Opinion: Israelis should abandon Netanyahu's sinking ship. He's lost

Do you remember how the longest war in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict started? With Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, boasting: "The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades."

In Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Israel has had two of the most permissive US presidents in the relationship between the two states. Late Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush were stalwarts in comparison. 

In peacetime, Trump allowed Israel to annex the occupied Golan Heights, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, and launched the Abraham Accords, an attempt to get the richest Arab states to recognise Israel without a Palestinian veto.

In war, Biden flooded Israel with arms, voted repeatedly against an immediate ceasefire, and when he attempted to apply the brakes on an offensive in Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored him.

The "bear hug" strategy failed again.

Read more: Israelis should abandon Netanyahu's sinking ship. He's lost