Israel’s relations with America reach breaking point

AFTER NEARLY six months of war in Gaza, America delivered an ultimatum to Israel on April 4th: act immediately to protect Palestinian civilians or face “changes in our own policy”. It was the strongest signal yet that President Joe Biden is prepared to reduce vital military or diplomatic support for Israel.America’s backing is essential to ensuring , yet Mr Biden will still find it difficult to halt the fighting, hard to find a political settlement in Gaza and impossible to forsake entirely the hard-right government of Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. The president’s intervention does, though, greatly raise the odds of a political challenge to Mr Netanyahu—which may be what the White House ultimately wants.