Illustration: Sivan Schwam

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You could say that the Great Wall of China lies between Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden. A mere year after Biden visited Israel and warmly embraced then opposition leader Netanyahu, whispering, “You know I love you,” the relationship between the Israeli prime minister and the American president is at an unprecedented impasse.

For Netanyahu, the Biden administration is inseparable from the Israeli deep state, which has made his removal from power by any means necessary — legal, economic, or political — its supreme goal. He won’t say it publicly like some of the more incendiary ministers in his government, but that’s what’s in his thoughts, to judge by the impression of senior coalition figures who have sat through closed-door meetings with him of late.

Every week, the Biden administration takes the public humiliation a step further. Ten days ago, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who earned the administration’s respect for singlehandedly killing the judicial reform, had to meet US defense secretary Lloyd Austin in Brussels, capital of Belgium and the EU. While the initial invitation to Washington would have allowed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to participate as well, Gallant had to recalibrate after Bibi forbade government ministers from flying to the US capital.

The humiliating fact that he has yet to receive an invitation to the White House half a year after returning to power led Netanyahu to take the unprecedented step of banning his ministers from flying to Washington, D.C., for as long as he’s denied an invitation to meet the president in the Oval Office.