25

so, when the meeting's

20:27

over, Clinton turns, he says, who

20:30

does he think the superpower is? Under

20:39

pressure from Clinton, Netanyahu agreed

20:41

to a compromise gesture. He

20:44

would meet with Yasser Arafat. Author

20:46

and journalist Dan Efron. And I

20:48

think there's a moment where Netanyahu

20:51

has to decide, can he try

20:53

to block the actual implementation of

20:55

the agreement, but concede

20:57

some things that Clinton was pressing

21:00

for in terms of an

21:03

on-camera, for instance, handshake with Arafat.

21:06

I think that was the calculation. Sayeb

21:09

Erekat. That day I was there. And

21:13

I was thinking, how will this happen?

21:17

I was trying to do whatever I can

21:19

to make sure that

21:21

if needs to, I will employ every

21:23

damage control mechanism, every crisis management, everything.

21:28

It was a meeting Netanyahu had insisted would never happen. Netanyahu

21:31

advisor, Saki Haneghbi. Very,

21:34

very hard. Very hard. His

21:38

worry will never shake Arafat's hand.

21:45

Once the handshake started, they kept coming. And

21:49

he took other steps. He

21:51

pulled Israeli troops out of a key city in the West Bank and

21:54

signed a treaty agreeing to further implement Oslo. But

21:57

close observers... he

22:00

was slow-walking the peace process. Netanyahu

22:04

was an ideologue very deeply. In

22:07

every step of his premiership, starting

22:10

in 96, everything

22:12

he's doing, he's thinking, how do I

22:14

limit this thing? How do I make

22:16

sure I don't have to give back

22:18

more land? And if I do, what's

22:21

the smallest area of concession

22:24

that I can make? The

22:27

compromises would prove fateful for Netanyahu. Journalist Chemy

22:29

Shalev. Nobody was happy with him. The left

22:32

weren't happy with him for what he was

22:34

doing to undermine Oslo, and the right wasn't

22:36

happy with him for what he was doing

22:39

to keep Oslo. He

22:41

was in a sort of impossible

22:43

balancing act. Whoa! Whoa!

22:45

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

22:48

A protester says about Arafat, this is

22:50

Adolf Hitler. He's the same as Adolf

22:52

Hitler. Netanyahu

22:54

advisor Dori Gold. At

22:57

that point, the prime

22:59

minister's conservative base folds.

23:03

And some people on

23:05

the conservative right work

23:07

with the Israeli left to bring

23:09

down Prime Minister Netanyahu. In

23:18

1999, he'd lose his bid for

23:20

re-election, but he'd take with him

23:23

some key lessons. Chemy Shalev.

23:25

One, his view of

23:27

democratic liberal American presidents as the

23:30

rival, if not the enemy. Two,

23:33

the fact that concessions on the peace

23:36

process could lead to his downfall.

23:39

Netanyahu says, that is why I'm announcing

23:42

today my intention to retire from the

23:44

Lekhod leadership. Netanyahu would spend the next

23:46

several years working his way back into

23:48

power. The Israelis

23:54

and Palestinians in a

23:56

last ditch pitch for Middle East peace.

23:58

Netanyahu watched. as Clinton brought

24:01

his left-wing successor Ehud Barak and

24:03

Yasser Arafat together at Camp David

24:07

for another peace effort that would have

24:09

created a Palestinian state in Gaza and

24:11

the West Bank. Among

24:16

the difficult issues left unresolved

24:18

was the control of Jerusalem.

24:20

Diana Butu was an adviser

24:22

to Palestinian negotiators. When

24:24

Camp David happened, the

24:26

Palestinian team said, we

24:28

don't think the parties are prepared. The

24:31

groundwork has not been done. I

24:34

think the problem with Clinton was

24:37

that he believed that everything could

24:39

just be undone with some magic

24:41

wand. Former Ambassador Martin Indik. Barak

24:45

made a far-reaching offer, I think, went

24:48

further than he was planning

24:50

to do. But

24:52

for Arafat, it was unacceptable.

24:55

Dennis Ross. And he said, if

24:58

I accept this, you'll be, you want to walk

25:00

behind my casket? That's

25:03

what he said. I

25:05

had a dinner with one

25:08

of the former Palestinian negotiators. And I won't

25:10

name him because this was done in confidence.

25:13

And he said to

25:15

me, we and the delegation all wanted

25:17

to accept it. And Arafat

25:20

just sort of blew us away.

25:22

And he said, can you imagine where we

25:24

would be today if we had said yes?

25:27

And I think about that conversation often

25:31

right now. The failure of the deal at Camp David

25:36

set in motion a new round of frustration and violence on

25:40

both sides. Diana

25:43

Butu. Palestinians were fed up.

25:47

There were years of frustration. They

25:50

were fed up. There were

25:52

years of failed negotiations. Security

25:56

for them went backwards. Freedom of movement went

25:58

backwards. Freedom of religion went backwards. The

26:00

economy went backwards. And

26:03

there was a point at which Palestinians said,

26:06

enough, we are done with this process

26:08

of negotiations. So everything

26:10

unravels. Everything unravels. Former

26:13

adviser to Palestinian negotiators, Khaled

26:15

El-Gindi. That cycle of

26:18

violence in which there were fairly high

26:20

casualties on both sides, that

26:22

definitely soured both

26:26

publics, Israeli public and

26:28

the Palestinian public, against

26:31

the notion of a peaceful

26:34

resolution. We

26:37

see a rightward shift in Israeli

26:39

politics happening around that same time.

26:42

And we also see a shift

26:45

happening on the Palestinian side where

26:47

opponents of the peace process, violent opponents

26:49

of the peace process, like Hamas, are

26:52

emboldened by the violence on the

26:54

one hand, but also

26:56

the failure of negotiations. By

27:04

2005, Netanyahu was back

27:06

at the center of the Israeli government. He

27:09

was finance minister in the administration of

27:11

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who

27:14

had a new plan for dealing with the

27:16

Palestinians. No

27:18

negotiations. Instead, a

27:21

unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlements and

27:23

troops from the Gaza Strip. Peter

27:26

Baker, The New York Times. The Israelis

27:28

concluded a long time ago that they didn't

27:30

actually want Gaza. You know, they weren't planning

27:32

to annex it. They wanted to actually pull

27:35

out of it. They're going to get the heck out.

27:37

And it's up to the Palestinians what they want to do with it

27:39

at that point. Netanyahu

27:43

grew uneasy about the implications of

27:45

handing over Gaza to the Palestinians.

27:48

He consulted a former military intelligence

27:50

chief. Netanyahu

27:53

asked me what is my view, and I

27:55

was totally against it. By

27:57

evacuating all our forces, around

36:00

Netanyahu and sort

36:03

of gave proof to the people who had

36:05

been whispering in Netanyahu's ears that

36:07

this guy's up to no good. The

36:09

settlements have to be stopped

36:12

in order for us to move forward. That's

36:14

a difficult issue. I recognize that. But it's

36:16

an important one, and it has to be

36:19

addressed. Diana Butu. The signal he

36:21

was sending to the Israelis was

36:23

one of, I believe that

36:25

this has to come to an end. They need

36:28

to hear that they can't build Israeli settlements any

36:30

longer, that there has to be an end to

36:32

it. For Netanyahu, his

36:34

first meeting with the president couldn't

36:36

have gone worse. I think that

36:38

Netanyahu recognized in Obama suddenly a

36:41

person who was hell-bent on

36:44

setting up a Palestinian state.

36:48

Netanyahu advisor, Saki Hanatbi.

36:50

And I remember him coming back from his

36:53

first meeting with the president of Obama, something

36:56

that tells him

36:58

that it's going to be a different

37:00

president. Super intelligent

37:02

lawyer. He has a

37:04

vision and

37:07

something in what we in Hebrew call an a

37:09

sheimah. The soul is

37:12

too cold to

37:14

be connected to Israel. Once

37:18

again, Netanyahu was at odds with

37:20

an American president. Obama's

37:23

peace efforts over the next few years wouldn't

37:26

be able to break the cycle of violence

37:28

that had been raging between Israel and the

37:30

Palestinians. Israel is carrying

37:33

out brand new airstrikes in the Gaza Strip

37:35

today. New explosions in Gaza, fresh

37:37

Israeli airstrikes. Sirens warned of another

37:39

round of Hamas rockets. But Obama

37:41

would double down. The

37:45

president of the United States, Barack

37:47

Obama. For

37:52

six months, we have witnessed an

37:55

extraordinary change taking place in the

37:57

Middle East and North Africa. Donald

48:00

Trump boasted he'd be the

48:02

first U.S. president to broker

48:04

an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Author and

48:06

journalist Susan Glasser. Donald

48:09

Trump neither knew nor cared about the

48:11

history of the Middle East or the failed efforts at

48:13

Middle East peacemaking. What he knew, or what he thought

48:15

he knew, was

48:18

that there was a big deal that was looming out there and

48:21

that if you could make it, you'd get a Nobel Peace Prize and

48:24

the deal of the century. Trump surrounded

48:26

himself with a team that included his son-in-law, Jared

48:28

Kushner, who was a family friend of Netanyahu, and

48:33

David Friedman, a controversial figure who

48:36

supported Israeli settlements. Author

48:40

and journalist Peter Baker. You have these

48:42

advisers on Israel, all of them Jewish, all

48:44

of them strong supporters of Israel. None

48:46

of them with any particular background in

48:49

negotiation in the region in terms of

48:51

peace talks, but with very, very developed

48:56

positions and points of view. Trump's ambassador

48:58

to Israel, David Friedman. He was

49:00

anxious to see if there could

49:02

be a peace deal reach between Israel

49:05

and the Palestinians. I will tell you candidly, I

49:08

was skeptical of that from the beginning. The

49:10

White House Netanyahu has been full of praise

49:12

for the president. Just one month into his

49:14

term, Trump invited Netanyahu

49:16

to the White House to discuss

49:18

the possibilities. Brookings scholar, Natan Sax.

49:21

For Netanyahu and his advisers, this was first

49:23

and foremost a moment of opportunity. Trump

49:26

seemed to them volatile, unpredictable, but

49:28

perhaps unpredictable in ways that would benefit

49:30

Israel. Bibi and I have known each

49:32

other a long time, a

49:35

smart man, great negotiator, and

49:38

I think we're going to make a deal. Trump

49:40

gave Netanyahu an early nod in his

49:42

favor, saying he would

49:44

be open to something other than a two-state

49:47

solution. I'm looking at

49:49

two-state and one-state, and

49:51

I like the one that both parties

49:53

like. I'm very happy with the

49:55

one that both parties like. I can live with

49:57

either one. Ambassador Friedman. That shocked

49:59

a lot of people. I mean,

50:02

Trump was not of the conviction

50:04

that there needed to be a two-state solution.

50:06

He thought that there could be any

50:08

number of ways where this conflict

50:10

could be resolved, and the

50:12

two-state solution was one of them. But he was certainly

50:14

not pushing it. Peter Baker. That

50:17

is really a sea change in American

50:19

policy, because basically going back for multiple

50:21

presidents, the idea of an independent Palestinian

50:23

state as part of an ultimate solution,

50:26

a resolution of this conflict has always

50:28

been the idea, and he's

50:30

thrown all that out the window. Trump

50:35

would soon follow that up with an even

50:37

more surprising announcement, fulfilling a

50:39

long-time wish of Netanyahu's. Today

50:42

we finally acknowledge the obvious, that

50:45

Jerusalem is Israel's

50:47

capital. I am also

50:49

directing the State Department to begin

50:52

preparation to move the

50:54

American Embassy from Tel

50:56

Aviv to Jerusalem. Both

50:59

Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their

51:01

capital. If you put the American Embassy

51:04

there, you're seemingly putting your foot on

51:06

the scale, saying we take Israel's side

51:08

in this. Usam Zomlad is

51:10

the former head of the Palestinian Mission

51:12

to the U.S. We

51:14

told him from the day he started doing

51:16

all that, from the first day, there will

51:19

be no contact policy with him. You are

51:21

completely and utterly boycotted. You shall not be

51:23

a trusted mediator

51:25

in this. You are disqualified.

51:29

Palestinians took to the streets to protest. The

51:34

U.S. knows that Jerusalem is the

51:36

most sensitive issue. That

51:39

was a move by the U.S., in

51:41

a way, to tell Israel that it

51:43

has Jerusalem, and deciding

51:45

to have Israel pocket this before starting

51:48

negotiations, then you definitely do not want

51:50

to have negotiations in the first place.

51:52

You do not want to see a

51:54

peace process ignited in the first place,

51:57

and you ain't interested in a two-state

51:59

solution altogether. Hamas

54:03

urged protesters to break through the border

54:05

fence. Israeli

54:08

soldiers responded with rightful fire,

54:12

killing more than 60 people. Former

54:15

adviser to Palestinian negotiators, Khalid

54:17

Al-Gundi. What the embassy moved,

54:19

symbolized to Palestinians, was that they were

54:21

not going to have a state

54:24

with its capital in Jerusalem. It

54:28

was now the president of the

54:31

United States had said that only

54:33

Israel had a legitimate claim to

54:35

Jerusalem and that it would remain

54:37

eternally Israel's capital. Unfortunately

54:40

there was violent activity that day and

54:43

it ran its course. So we didn't focus on that. We

54:46

focused on our ceremony. When

54:53

Netanyahu, it was a high point in

54:55

his relations with an American president. When

54:59

President Trump came in and started to give

55:01

all the gifts to Netanyahu's administration and to

55:03

the Israeli public, it was like, you know,

55:05

every day was Boxing Day. Netanyahu's

55:09

government began a rapid expansion of settlements

55:11

in the West Bank, the

55:13

very move Obama had personally warned

55:15

against. Because

55:17

I can tell you that Israel

55:19

does want to make peace. The

55:22

Trump administration backed it, reversing the

55:24

U.S.'s 40-year position that the settlements

55:26

were illegal. Then Secretary

55:28

of State Mike Pompeo. The

55:30

establishment of Israeli civilian settlements

55:32

in the West Bank is

55:35

not per se inconsistent with

55:38

international law. These settlements

55:40

are not the impediment to peace. And

55:42

I believe as a matter of law and as a

55:45

matter of right, and I believe as a

55:47

matter of the Bible, which didn't drive

55:49

my views in office but certainly drives them

55:51

now that I'm not a public

55:53

figure anymore, as a matter of

55:55

biblical law, this land is biblical

55:57

Israel. and

56:00

was given by God to the Jewish people. Seeing

56:05

the US performing, behaving, acting this

56:07

way to the majority of the

56:10

Palestinian people was definitely

56:12

a source of hopelessness.

56:17

And you know what? Hopelessness

56:20

is a very dangerous feeling.

56:23

And when hopelessness accumulates

56:26

over decades, it's

56:29

no longer just dangerous. It's

56:31

catastrophic. The president of the

56:34

United States and the prime

56:36

minister of the state of Israel. Adding

56:40

insult to injury for the Palestinians,

56:43

Trump and Netanyahu convened at the White House

56:45

to announce what would be called the deal

56:47

of the century. I

56:50

was not elected to do small things

56:53

or shy away from big problems. Peter Baker.

56:55

So there's this announcement in the White House

56:57

and Trump comes out and he's very proud.

56:59

I've got this great deal. It's going to

57:01

solve the Middle East's peace problem here.

57:04

No sign of the Palestinians. They want

57:06

nothing to do with this. Who sums

57:09

on what? That scene was the most

57:11

vulgar expression of what the Trump administration

57:13

and the Netanyahu government were all about.

57:16

They were about liquidating the

57:18

two-state solution, liquidating the Palestinian

57:20

issue and cause. Under

57:22

this vision, Jerusalem will remain Israel's

57:26

undivided, very important,

57:28

undivided capital. The

57:32

deal offered Netanyahu much of what he

57:34

wanted. But that's no big deal because

57:36

I've already done that for you, right? We've

57:39

already done that, but that's okay. It's

57:42

going to remain that way. Natan Sacks,

57:44

Center for Middle East Policy. The deal

57:46

of the century was a fantastic blueprint

57:48

from the perspective of the Netanyahu point

57:50

of view. No settlements to

57:52

be removed. A rump Palestinian entity

57:54

that they might call a state but was

57:57

not really a state would have no control

57:59

of its borders. no control even of

58:01

its own water, no control of

58:03

its airspace. It would not be

58:05

able to function as a state. It would

58:07

be a collection of municipalities. It is only

58:09

reasonable that I have to do a lot

58:12

for the Palestinians, or it

58:14

just wouldn't be fair. Now,

58:16

don't clap for that, okay? But

58:18

it's true. It wouldn't be fair. To

58:21

try to lure the Palestinians into the deal,

58:24

Trump promised international investment worth $50

58:27

billion. Fusam Zomlat.

58:30

An American president stands next to an

58:32

Israeli prime minister and tells

58:34

them, we will buy you off

58:36

with some money. That

58:39

scene has hit the heart

58:41

of every Palestinian, the

58:43

heart of Palestinians who have been struggling for 100 years.

58:48

Then Netanyahu took the podium and went

58:50

even further than the terms of the

58:52

deal. I

58:54

hope that the Palestinians embrace this. He

58:57

announced Israel was about to annex almost

58:59

a third of the West Bank. Peter

59:01

Baker. Netanyahu announces that he's going

59:04

to proceed with annexation in the

59:06

West Bank. It's

59:09

a unilateral claim on territory. And

59:12

it really throws a

59:14

lot of sand

59:16

in the gears of what's going

59:18

on here, because if you start

59:20

unilaterally claiming sovereignty over sections

59:23

of the West Bank without having made

59:25

any concessions, what is the

59:27

incentive for the Palestinians to come to the table? And

59:30

may God bless us all with

59:32

security, prosperity and

59:35

peace. Thank you. The

59:43

Palestinians were now effectively sidelined.

59:47

But unexpectedly, it set

59:49

the stage for a major shift in the Middle East. In

59:53

the summer of 2020, Yusef Al-Otaiba, a friend

59:55

of Jared Kushner's and the

59:57

United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the United States, to

1:00:00

the U.S. saw an opportunity

1:00:02

to propose a different kind of peace

1:00:04

deal to Netanyahu, not between

1:00:07

Israel and the Palestinians, but

1:00:09

between Israel and some of its Arab

1:00:11

neighbors. By this

1:00:13

time, many of the Arab governments are eager

1:00:15

to have relations with Israel, and the Palestinian

1:00:17

issue is a nuisance on the way. And

1:00:20

for some of them, they felt that

1:00:22

they were always putting their interests second

1:00:24

to the Palestinian cause. And when Israel

1:00:26

speaks of annexing parts of the West

1:00:28

Bank, the Emiratis, in particular

1:00:30

the United Arab Emirates, see an opportunity

1:00:32

to prevent that annexation in exchange for

1:00:34

a peace deal. Alotayba

1:00:37

said that the UAE and other

1:00:39

Arab nations would consider normalizing relations

1:00:41

with Israel if

1:00:43

Netanyahu stopped his planned

1:00:45

annexations. The

1:00:48

fact that the UAE would even

1:00:50

consider signing a normalization deal with

1:00:52

Israel without

1:00:55

consulting Palestinians was

1:00:58

pretty remarkable. It's really

1:01:00

a sign of just how much the

1:01:02

region has changed in the

1:01:04

past decade, and

1:01:07

how much lower the Palestinian

1:01:09

issue was

1:01:11

now on even the priorities

1:01:13

of Arab states. At the White

1:01:15

House, Trump's team jumped on

1:01:18

the idea, which played into a

1:01:20

long-held goal of Netanyahu's. Susan Glasser,

1:01:22

The New Yorker. This was Netanyahu's theory

1:01:25

of the case, that the world was

1:01:27

moving on from the Palestinians,

1:01:30

that in fact Israel could

1:01:32

achieve meaningful and lasting stability

1:01:35

without having to trade away

1:01:37

land for peace with the Palestinians, which had

1:01:39

always been the premise of

1:01:41

the two-state solution. After

1:01:44

talks facilitated by Trump's team, Israel

1:01:47

and two Arab countries, the UAE

1:01:50

and Bahrain, once they

1:01:52

would normalize relations, Netanyahu

1:01:54

dropped his annexation plans. It

1:01:58

was the first peace treaty between Israel and the United

1:02:00

States. Israel and any Arab country in almost 30 years.

1:02:04

We're here this afternoon to change the course

1:02:06

of history. Ultimately, the

1:02:08

deal that Trump announces with

1:02:10

great fanfare at the White

1:02:12

House is not a deal between Israel

1:02:14

and the Palestinians. It's not the Mideast

1:02:16

piece you were looking for. It's

1:02:19

a totally different issue. It's a

1:02:21

step forward. It's a significant step

1:02:23

forward. This day is

1:02:26

a pivot of history. We're

1:02:28

going to be doing all this without any real

1:02:30

movement on the Palestinian issue. For Netanyahu,

1:02:32

this was the crown jewel of his legacy

1:02:35

to a certain degree. It's

1:02:37

a wake-up call to the Palestinians to say, guys,

1:02:39

you know what? Everybody's got their own issues. Not

1:02:42

everybody is laying up at night worrying about yours.

1:02:45

The Abraham

1:02:48

Accords were definitely seen as a

1:02:50

betrayal by Palestinians. And Palestinians

1:02:53

in general felt that the Arab

1:02:55

states had abandoned them.

1:02:59

The Palestinian Authority called the

1:03:01

Accords despicable. Former Middle East

1:03:03

envoy, Dennis Ross. Palestinians did not

1:03:05

take advantage of the opportunity the Abraham

1:03:07

Accords made. If the PA had

1:03:10

gone to the Emirates and said, OK, you're

1:03:13

going to do this, it's OK,

1:03:15

we appreciate no annexation, but here

1:03:18

are some other things that you should be asking

1:03:20

for. And the Emiratis would have done

1:03:22

it. But they were so

1:03:24

quick to sort of condemn them. You betrayed

1:03:26

us. There's a constant

1:03:28

theme of betrayal in

1:03:31

the Palestinian narrative. And there

1:03:33

isn't a constant theme of responsibility

1:03:36

on the Palestinian side. Iran

1:03:38

sees the Abraham Accords as a threat. The

1:03:41

Abraham Accords would incite Israel's

1:03:43

enemies and cede conflict to

1:03:45

come. Peter Baker. What you

1:03:47

see, if you're Hamas, is the

1:03:50

world is moving beyond you. They no longer

1:03:52

care, it seems like, about the

1:03:54

plight of the Palestinians in

1:03:56

Gaza. And

1:03:59

this is a deal. that

1:04:01

is essentially marginalizing Hamas, marginalizing

1:04:04

the Palestinians, marginalizing their grievance.

1:04:08

And they're left to

1:04:10

wonder, well, what becomes of us? You know, what do

1:04:12

we do to get some attention to

1:04:15

our cause again? Palestinian

1:04:18

diplomat, Husam Zamlad. You

1:04:20

cannot ignore the Palestinian people. No

1:04:24

matter how much you try, by

1:04:26

the power of the missiles and

1:04:28

the tanks, as we have seen throughout the years

1:04:30

and now, or by the

1:04:32

power of the complete capitulation of

1:04:34

a U.S. administration like Trump, or

1:04:37

by the power of getting some

1:04:39

Arab countries to normalize without a

1:04:41

real solution, all that does not

1:04:43

work and shall never, ever

1:04:45

work. May

1:04:52

2021. In

1:04:54

Jerusalem, violent protests erupted over

1:04:57

the potential evictions of Palestinians

1:04:59

from their homes. The

1:05:05

conflict escalated when Israeli police raided

1:05:07

the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's

1:05:09

holiest sites. From

1:05:14

Gaza, Hamas retaliated, firing

1:05:19

rockets toward Jerusalem. And

1:05:22

in response, Netanyahu launched multiple

1:05:25

airstrikes. It

1:05:38

was just four months into President Joe Biden's term, and

1:05:41

the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was suddenly front and

1:05:43

center. Oh, my God! Early

1:05:46

in... By his tenure, he has sort of a

1:05:48

test case of what's going to happen in Israel and Gaza

1:05:50

region. No

1:05:53

matter how much you're on, you're not going to get it. And

1:05:58

the question for Biden is, the American president is OK with it. What

1:06:00

are you gonna do about it? He'd

1:06:02

known Netanyahu for more than 40 years, and

1:06:05

as Israeli forces pummeled Gaza, he

1:06:08

picked up the phone. He

1:06:11

basically is not willing to restrain Netanyahu

1:06:13

at first. He says, we're with Israel.

1:06:15

They have a right to defend themselves.

1:06:18

Susan Glasser. He thought, we don't criticize Israel

1:06:20

on the world stage because they get enough

1:06:22

of that, but we hold them

1:06:24

close. And that way, when we pick

1:06:26

up the phone and we say, time's

1:06:28

up, your military operation has

1:06:31

run its course that they'll listen. As

1:06:37

the violence intensified, Biden

1:06:42

pushed Netanyahu for a ceasefire. Amos

1:06:45

Haarel, Haarez. It ended in

1:06:47

a sort of a miserable draw. A

1:06:50

ceasefire was reached. Netanyahu

1:06:53

says, whoever thinks we will tolerate a flow

1:06:55

of rockets is wrong. As usual,

1:06:57

the Israeli leadership were saying, we've

1:07:00

won this round again, and Hamas

1:07:02

is weakened and deterred. We're stronger.

1:07:04

We proved our military

1:07:06

might. Hamas is deterred. But

1:07:10

for Hamas, the conflict was a

1:07:12

breakthrough. They used it

1:07:14

to tout themselves as fighting, not just

1:07:16

for Palestinians in Gaza, but in Jerusalem

1:07:18

as well. Ronan Burpan, The

1:07:21

New York Times. They bombed Jerusalem. They

1:07:23

bombed Tel Aviv. They

1:07:25

saw themselves as

1:07:27

a regional leader, not as a

1:07:29

local organization that is fighting Israel

1:07:31

over the border between Gaza and

1:07:33

Israel. Haarel al-Gindi. Hamas now

1:07:35

is not just protecting its

1:07:38

fiefdom in the Gaza Strip,

1:07:40

but now vying for leadership

1:07:43

of the Palestinian struggle

1:07:45

as a whole by being the only

1:07:48

party that is responding to

1:07:50

events in Jerusalem. In

1:07:54

contrast to the impotence and ineffectiveness of the

1:08:01

of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. In

1:08:05

the wake of the conflict, a photo

1:08:07

of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's leader in Gaza,

1:08:10

sent a foreboding message. What Sinwar did,

1:08:13

which was quite interesting, is

1:08:15

take a picture of

1:08:18

him sitting on an armchair. The

1:08:21

destruction around him was quite clear. This

1:08:24

was saying, okay, you're maybe stronger right now,

1:08:27

but I haven't lost anything.

1:08:29

I'm willing to go for another round

1:08:31

whenever I choose. At

1:08:33

the same time, Hamas was also beginning

1:08:35

to prepare its plan of attack, something

1:08:38

that it implemented so horrifically on

1:08:40

October 7, 2023. In

1:08:44

a Hamas video, voices tramped, Protectors

1:08:46

of the Faith, the Army of

1:08:49

Palestine, Arrows of the Night and

1:08:51

Destiny. Netanyahu's go-to strategy

1:08:53

toward Hamas, containment in

1:08:55

Gaza, was beginning to crack. But

1:08:58

his focus was elsewhere. That yahoo

1:09:01

is currently on trial for corruption, allegedly

1:09:03

accepting bribes in a breach of trust.

1:09:05

He was embroiled in scandal, facing

1:09:08

charges of bribery and corruption. He

1:09:11

and his coalition government were briefly toppled.

1:09:14

We'll be back soon.

1:09:17

We're going to listen. His

1:09:20

own personal affairs lead eventually

1:09:22

to three different indictments on

1:09:24

criminal charges, including bribery, charges

1:09:27

that he has always claimed are bogus

1:09:29

and are an attempt to persecute him.

1:09:32

To regain power, Netanyahu

1:09:34

courted Israel's most extreme

1:09:36

parties. And so for Netanyahu, he

1:09:39

felt, I have no chance but to go to the right, even

1:09:41

the very far right. Even

1:09:43

parties on the extreme far right that

1:09:45

his own Likud party had always shunned.

1:09:48

Amos Harrell. Some members

1:09:50

of Likud warned him that this would

1:09:52

be very dangerous, that the whole government

1:09:54

would take a very dangerous ideological, ideological

1:09:56

direction. the

1:10:00

most far-right government in the country's

1:10:03

history. Recently re-elected, and

1:10:05

now the head of a new

1:10:07

far-right government, controversial plans to overhaul the

1:10:09

justice... Netanyahu started pursuing a

1:10:11

dramatic overhaul of Israel's judicial

1:10:13

system that would weaken

1:10:16

the court's power over the executive branch.

1:10:19

It was a sudden outpouring of rage.

1:10:22

Protests erupted across Israel. He's not here

1:10:24

for the democracies. Thank you very much.

1:10:27

Peter Baker. We see hundreds of thousands

1:10:29

of Israelis in the streets, which is

1:10:31

pretty amazing for a country of just

1:10:33

10 million people. And

1:10:35

they are there week after week

1:10:38

after week, protesting Netanyahu's efforts, which

1:10:40

they see as a threat to

1:10:42

democracy. They see

1:10:44

it as a power grab by the prime minister.

1:10:47

He's facing trial for three different

1:10:50

counts of corruption, and for

1:10:52

him, it was a life-or-death

1:10:55

moment. He needed to change

1:10:57

Israel's legal system so

1:11:00

he could somehow stop the trial.

1:11:02

Ronan Bergman. That led to, I

1:11:04

would say, the biggest wave

1:11:06

of protests in the history of the country,

1:11:09

and probably the most severe

1:11:11

political crisis and

1:11:13

social crisis in the history of

1:11:16

the country. Looking

1:11:18

at this now, after October 7, that

1:11:21

seems like a sweet dream for Israelis.

1:11:24

But back then, it was

1:11:26

the country being on the brink of

1:11:28

civil war. Inside

1:11:32

Netanyahu's government, intelligence officials

1:11:35

worried that the political unrest was

1:11:37

leaving the country vulnerable to its

1:11:39

enemies. In many meetings,

1:11:42

the chiefs of Israeli intelligence

1:11:44

warned Netanyahu that the

1:11:46

political crisis and its

1:11:49

effect on the military are

1:11:51

perceived by Israeli enemy as

1:11:53

the time to take more

1:11:56

aggressive initiative against Israel. There

1:11:59

were actually quite a lot of people a

1:12:01

lot of warnings saying, look, we're creating here

1:12:03

the perfect storm. And at

1:12:05

one point or another, one of our enemies would

1:12:07

use that to start a war because they would

1:12:09

feel that we're weak and

1:12:11

that we're consumed with our own

1:12:13

domestic political problems. But those protesting

1:12:16

say that this is escalating into

1:12:18

an existential battle for its democratic

1:12:20

state. In Washington, President Biden watched

1:12:22

the situation with alarm and urged

1:12:25

Netanyahu to reverse course. They

1:12:27

cannot continue on this road. And

1:12:30

I've sort of made that clear. I

1:12:33

hope hopefully the

1:12:36

prime minister will act in a

1:12:38

way that he can try to work out

1:12:40

some genuine compromise. But that remains

1:12:42

to be seen. The president's meeting

1:12:44

with Crown Prince Mohammed bin for Biden.

1:12:46

The unrest in Israel threatened to disrupt

1:12:48

a plan he'd been nurturing to take

1:12:51

the Abraham accords to the next level

1:12:53

in the Middle East. He

1:12:55

and Netanyahu had been quietly courting

1:12:58

Saudi Arabia. They

1:13:00

did push and try to expand

1:13:02

on the Abraham accords, in particular

1:13:04

with a vision of Israeli Saudi

1:13:06

normalization that would offer a dramatically

1:13:08

different vision of the Middle East

1:13:10

and one that would fit in

1:13:13

well to their vision of creating

1:13:15

alliances, in particular in competition with

1:13:17

China and Russia. By

1:13:19

late September 2023, a deal was taking shape. Less

1:13:30

than three weeks before the October

1:13:32

7th attacks, Netanyahu would

1:13:34

make a fateful speech. Ronan Bergman.

1:13:36

He said, we are going

1:13:38

to have peace with Saudi Arabia. And the

1:13:41

Palestinians should not have a veto

1:13:43

on that. I've long sought to

1:13:45

make peace with the Palestinians. But

1:13:48

I also believe that

1:13:50

we must not give the Palestinians

1:13:52

a veto over new

1:13:54

peace treaties with Arab states. Which

1:13:57

is in a different language. From

1:14:00

my point of view, the Palestinians get f***ed

1:14:02

off. Sorry, but excuse my French. Now,

1:14:05

for years, my approach to peace was

1:14:07

rejected by the so-called experts. While

1:14:11

they were wrong, peace between

1:14:13

Israel and Saudi Arabia will

1:14:15

truly create a new Middle

1:14:18

East. The leaders

1:14:20

of Hamas, as they explain to us, they

1:14:22

see this and they understand that in a

1:14:24

moment, the Palestinian issue

1:14:27

will be completely taken off the

1:14:30

world agenda. Now,

1:14:34

they came to the conclusion, a

1:14:36

jihadist conclusion, of

1:14:38

blood, of

1:14:40

murder, of massacre. They

1:14:44

were at regional war. Dana

1:14:49

Weiss. There's an Israel before

1:14:51

October 7th, and

1:14:54

there is an Israel after October

1:14:56

7th. We

1:14:59

see images of the Hamas attackers. The

1:15:08

barbarity. They

1:15:11

hate the raping, the burning, the

1:15:13

killing of children, the

1:15:15

ruthlessness. Those

1:15:18

atrocities are second

1:15:20

only to what the Jews met in

1:15:23

the Holocaust. After

1:15:29

October 7th, every single Israeli I know

1:15:32

is asking themselves one question. Is

1:15:36

this a place where I can have

1:15:38

a tomorrow? Is this a

1:15:40

place where I can live? Israel

1:15:46

is at war. We

1:15:48

didn't want this war. It

1:15:50

was forced upon us in the most brutal

1:15:52

and savage way. Hamas had carried out the

1:15:55

deadliest single assault in Israel's history. And

1:15:58

it had happened on Benjamin Netanyahu's... Watch.

1:16:02

He saw himself as the greatest protector

1:16:05

of the state of Israel and

1:16:07

persuaded himself and his

1:16:09

supporters that Israel was safe

1:16:12

and that he could handle everything. He

1:16:21

would manage the Palestinian conflict without

1:16:24

attempting to solve it. He

1:16:26

would keep Hamas as an enemy entity

1:16:28

but a weak one. The

1:16:30

problem of course is that he refused to accept

1:16:33

the fact that actually some of his actions were

1:16:36

pushing Hamas in the

1:16:38

worst direction possible.

1:16:41

Israel will win this war and when

1:16:43

Israel wins, the entire

1:16:45

civilized world wins. In

1:16:52

Washington, President Biden was visibly

1:16:54

shaken by the killing and taking of

1:16:56

hostages. This is an act of sheer

1:16:58

evil. More than

1:17:01

1,000 civilians slaughtered, not

1:17:03

just killed, slaughtered in

1:17:05

Israel. Peter Baker, The New York Times. I was

1:17:07

just a few feet away from him and you

1:17:09

could just see in his face and see in

1:17:11

his mannerisms that he really was

1:17:14

viscerally outraged. Hamas

1:17:17

offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with

1:17:20

no regard to who

1:17:22

pays the price. I don't

1:17:24

think I've ever seen a president quite as

1:17:26

angry in a speech as Biden was that

1:17:28

day. Let there be no doubt the

1:17:32

United States has Israel's back. We'll

1:17:35

make sure the Jewish and democratic state

1:17:37

of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow,

1:17:39

as we always have. It's

1:17:42

as simple as that. These

1:17:45

atrocities have been

1:17:47

sickening. We're

1:17:50

with Israel. Let's make no mistake. Thank

1:17:52

you. Mr. President, what was

1:17:54

your reaction? But despite his full-throated

1:17:56

public support... Bombs explode

1:17:58

in Gaza. As

1:18:03

Israel began airstrikes in Gaza, behind

1:18:05

the scenes, Biden was concerned. Brett

1:18:08

McGurk is Biden's senior Middle East

1:18:10

adviser. Their position was no

1:18:13

humanitarian assistance should go into

1:18:15

Gaza until the hostages come home.

1:18:18

That was the unanimous view. And the president wanted

1:18:21

to go face to face and say, we cannot

1:18:23

accept that. We cannot accept that

1:18:25

policy. Within

1:18:30

days, the president arrived in Tel Aviv. President

1:18:34

Biden really wanted to make a statement with this

1:18:36

trip. It was

1:18:38

really a very dramatic moment. He

1:18:41

is now descending the stairs of

1:18:43

Air Force One, making this historic

1:18:45

visit to Israel. The famous bear hug,

1:18:48

with its dual message of solidarity and

1:18:50

caution. He doesn't want

1:18:52

to look like that

1:18:54

he is telling the Israelis how to respond, but he's

1:18:57

just giving them the caution of a friend is the

1:18:59

way he would put it. We're

1:19:01

with you here, but be careful.

1:19:04

There are limits to how

1:19:06

far you should go. The

1:19:09

bear hug approach. Hug

1:19:11

Israel publicly, show

1:19:14

no daylight with Israel while

1:19:17

privately delivering messages to

1:19:20

show restraint and to

1:19:22

be more cautious and so

1:19:24

forth. That approach

1:19:26

doesn't work. It's

1:19:28

never worked. There

1:19:32

needed to be a more stern

1:19:36

message about

1:19:39

the need to operate within the constraints

1:19:41

of international law. We

1:19:45

are seeing unprecedented levels

1:19:48

of civilian casualties. No

1:19:52

one knows what it means to destroy Hamas,

1:19:55

other than you just keep killing and killing

1:19:57

and killing. For

1:20:00

what? What

1:20:04

is the upper ceiling? Is

1:20:07

it 20,000 killed? Is

1:20:09

it 100,000? What

1:20:19

is the upper limit? A

1:20:23

young boy says they bombed an entire

1:20:25

street with the residents still inside. The

1:20:28

bloodshed has played into Hamas's hands.

1:20:31

Ronan Bergman. They blessed, they prayed, they

1:20:33

wanted this to happen. So

1:20:36

Israel will react with force. The

1:20:40

whole region is destabilized. And according

1:20:42

to them, the Palestinians are not

1:20:44

forgotten. They

1:20:46

were willing to sacrifice

1:20:48

Gaza and all the Gazans in

1:20:52

exchange of their jihad. A

1:20:55

very intense few days of protests around

1:20:57

the world. For months, the

1:20:59

humanitarian crisis from Israel's military

1:21:01

response has brought widespread condemnation.

1:21:03

Israel is the terrorist state! Israel

1:21:06

is the terrorist state! But with

1:21:08

Hamas still holding hostages, Netanyahu

1:21:11

has been pushing forward. He

1:21:14

says no amount of international pressure or

1:21:16

reviling of IDF soldiers and our state

1:21:19

will change our faith in the justice

1:21:21

of our cause and in our right

1:21:23

and in our obligation to defend

1:21:25

ourselves. The mounting isolation

1:21:27

of the United States is... In

1:21:29

the U.S., there has been increasing pressure

1:21:32

on President Biden to do more to

1:21:34

restrain Israel's response. Brett McGurk. We all

1:21:36

want this war to end yesterday. If

1:21:38

someone says, do you want the war

1:21:40

to continue or stop, the answer is

1:21:42

of course stop. But recognizing

1:21:44

that if

1:21:46

Hamas is fully intact, it simply

1:21:48

creates the conditions for the next

1:21:50

conflict. This is an incredibly difficult

1:21:52

dilemma. It's something we

1:21:55

are confronting really even at this hour. In

1:21:58

the face of the criticism, facing

1:24:00

challenges at home. We

1:24:03

have a leader who's mistrusted

1:24:05

by most of the Israeli voters, and

1:24:08

yet he's leading us through our worst

1:24:10

crisis since this country was established 75

1:24:12

years ago. And this is part

1:24:15

of the tragedy. We may be facing not

1:24:17

only our worst security

1:24:19

situation, but also a huge

1:24:21

political crisis with no

1:24:23

kind of solution on the horizon. There

1:24:27

is no going back. Everyone agrees.

1:24:29

Israelis, Americans, Palestinians,

1:24:32

Gaza, West Bank, anywhere you ask.

1:24:35

Everyone agrees there's no going back to

1:24:37

the October 6 status quo. The

1:24:40

question is, where do we go

1:24:42

from here? Is it a pathway

1:24:44

to something less awful? Or is

1:24:46

it more destruction and death and

1:24:49

something considerably worse than what we've

1:24:51

had before? Those

1:24:53

are still open questions. Go

1:25:02

to pbs.org/frontline for more of

1:25:04

our coverage of the ongoing

1:25:06

conflict, including extended

1:25:08

interviews. Is this a place

1:25:11

where I can have a tomorrow? You

1:25:14

cannot ignore the Palestinian people. If

1:25:16

someone says, do you want the war to continue or

1:25:18

stop? The answer is of course, stop. Connect

1:25:21

with Frontline on Facebook, Instagram

1:25:23

and X, formerly Twitter, and

1:25:26

stream anytime on the PBS

1:25:28

app, YouTube or pbs.org/Frontline. Frontline

1:25:33

is made possible by contributions to

1:25:35

your PBS station from viewers like

1:25:37

you. Thank you. And

1:25:40

by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional

1:25:43

support is provided by the Abrams

1:25:45

Foundation, committed to excellence in journalism.

1:25:48

Park Foundation, dedicated to heightening public

1:25:51

awareness of critical issues. The

1:25:53

John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation,

1:25:56

committed to building a more just, verdant

1:25:58

and peaceful world. More at

1:26:00

macfound.org. The Huizing

1:26:03

Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge,

1:26:05

opportunity, and possibilities at hsfoundation.org.

1:26:10

And by the Frontline Journalism Fund,

1:26:12

with major support from John and Joanne

1:26:14

Haegler, and additional support from

1:26:17

Kou and Patricia Ewen, committed

1:26:19

to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

1:26:41

Netanyahu, America, and the Road to War

1:26:43

in Gaza was directed by James Jacoby,

1:26:46

written by Anya Borg and James Jacoby,

1:26:49

produced by Anya Borg and Lauren Azelle

1:26:51

Kinlaw, and co-produced by

1:26:53

Christina Avalos and Chris O'Coin. The

1:27:03

senior producers were Frank Kewin and Eamon

1:27:05

Matthews. The managing

1:27:07

editor of Frontline is Andrew Metz. The

1:27:10

editor-in-chief and executive producer of Frontline

1:27:13

is Rainey Aronson-Rath.