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As the war in Gaza continues with devastating consequences, a major 90-minute documentary offers a sweeping examination of the critical moments leading up to this crisis over the course of the past three decades, and the pivotal role of a central player: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Starting with the Oslo peace accords and continuing through the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the ongoing war in Gaza, the documentary draws on years of reporting and is an incisive look at the long history of failed peace efforts and violent conflict in the region — and the increasing tensions between Israel and its ally, the U.S., over the war’s catastrophic toll and what comes next.
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00:00:18This program contains graphic imagery, which may not be suitable for all audiences.
00:00:23Viewer discretion is advised.
00:00:39Hamas unleashes a shocking assault on Israel, leaving hundreds dead.
00:00:44The barbarism and the savagery stunning mankind.
00:00:47They're Hamas taking hostages.
00:00:49They're responding, saying Hamas will bear the consequences of the attack.
00:00:54It was 11 days after Hamas's attack on Israel.
00:00:58Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, was at Ben-Gurion Airport
00:01:04to meet the American president.
00:01:07You could see that he was lost.
00:01:09He was lost.
00:01:10He understands that this is huge, huge tragedy for Israel, but also for him as part of Israel's history.
00:01:22Benjamin Netanyahu has always sort of prided himself on being Mr. Security.
00:01:27So for the worst day ever, for the most severe suffering of fatalities and casualties in Israel itself, for this
00:01:38to occur on his watch, it is a tragedy.
00:01:43He is now descending the stairs.
00:01:45See, President Biden come down the stairs from Air Force One onto the tarmac, and he heads straight for Netanyahu,
00:01:51and he wraps his arms around him.
00:01:55It was an expression of America's solidarity with Israel, but it also carried a warning.
00:02:01It's called a bear hug, but in Hebrew a bear hug can mean wrapping your arms around somebody in order
00:02:07to restrain them as much as to comfort them.
00:02:09And that captured, I think, the dual goals of this trip, right?
00:02:15Hug them, yes, we are with you, but caution at the same time, be careful.
00:02:20This is an extremely delicate journey now.
00:02:24Israel had just begun its retaliation against Tomas.
00:02:26And later that day, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unprecedented step of joining Netanyahu's war cabinet
00:02:35to discuss their plans on the escalating civilian toll in Gaza.
00:02:40The fact that State Secretary Blinken and President Biden insist on sitting inside the Israeli war cabinet, which never happened
00:02:50in the history of the relations between the two countries.
00:02:53This is the clearest example.
00:02:57They just don't trust them.
00:02:59They want to be there and make sure that things are not getting out of control.
00:03:05After 9-11, we were enraged in the United States.
00:03:09While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.
00:03:13It was a warning to Netanyahu and to the Israeli people,
00:03:17don't make the mistake that we Americans made after 9-11, which was to overreact,
00:03:24to do what our enemies wanted us to do,
00:03:27and to unleash a military conflict that causes us all sorts of additional problems.
00:03:34Two months later, Gaza is in ruins.
00:03:37Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to push back against international calls for a ceasefire.
00:03:43The problem is that no one knows what will need to happen for Israelis to feel satisfied that they've achieved
00:03:51their stated objective of having destroyed Hamas.
00:03:54Gaza has become a graveyard for children.
00:03:58Thousands of Palestinians are dead.
00:04:02And so all that's left is to just keep killing and bombing and killing and bombing until when?
00:04:10With Hamas still holding hostages, Netanyahu is pushed ahead.
00:04:15From the Israeli perspective, what matters right now is what happened October 7th.
00:04:21And there's less and less talk about what would happen in Gaza, about the consequences, about the world's criticism.
00:04:28And now, tensions are mounting between the Israeli prime minister and the American president who'd hugged in solidarity.
00:04:36Hugging Netanyahu turns out to be a very risky strategy.
00:04:40There are many people who look at the situation and say,
00:04:43well, what has this bear hug got at us?
00:04:45The U.S. is pressing Israel to shift to precise targeting of Hamas leaders rather than widespread bombing and ground...
00:04:53For Benjamin Netanyahu, this moment of crisis is the culmination of a 30-year conflict over a failed peace process
00:05:00he has long resisted,
00:05:01over American pressure to come to terms with the Palestinians...
00:05:05It's not going to happen.
00:05:06...and over the security of his country that he vowed to defend.
00:05:09With all of this death and destruction, it's hard not to look back and say, where did the, you know,
00:05:15road turn?
00:05:16When did it become inevitable that we would head to this cataclysmic conflict?
00:05:21The second-guessing is haunting.
00:05:31Preparations are underway. We expect to see the president surely...
00:05:35For what he called an historic and honorable compromise.
00:05:38Thirty years ago, a hopeful moment in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
00:05:43It's a day for optimism.
00:05:45Two sworn enemies arrived at the White House to sign a peace agreement.
00:05:49The deal was struck in secret by the principal.
00:05:51Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a former general, represented Israel.
00:05:55...have now agreed to lay down their guns...
00:05:57Representing the Palestinians, Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
00:06:03...45 years of armed conflict...
00:06:05This is a historic breakthrough.
00:06:07Between Israel and the PLO, two national movements competing for the same space,
00:06:11and for the first time, they're prepared to recognize each other.
00:06:13Known as the Oslo Accords, supported by President Bill Clinton,
00:06:17It was designed to end years of violence by laying out a peace process.
00:06:22A deal that could give Palestinians their own state and land captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
00:06:31President Clinton felt this was his baby.
00:06:33It charts a course toward reconciliation between two peoples who have both known the bitterness of exile.
00:06:40On the White House lawn, the tensions were visible.
00:06:44To the last minute, there were issues.
00:06:46Rabin is insisting that Arafat can't come in a uniform, anything that looks like a uniform.
00:06:51We're telling Arafat, don't even, you can't come with a, you don't bring a weapon.
00:06:56You know, he's always, always had a pistol.
00:06:57You don't bring a weapon to the White House.
00:07:00Then at a point, the President looks at Rabin and he says,
00:07:04You're going to have to shake his hand.
00:07:07And Rabin looked like someone had punched him in the stomach.
00:07:12And he stood there for a moment.
00:07:14This is a man he considered a terrorist all his life.
00:07:20And then, the handshake.
00:07:26An image that would become iconic.
00:07:30These hands that shook knew nothing but to shoot.
00:07:34The trigger.
00:07:35The bullets.
00:07:36The bombs.
00:07:37The fight.
00:07:38And the question to me is, can this hat shake lead to the culture in the minds of Palestinians and
00:07:46Israelis?
00:07:48That coexistence is possible.
00:07:50That peace is possible.
00:07:51To live and let live.
00:07:56But in Israel, an outcry against the peace process had been building among the ultra-religious right-wing and security
00:08:03-minded conservatives.
00:08:10The face of the opposition?
00:08:12The 43-year-old leader of the Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu, known as Bibi.
00:08:17The PLO Islamic State, 15 minutes from Jerusalem or 5 minutes from Tel Aviv, is a prescription not for peace,
00:08:24but for dangerous and renewed conflict.
00:08:28Week after week, Netanyahu watched the protests build.
00:08:34We're demonstrating against the inability of the government to maintain order in this country and to protect the rights of
00:08:41Jews living in their own land.
00:08:43Concerned a Palestinian state would pose a security risk to Israel, Netanyahu maneuvered the growing anger into a political force.
00:08:51Netanyahu saw a moment of betrayal and peril and an agreement that would never and could never work.
00:09:03He did not believe in the possibility of a deal with the Palestinians.
00:09:08He didn't trust them.
00:09:09He didn't like them.
00:09:10He doesn't.
00:09:13And he doesn't want to have a deal with them.
00:09:15He didn't want to have a deal with them.
00:09:16Suicide bomber boarded the bus.
00:09:18At the time, among the Palestinians, there was also a rising faction opposed to the peace process.
00:09:24The car bomb was aimed at killing the maximum number of Israeli school children.
00:09:28A recently formed Islamic militant group started setting off suicide bombs inside Israel.
00:09:34Its name, Hamas.
00:09:38When the Oslo agreement is signed, most Palestinians said, let's give this a chance.
00:09:43But there was that core constituency among Palestinians who said, the peace process is a sham.
00:09:50It can never succeed.
00:09:51Only armed struggle can liberate Palestine.
00:09:55And Hamas became the embodiment of that sentiment.
00:09:58Hamas's founding declaration called for the destruction of Israel and condemned all attempts at negotiation.
00:10:05It was another test for the already strained Middle East peace process.
00:10:09Their increasingly brazen attacks would fuel Israeli opposition to the peace talks and the rise of Benjamin Netanyahu.
00:10:17Arafat is a very weak read indeed.
00:10:19He gives cover to the Hamas.
00:10:20He makes a pretense of fighting them, but effectively allows them to attack us with impunity.
00:10:25Mass protest reinforced opposition to the accord from right-wing groups.
00:10:30Netanyahu's opposition movement reached a fever pitch in October 1995,
00:10:34when tens of thousands crammed into the center of Jerusalem.
00:10:41From a balcony overlooking Zion Square, he addressed the crowd.
00:10:51The crowd was with him as he attacked Yasser Arafat.
00:10:54The crowd was with him as he attacked Yasser Arafat.
00:11:00And then the government of Yitzhak Rabin.
00:11:02I said to the government of Yisrael,
00:11:06who is a man who is trapped inside his body.
00:11:09There's a really ugly character to it.
00:11:13The level of vitriol, the anger, the scope of these demonstrations.
00:11:19The kind of incitement.
00:11:21The portrayal of Rabin.
00:11:22The dressing Rabin in Nazi uniforms or putting a kaffiya on him.
00:11:30There were moments when Netanyahu was advised that, you know, there are real nutcases in the national religious camp,
00:11:38that we see that we need to calm down, even gesturally.
00:11:46Netanyahu never did that.
00:11:49He never did that, to his enormous discredit.
00:12:01Then, a month later, at the end of a rally of his own, Yitzhak Rabin was gunned down.
00:12:12The assassin, a right-wing Israeli Jew.
00:12:15One lone gunman was taken.
00:12:16Yigal Amir.
00:12:17Truly shocking news from the Middle East.
00:12:20Tonight, Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has been assassinated.
00:12:23An evening spent dreaming of peace turns into a national nightmare.
00:12:29Outside the hospital, the crowd began to chant,
00:12:32Bibi is a murderer.
00:12:41From Tel Aviv, where this evening there is...
00:12:43The sign says,
00:12:45Bibi, Rabin's blood is on your hands.
00:12:49An assassin has taken yet another world leader away from us.
00:12:53It was just after the biggest peace rally in Tel Aviv.
00:12:57Rabin's widow blamed Netanyahu for contributing to her husband's death.
00:13:00The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin has also produced shock in the Palestinian community.
00:13:05I'm said so on worldwide television.
00:13:07Your husband pointed the finger at Mr. Netanyahu and said,
00:13:10You must stop this incitement.
00:13:12To what extent do you blame Mr. Netanyahu and the Likud for what has happened?
00:13:17I do blame them.
00:13:19In a rally in Kikar Zion in Jerusalem that showed him in the uniform of a Nazi.
00:13:25So Mr. Bibi Netanyahu, now he can say from here to eternity that he didn't support it and didn't agree
00:13:32with it.
00:13:33But he was there and he didn't stop it.
00:13:37Netanyahu's close advisor at the time vehemently disagrees.
00:13:41The attempt to pin on the murder of the prime minister is a cheap political propaganda trick
00:13:51that was taken by his political opponents, mostly from the left,
00:13:55in order to delegitimize Netanyahu as a political public
00:13:58and to delegitimize the positions of Likud in the Israeli open political debate.
00:14:15Your prime minister was a martyr for peace, but he was a victim of hate.
00:14:23After Rabin's death, the peace process he had championed was in jeopardy.
00:14:29His successor, Shimon Peres, would now try to win an election to keep it alive.
00:14:34That meant facing Bibi Netanyahu, who standing in the polls had fallen in the wake of the assassination.
00:14:41People who spoke to him on those days have said that he thought that his career was over.
00:14:47Then, as election day neared...
00:14:53Ten kilograms of explosives reduced this commuter bus.
00:14:57Hamas had struck again.
00:14:59A number 18 bus right through the heart of Jerusalem.
00:15:03...bombs packed with nails and shrapnel exploded in Israel Sunday.
00:15:06There were some Palestinian groups trying to make sure that the sabotaging of the peace process...
00:15:15Rabin was assassinated.
00:15:18Let us stop the whole process.
00:15:22This morning, the sound of sirens again interrupted the morning...
00:15:25Six days later, the number 18 bus again.
00:15:28Police combed the hellish wreckage, the clues about a suspect...
00:15:32The bus bombings were part of a series of Hamas attacks that killed more than 60 people and injured hundreds.
00:15:39The Israelis did not, could not believe the morning news. Another bloody Sunday.
00:15:44A suicide bomber has once again blown up a city bus...
00:15:47And Israelis lost faith in the process, in that process.
00:15:50One of the slogans that came from grassroots was, this peace is killing us.
00:15:57You see terrorism exploding in our streets, literally.
00:16:01So the only thing that we can do is not to continue on a failed course.
00:16:06This is bound to lead to more and more terrorism. That's exactly what's been happening.
00:16:11Netanyahu began to climb in the polls.
00:16:13He was able to speak to the masses and translate the horror of suicide bombers into political power.
00:16:22And say, I will be able to solve this. I am strong. I come from a military background.
00:16:30I have the experience and the spirit to stop suicide bombers.
00:16:38There are many ways of fighting terrorism. But the first decision is to fight it.
00:16:43Netanyahu had railed against the Oslo Accords.
00:16:46And promised security to the growing number of Israelis scarred by the violence.
00:16:50The difference between Mr. Netanyahu and the current war against Shimon Peres is a mere fraction of one percent.
00:16:59Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to the United States for his first visit since becoming Israel's Prime Minister.
00:17:04Benjamin Netanyahu's dealings with the President of the United States will be of intense interest.
00:17:10Just over one month later, Prime Minister Netanyahu was at the White House.
00:17:15And Prime Minister Netanyahu will hold a joint news conference after they meet Tuesday.
00:17:20Behind closed doors, Clinton would demand Netanyahu continue the Oslo peace process and personally meet with Yasser Arafat.
00:17:30It didn't take long for the meeting to become contentious.
00:17:33He came in pretty full of himself.
00:17:36And he was pretty much telling the President how to deal with the Arabs.
00:17:40He understood how to deal with the Arabs.
00:17:43His sort of posture was, let me tell you about the Middle East.
00:17:49And he then proceeded to lecture the President on the realities of the Middle East.
00:17:56Here's the way it is.
00:17:59Netanyahu wanted to make clear that, you know, even though the previous government had signed the agreement that he had
00:18:07some real reservations about it.
00:18:09And so, you know, I think that that's why it got off to a bad start.
00:18:16And so, you know, when the meeting's over, Clinton turns, he says, who does he think the superpower is?
00:18:29Under pressure from Clinton, Netanyahu agreed to a compromise gesture.
00:18:34He would meet with Yasser Arafat.
00:18:38And I think there's a moment where Netanyahu has to decide, can he try to block the actual implementation of
00:18:46the agreement, but concede some things that Clinton was pressing for in terms of an on-camera, for instance, handshake
00:18:55with Arafat.
00:18:56I think that was the calculation.
00:19:01That day I was there.
00:19:04And I was thinking, how will this happen?
00:19:07I was trying to do whatever I can to make sure that if needs to, I will employ every damage
00:19:14control mechanism, every crisis management, everything.
00:19:19It was a meeting Netanyahu had insisted would never happen.
00:19:23Very, very hard. Very hard. He swore he will never shake Arafat's hand.
00:19:34Once the handshake started, they kept coming.
00:19:37And he took other steps.
00:19:39He pulled Israeli troops out of a key city in the West Bank and signed a treaty agreeing to further
00:19:45implement Oslo.
00:19:47But close observers say he was slow walking the peace process.
00:19:53Netanyahu is an ideologue, very deeply.
00:19:55In every step of his premiership, starting in 96, everything he's doing, he's thinking, how do I limit this thing?
00:20:05How do I make sure I don't have to give back more land? And if I do, what's the smallest
00:20:11area of concession that I can make?
00:20:16The compromises would prove fateful for Netanyahu.
00:20:20Nobody was happy with him. The left weren't happy with him for what he was doing to undermine Oslo.
00:20:24And the right wasn't happy with him for what he was doing to keep Oslo. He was in a sort
00:20:30of impossible balancing act.
00:20:40At that point, the prime minister's conservative base folds. And some people on the conservative right work with the Israeli
00:20:54left to bring down Prime Minister Netanyahu.
00:21:02In 1999, he'd lose his bid for re-election. But he'd take with him some key lessons.
00:21:09One, his view of democratic, liberal American presidents as the rival, if not the enemy.
00:21:17Two, the fact that concessions on the peace process could lead to his downfall.
00:21:23That's why I thank him today for my intention to move from the enemy.
00:21:29Netanyahu would spend the next several years working his way back into power.
00:21:37Israelis and Palestinians in a last-ditch pitch for Middle East peace.
00:21:43Netanyahu watched as Clinton brought his left-wing successor Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat together at Camp David.
00:21:49For another peace effort that would have created a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.
00:21:59Among the difficult issues left unresolved was the control of Jerusalem.
00:22:05When Camp David happened, the Palestinian team said,
00:22:09we don't think the parties are prepared. The groundwork has not been done.
00:22:15I think the problem with Clinton was that he believed that everything could just be undone with some magic wand.
00:22:25Barak made a far-reaching offer, I think.
00:22:29Went further than he was planning to do.
00:22:33But for Arafat, it was unacceptable.
00:22:37And he said, if I accept this, you'll be, you want to walk behind my casket?
00:22:43That's what he said.
00:22:45I had a dinner with one of the former Palestinian negotiators.
00:22:50And I won't name him because this was done in confidence.
00:22:54And he said to me, we and the delegation all wanted to accept it.
00:22:59And Arafat just sort of blew us away.
00:23:05And he said, can you imagine where we would be today if we had said yes?
00:23:11And, you know, I think about that conversation often right now.
00:23:19The failure of the deal at Camp David set in motion a new round of frustration and violence on both
00:23:25sides.
00:23:29Palestinians were fed up.
00:23:31There were years of failed negotiations.
00:23:36Security for them went backwards.
00:23:37Freedom of movement went backwards.
00:23:39Freedom of religion went backwards.
00:23:41The economy went backwards.
00:23:43And there was a point at which Palestinians said, enough.
00:23:47We are done with this process of negotiations.
00:23:50So everything unravels.
00:23:52Everything unravels.
00:23:55That cycle of violence in which there were fairly high casualties on both sides,
00:24:01that definitely soured both publics, Israeli public and the Palestinian public,
00:24:10against the notion of a peaceful resolution.
00:24:15We see a rightward shift in Israeli politics happening around that same time.
00:24:20And we also see a shift happening on the Palestinian side where opponents of the peace process, violent opponents of
00:24:29the peace process, like Hamas, are emboldened by the violence on the one hand, but also the failure of negotiations.
00:24:42By 2005, Netanyahu was back at the center of the Israeli government.
00:24:47He was finance minister in the administration of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who had a new plan for dealing with
00:24:54the Palestinians.
00:24:57No negotiations.
00:24:58No negotiations.
00:24:59Instead, a unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlements and troops from the Gaza Strip.
00:25:05The Israelis concluded a long time ago that they didn't actually want Gaza.
00:25:09You know, they weren't planning to annex it.
00:25:11They wanted to actually pull out of it.
00:25:13They're going to get the heck out.
00:25:15And it's up to the Palestinians what they want to do with it at that point.
00:25:20Netanyahu grew uneasy about the implications of handing over Gaza to the Palestinians.
00:25:26He consulted a former military intelligence chief.
00:25:29Netanyahu asked me what is my view, and I was totally against it.
00:25:33By evacuating all our forces, we allow Gaza to be an extreme country which will be controlled by Hamas.
00:25:45A week before the pullout, Netanyahu resigned in protest.
00:25:49I cannot be a partner to a move that I think compromises the security of Israel.
00:25:58Jewish settlers have until midnight tonight to get out of Gaza or be removed by force.
00:26:05When the pullout happened, the army had to forcibly remove many Israeli settlers from their homes, deeply dividing the country.
00:26:13This is just a trauma for the nation of Israel, dividing their country, hitting the right wing against the army.
00:26:27In Washington, President George W. Bush had been pushing the Palestinians to quickly take advantage of the moment and hold
00:26:35democratic elections.
00:26:36Mr. President, we will work with you to help realize the dream of a free and democratic Palestine.
00:26:43The Bush administration threw its support behind the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who'd taken over since the death of Yasser
00:26:50Arafat.
00:26:51Welcome back to the White House.
00:26:53Abbas and his Fatah party were unpopular among many Palestinians, who saw them as corrupt and ineffective.
00:27:00Hamas decided to run against them.
00:27:04In 2006, when Hamas runs, they run a disciplined campaign.
00:27:09The slogan was, we'll provide good governance.
00:27:12We'll fight corruption.
00:27:14And Islam is the answer.
00:27:16That's how they ran.
00:27:18It was open, free elections, which were promoted by the United States of America, not by us.
00:27:24We didn't like the idea.
00:27:27But under the pressure of the Americans, we did it.
00:27:30And Hamas won.
00:27:31The sweeping victory by Hamas is being described as a political earthquake.
00:27:36Already those disaster shocks being felt in Gaza.
00:27:40Hamas' election victory in 2006 was a surprise to everyone, including Hamas.
00:27:47Hamas was designated by Israel, by the United States, and by many European countries as a terrorist organization.
00:27:55So this was not a government that they could deal with.
00:28:01Showed the fraught consequences of a democracy agenda.
00:28:07Sometimes democracy doesn't lead you to the results you actually want.
00:28:10As we've been reporting here, there's been a bloody and violent takeover of power in Gaza.
00:28:16Having won the election in Gaza, Hamas soon took complete control, driving out its rivals in a violent civil war.
00:28:24Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party retreated to the West Bank city of Ramah.
00:28:29Gaza would be Hamas' stronghold.
00:28:32Gaza becomes a fortress for an organization whose founding charter talks about killing Jews and eliminating Israel.
00:28:41And they are now not just a terrorist organization in Gaza, but the governing organization in Gaza.
00:28:47And that means that the Israelis have to figure out how to deal with them.
00:28:50The area's crossing point between Gaza and Israel is now barred to almost all Palestinians.
00:28:56The Israeli government imposed a blockade on Gaza.
00:29:00It said it was trying to stop the group from bringing in weapons and prevent its fighters crossing into Israel.
00:29:06The civilian population are facing increasing desperation and misery.
00:29:10But it also trapped the population.
00:29:12Israel says that Gazans will not starve on a more basic diet.
00:29:17The notion that you could keep two million people locked up indefinitely, with no real economy, who are entirely dependent
00:29:25on Israel opening and closing the border to allow movement of goods and people in, where majority of the people
00:29:33are now impoverished, I think, was not only absurd, but also quite cruel.
00:29:39Because it depended on periodic, predictable eruptions of violence that, from Israel's standpoint, were acceptable.
00:29:53As Netanyahu had predicted, within a year, Hamas was firing rockets and mortars into Israel.
00:30:01Israel responded with airstrikes.
00:30:05It would become a recurring cycle.
00:30:14By 2008, Netanyahu was once again running for prime minister, with a campaign slogan of strong against Hamas.
00:30:24He is a great politician, and he has understood the DNA of the Israeli public.
00:30:32He understands that you have to look him in the eye and you have to say, I'll keep you safe.
00:30:38Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have locked up the prime minister's office.
00:30:42He was re-elected amid growing fear of Hamas attacks.
00:30:46But during the run-up to his victory, a new president had entered the White House.
00:30:54Netanyahu was concerned.
00:30:57I happened to be on a reporting trip in Jerusalem, and I went into the coffee shop at the King
00:31:04David Hotel.
00:31:05There was one other person there, and it was Netanyahu, sitting in a corner by himself reading newspapers.
00:31:13There was one thing in his mind, who is this guy Obama?
00:31:18Who is he?
00:31:20What is he really like?
00:31:21And he wanted very much to point out to me, as if I didn't know it, that Obama's middle name
00:31:27was Hussein,
00:31:29and that his father was a Muslim.
00:31:33What kind of objectivity could this man bring to bear on Israel?
00:31:41From his first day in office, President Obama had set a new tone.
00:31:48His first phone call was to Mahmoud Abbas.
00:31:52He started off by sending the right signals to Palestinians.
00:31:58And I found that very sincere, because he didn't need to make that phone call.
00:32:09Later, for his first television interview, he chose an Arab TV network.
00:32:14I have Muslim members of my family.
00:32:17I have lived in Muslim countries.
00:32:21My job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the
00:32:28Muslim world.
00:32:29It is my privilege to come here.
00:32:32And he signaled to Palestinians and Israelis that he wanted to restart the peace process.
00:32:39This history shows us that strong and sustained American engagement can bridge divides and build the capacity that supports progress.
00:32:50In May 2009, he invited Netanyahu to the White House.
00:32:55All right, everybody. Just tell me when everybody's set up.
00:32:58Great.
00:33:00Well, listen, I first of all want to thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for making this visit.
00:33:08Obama took a hard line with Netanyahu.
00:33:11He pressed the Prime Minister on a key issue, stopping the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank
00:33:17on land captured in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians.
00:33:22It wasn't a request. It was a demand.
00:33:25And I think that this shocked Netanyahu, shocked the people around Netanyahu
00:33:32and sort of gave proof to the people who had been whispering in Netanyahu's ears that this guy's up to
00:33:39no good.
00:33:40The settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward.
00:33:45That's a difficult issue. I recognize that.
00:33:48But it's an important one, and it has to be addressed.
00:33:51The signal he was sending to the Israelis was one of, I believe that this has to come to an
00:33:57end.
00:33:58They need to hear that they can't build Israeli settlements any longer, that there has to be an end to
00:34:02it.
00:34:03For Netanyahu, his first meeting with the President couldn't have gone worse.
00:34:08I think Netanyahu recognized in Obama suddenly a person who was hell-bent on setting up a Palestinian state.
00:34:18They were better behaved than before.
00:34:19And I remember him coming back from his first meeting with President Obama.
00:34:25Something that tells him that it's going to be a different president.
00:34:30Super-intelligent lawyer.
00:34:33He has a vision and something in what we, in Hebrew, called an ashoime.
00:34:39The soul is too cold to be connected to Israel.
00:34:47Once again, Netanyahu was at odds with an American president.
00:34:52Obama's peace efforts over the next few years wouldn't be able to break the cycle of violence that had been
00:34:58raging between Israel and the Palestinians.
00:35:01Israel is carrying out brand new airstrikes in the Gaza Strip today.
00:35:05Two explosions in Gaza. Fresh Israeli airstrikes.
00:35:08The sirens warned of another round of Hamas rockets.
00:35:10Obama would send his veteran conflict negotiator, George Mitchell, to the region more than 20 times.
00:35:16Hamas security forces the target in a third day of Israeli missile strikes in Gaza.
00:35:29Emotions were very high and very negative.
00:35:34There was a lot of hostility, a lot of feelings of victimization on both sides.
00:35:42The circumstances were not conducive to moving forward.
00:35:48Mitchell says that he will be going back to the region in the next few days.
00:35:54Neither side was ready to do a deal.
00:35:57Mitchell back again in Israel.
00:35:59Eventually, Mitchell gave up.
00:36:02He submitted his letter of resignation in 2011.
00:36:06I withdrew.
00:36:07I concluded that the level of mistrust between both societies made it highly unlikely that they would be able to
00:36:17overcome that level of mistrust and reach agreement.
00:36:23The President of the United States, Barack Obama.
00:36:27With his Middle East efforts in trouble, Obama doubled down.
00:36:32For six months, we have witnessed an extraordinary change taking place in the Middle East and North Africa.
00:36:40Amid the Arab Spring, he delivered a speech at the State Department that lasted nearly an hour.
00:36:45But would be remembered for just one line.
00:36:49We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.
00:36:56That Israel should return land it captured in the 1967 war to form a Palestinian state was a familiar demand.
00:37:04But one never endorsed so publicly by a U.S. president.
00:37:09It became the headline.
00:37:10The headline of the New York Times was, President Obama endorses the 67 borders.
00:37:15The rest of the speech about the Arab Spring went virtually unreported.
00:37:19Now, for Israel, this was a major development.
00:37:25Netanyahu believes if you have a Palestinian state in anywhere approximating the 67 borders, the potential for peace is zero.
00:37:35That the capacity for Israel to maintain its security, even in the state it's in now, will be radically diminished.
00:37:45The White House had not briefed Netanyahu.
00:37:48And as it turned out, he was planning a trip to Washington the next day.
00:37:55From Netanyahu's point of view, he was convinced that this was an attempt to ambush him, embarrass him, and put
00:38:04him in a situation where, you know, the president was, from Netanyahu's point of view, weakening Israel's negotiating position by
00:38:13declaring it to the United States.
00:38:13A stance on the 67 lines.
00:38:16And so he was furious about it.
00:38:20When Netanyahu landed, his ambassador could tell there would be trouble.
00:38:25I'd never seen him like that coming out of the plane.
00:38:28There was, there was no smile, there was no wave.
00:38:30And, uh, you can almost imagine steam coming out of his ears.
00:38:35Just as in their first meeting, the press was summoned.
00:38:39All right, everybody set up?
00:38:40All good?
00:38:43Let me first of all welcome, once again, Prime Minister Netanyahu.
00:38:47But this time, Bibi Netanyahu would lecture Barack Obama on the peace process and Hamas.
00:38:54Israel obviously cannot be asked to negotiate with a government that is backed by the Palestinian version of al-Qaeda.
00:39:01You're watching President Obama there with his face in his hand, and you can tell it's not going over well.
00:39:07This is, this is his house, and to be lectured in his office, um, rankles.
00:39:13Israel cannot negotiate with a Palestinian government that is backed by Hamas.
00:39:17Hamas is the President.
00:39:18Watching it unfold, Chief of Staff Bill Daley.
00:39:22Bill Daley is standing next to me, and he's going, outrageous, outrageous.
00:39:27And he's just, I mean, it's like he's almost levitating.
00:39:30And because, Mr. President, history will not give the Jewish people another chance.
00:39:34Obama was treated to a lecture on Jewish and Israeli history that just went on and on, and deeply offended,
00:39:43deeply offended Obama and his people.
00:39:46It's the ancient nation of Israel, and you know, we've been around for almost 4,000 years.
00:39:52We've experienced struggle and suffering like no other people.
00:39:57There was a sense of gall. What gall?
00:40:04After the public dressing down, Obama faced a choice about how to respond, how hard to push Netanyahu.
00:40:12I think Obama realized at that time that the price that he was paying for trying to ram something down
00:40:17Netanyahu's throat,
00:40:18that Netanyahu didn't want to have rammed down his throat, was not worth, you know, it wasn't worth it for
00:40:22him.
00:40:25The Palestinians, who had once cheered Obama's election, now watched with disappointment,
00:40:31as the peace process not only faltered, but Israel continued to build settlements.
00:40:37His approach has been to send signals, but to never follow up his signals with actual action.
00:40:44He didn't back up his statements against settlements with actual actions,
00:40:50and saying to the Israelis, you have to make a choice now.
00:40:54Do you want these settlements, or do you want the money that we give you every year?
00:40:59It's always just been one signal after another signal after another signal.
00:41:02And this is an area that deals well with signals. This is an area that requires concrete action.
00:41:11He proved to the Israeli public, look, when I defend you, even against the strongest person in the world,
00:41:17the President of the United States, we still get what we need in defense terms,
00:41:22and we still get this huge check from the United States.
00:41:24He managed to prove that Israel didn't pay a price.
00:41:27Israel has many friends and allies, but when they're mistaken, it's my obligation to speak out clearly and openly and
00:41:37say so.
00:41:38If Netanyahu, as expected, continues to be the Prime Minister, we can expect continued tense relationship with the Obama administration.
00:41:46Netanyahu would capitalize on his defiance of Obama as he ran for reelection in 2015.
00:41:52He publicly lashed out at the President over his deal with Iran to curtail its nuclear program.
00:41:58The deal currently on the table is deeply flawed.
00:42:02Instead of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, this impending deal will facilitate that development.
00:42:11He said it was a grave security risk to Israel that would also fuel Iran's backing of Hamas.
00:42:16It played well to his base on the Israeli right. He took an even harder line on the Palestinian issue.
00:42:50He came out plain and simple and said,
00:42:52there will not be a Palestinian state.
00:42:54And that was the true face of Netanyahu.
00:42:57Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has won what's being called a stunning reelection victory.
00:43:10Netanyahu's election victory emboldened his approach to the Palestinians.
00:43:13He would take advantage of the fact they were divided between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the
00:43:21West Bank.
00:43:22He wanted to divide. And he wanted to make sure that he doesn't have to negotiate any deal where you
00:43:31would connect between the territories and Gaza.
00:43:34From an Israeli standpoint, it makes sense.
00:43:38Divide and rule. Keep the West Bank and Gaza separate.
00:43:42That's the best way to prevent a Palestinian state.
00:43:46Keep them both weak, but not weak enough where they collapse.
00:43:51Netanyahu made a particularly fateful gamble when it came to Hamas.
00:43:55With Gaza under blockade, he allowed the wealthy Gulf state Qatar to give Hamas hundreds of millions of dollars in
00:44:03assistance.
00:44:03He allowed Qatar to pay Hamas massive bags of cash in dollars to buy, quiet, to buy cars from Hamas.
00:44:15This money was spent on digging tunnels and buying rockets and producing weapons, now killing Israelis.
00:44:21While Netanyahu was telling us that he was our great protector, he was actually contributing, not directly, to building Hamas
00:44:28and making it a regional power.
00:44:31Israel has responded to a rocket attack from Gaza with three punishing airstrikes.
00:44:36Israel's military said the strikes were a response to a rocket fired into southern Israel.
00:44:41Netanyahu has denied he was empowering Hamas and pointed to repeated military offensives in Gaza against the group.
00:44:49A containment strategy known as mowing the grass.
00:44:53This notion that every so often there would need to be predictable rounds of violence, mowing the grass, as Israelis
00:45:04call it, only to result in reinstating the status quo that existed before the violence, was an untenable situation.
00:45:14I and others had argued that eventually something's going to give.
00:45:19There's going to be an escalation that spirals out of control.
00:45:23The situation becomes so dire in humanitarian terms in Gaza that there's a bigger explosion than anyone had anticipated.
00:45:31And that's precisely what happened.
00:45:41With the Palestinians divided and Netanyahu pursuing a strategy keeping it that way, a new president with a new approach
00:45:49to the region came to power.
00:45:53I speak to you today as a lifelong supporter and true friend of Israel.
00:46:04Donald Trump boasted he'd be the first U.S. president to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
00:46:10Donald Trump neither knew nor cared about the history of the Middle East or the failed efforts at Middle East
00:46:16peacemaking.
00:46:17What he knew, or what he thought he knew, was that there was a big deal that was looming out
00:46:22there and that if you could make it, you'd get a Nobel Peace Prize and the deal of the century.
00:46:27Trump surrounded himself with a team that included his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was a family friend of
00:46:33Netanyahu, and David Friedman, a controversial figure who supported Israeli settlements.
00:46:39You had these advisors on Israel, all of them Jewish, all of them strong supporters of Israel, none of them
00:46:46with any particular background in negotiation in the region in terms of peace talks, but with very, very developed positions
00:46:55and points of view.
00:46:56He was anxious to see if there could be a peace deal reach between Israel and the Palestinians.
00:47:03I will tell you candidly, I was skeptical of that from the beginning.
00:47:07The White House, Netanyahu has been full of praise for the president.
00:47:10Just one month into his term, Trump invited Netanyahu to the White House to discuss the possibilities.
00:47:16For Netanyahu and his advisors, this was first and foremost a moment of opportunity.
00:47:20Trump seemed to them volatile, unpredictable, but perhaps unpredictable in ways that would benefit Israel.
00:47:27Bibi and I have known each other a long time, a smart man, great negotiator, and I think we're going
00:47:33to make a deal.
00:47:35Trump gave Netanyahu an early nod in his favor, saying he would be open to something other than a two
00:47:41-state solution.
00:47:43I'm looking at two-state and one state, and I like the one that both parties like.
00:47:49I'm very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.
00:47:53It shocked a lot of people. I mean, Trump was not of the conviction that there needed to be a
00:47:59two-state solution.
00:48:00He thought that there could be any number of ways where this conflict could be resolved,
00:48:06and the two-state solution was one of them, but he was certainly not pushing it.
00:48:10That is really a sea change in American policy, because basically going back for multiple presidents,
00:48:16the idea of an independent Palestinian state as part of an ultimate solution, a resolution of this conflict,
00:48:22has always been the idea, and he's thrown all that out the window.
00:48:26We expect President Trump any moment now...
00:48:29Trump would soon follow that up with an even more surprising announcement, fulfilling a longtime wish of Netanyahu's.
00:48:35Today, we finally acknowledge the obvious, that Jerusalem is Israel's capital.
00:48:43I am also directing the State Department to begin preparation to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
00:48:53Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital.
00:48:57If you put the American Embassy there, you're seemingly putting your foot on the scale saying,
00:49:01we take Israel's side in this.
00:49:03This is a historic moment.
00:49:04We told him, from the day he started doing all that, from the first day, there will be no contact
00:49:09policy with him.
00:49:10You are completely and utterly boycotted.
00:49:12You shall not be a trusted mediator in this. You are disqualified.
00:49:19Palestinians took to the streets to protest.
00:49:23The U.S. knows that Jerusalem is the most sensitive issue.
00:49:28That was a move by the U.S., in a way, to tell Israel that it has Jerusalem.
00:49:35And deciding to have Israel pocket this before starting negotiations, then you definitely do not want to have negotiations in
00:49:42the first place.
00:49:43You do not want to see a peace process ignited in the first place, and you ain't interested in a
00:49:48two-state solution altogether.
00:49:51Please join me now in welcoming Ambassador David Friedman.
00:49:56In May of 2018, Friedman, Kushner, Netanyahu, and nearly a thousand guests gathered in Jerusalem for the official ceremony marking
00:50:05the move of the U.S. Embassy.
00:50:07Jerusalem is the heart and soul of the Jewish people.
00:50:11Even the most left-wing Jewish prayer books contain a prayer that God will restore the Jewish people to Jerusalem.
00:50:20So for the most important country in the world, the most powerful country in the world, to recognize Jerusalem as
00:50:26the capital of Israel,
00:50:27the fact that that hadn't been done for so long was just an open wound.
00:50:30It is now my great honor to call upon the Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.
00:50:40What a glorious day.
00:50:43Remember this moment.
00:50:49President Trump, by recognizing history, you have made history.
00:50:55I was actually there. I was anchoring our broadcast from the embassy in Jerusalem.
00:51:02And I remember I looked around at the crowd.
00:51:06It was just the crowd from one part of the political map.
00:51:10You didn't see there a lot of people from the opposition.
00:51:13You didn't see a lot of people from the peace camp or people who were used to working with the
00:51:18administration.
00:51:18It was a party of the right.
00:51:22We are in Jerusalem and we are here to stay.
00:51:26And our brave soldiers, our brave soldiers are protecting the borders of Israel as we speak today.
00:51:33We salute them all.
00:51:36That day, around 50 miles south at the border with Gaza,
00:51:41tens of thousands of Palestinians had gathered to protest the embassy move and Israel's ongoing blockade.
00:51:50Hamas urged protesters to break through the border fence.
00:51:56Israeli soldiers responded with rightful fire, killing more than 60 people.
00:52:05What the embassy move symbolized to Palestinians was that they were not going to have a state with its capital
00:52:12in Jerusalem.
00:52:15Because now the president of the United States had said that only Israel had a legitimate claim to Jerusalem
00:52:22and that it would remain eternally Israel's capital.
00:52:28Unfortunately, there was violent activity that day, and it ran its course.
00:52:32So we didn't focus on that. We focused on our ceremony.
00:52:39For Netanyahu, it was a high point in his relations with an American president.
00:52:45When President Trump came in and started to give all the gifts to Netanyahu's administration and to the Israeli public,
00:52:52it was like, you know, every day was Boxing Day.
00:52:56Netanyahu's government began a rapid expansion of settlements in the West Bank,
00:53:00the very move Obama had personally warned against.
00:53:04Because I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace.
00:53:08The Trump administration backed it, reversing the U.S.'s 40-year position that the settlements were illegal.
00:53:15The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law.
00:53:24These settlements are not the impediment to peace.
00:53:27And I believe, as a matter of law and as a matter of right,
00:53:30and I believe, as a matter of the Bible, which didn't drive my views in office,
00:53:35but certainly drives them now that I'm not a public figure anymore,
00:53:38as a matter of biblical law, this land is biblical Israel.
00:53:44That little piece of land was given by God to the Jewish people.
00:53:49Seeing the U.S. performing, behaving, acting this way to the majority of the Palestinian people
00:53:56was definitely a source of hopelessness.
00:54:01And you know what?
00:54:04Hopelessness is a very dangerous feeling.
00:54:07And when hopelessness accumulates over decades, it's no longer just dangerous.
00:54:16It's catastrophic.
00:54:17The President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the State of Israel.
00:54:24Adding insult to injury for the Palestinians,
00:54:28Trump and Netanyahu convened at the White House
00:54:30to announce what would be called the Deal of the Century.
00:54:34I was not elected to do small things or shy away from big problems.
00:54:40So there's this announcement in the White House,
00:54:42and Trump comes out, and he's very proud.
00:54:44He's, I've got this great deal that's going to solve the Middle East peace problem here.
00:54:48No sign of the Palestinians.
00:54:50They want nothing to do with this.
00:54:52That scene was the most vulgar expression
00:54:54of what the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government were all about.
00:55:00They were about liquidating the two-state solution.
00:55:03Liquidating the Palestinian issue and cause.
00:55:06Under this vision, Jerusalem will remain Israel's undivided, very important, undivided capital.
00:55:15The Deal offered Netanyahu much of what he wanted.
00:55:18But that's no big deal, because I've already done that for you, right?
00:55:23We've already done that, but that's okay.
00:55:25It's going to remain that way.
00:55:27The Deal of the Century was a fantastic blueprint
00:55:31from the perspective of the Netanyahu point of view.
00:55:33No settlements to be removed.
00:55:35A rump Palestinian entity that they might call a state, but was not really a state,
00:55:40would have no control of its borders, no control even of its own water,
00:55:44no control of its airspace.
00:55:46It would not be able to function as a state.
00:55:48It would be a collection of municipalities.
00:55:49It is only reasonable that I have to do a lot for the Palestinians,
00:55:54or it just wouldn't be fair.
00:55:57Now, don't clap for that, okay?
00:56:00But it's true.
00:56:01It wouldn't be fair.
00:56:03To try to lure the Palestinians into the deal,
00:56:06Trump promised international investment worth $50 billion.
00:56:10An American president stands next to an Israeli prime minister
00:56:14and tells them, we will buy you off with some money.
00:56:19That scene has hit the heart of every Palestinian.
00:56:24The heart of Palestinians who have been struggling for 100 years.
00:56:29Then Netanyahu took the podium
00:56:31and went even further than the terms of the deal.
00:56:34I hope that the Palestinians embrace this.
00:56:37He announced Israel was about to annex almost a third of the West Bank.
00:56:43Netanyahu announces that he's going to proceed with annexation of the West Bank.
00:56:49It's a unilateral claim on territory,
00:56:52and it really throws a lot of sand in the gears of what's going on here,
00:56:59because if you start unilaterally claiming sovereignty over sections of the West Bank
00:57:05without having made any concessions,
00:57:07what is the incentive for the Palestinians to come to the table?
00:57:10And may God bless us all with security, prosperity, and peace.
00:57:24The Palestinians were now effectively sidelined.
00:57:27But unexpectedly, it set the stage for a major shift in the Middle East.
00:57:33In the summer of 2020,
00:57:35Yousef al-Otayba, a friend of Jared Kushner's
00:57:38and the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the U.S.,
00:57:41saw an opportunity to propose a different kind of peace deal to Netanyahu,
00:57:46not between Israel and the Palestinians,
00:57:49but between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors.
00:57:53By this time, many of the Arab governments are eager to have relations with Israel,
00:57:57and the Palestinian issue is a nuisance on the way.
00:58:00And for some of them,
00:58:01they felt that they were always putting their interests second to the Palestinian cause.
00:58:06And when Israel speaks of annexing parts of the West Bank,
00:58:09the Emiratis, in particular the United Arab Emirates,
00:58:12see an opportunity to prevent that annexation in exchange for a peace deal.
00:58:16Al-Otayba said that the UAE and other Arab nations
00:58:20would consider normalizing relations with Israel
00:58:23if Netanyahu stopped his planned annexations.
00:58:27The fact that the UAE would even consider signing a normalization deal with Israel
00:58:34without consulting Palestinians was pretty remarkable.
00:58:39It's really a sign of just how much the region has changed in the past decade
00:58:44and how much lower the Palestinian issue was now on even the priorities of Arab states.
00:58:54I think they saw annexation as an opportunity for them,
00:58:59that if they were able to prevail upon the U.S. and Israel to suspend that annexation,
00:59:06that would give them sufficient political cover with the Palestinians
00:59:10to then move closer to Israel.
00:59:12They could say to the Palestinians,
00:59:13look, we're moving forward with Israel,
00:59:15but just so you know, if it wasn't for us, the annexation would have occurred.
00:59:19So, you know, we have certainly considered your interests as well during this process.
00:59:27At the White House, Trump's team jumped on the idea,
00:59:31which played into a long-held goal of Netanyahu's.
00:59:34This was Netanyahu's theory of the case,
00:59:37that the world was moving on from the Palestinians,
00:59:40that, in fact, Israel could achieve meaningful and lasting stability
00:59:45without having to trade away land for peace to the Palestinians,
00:59:50which had always been the premise of the two-state solution.
00:59:55After talks facilitated by Trump's team,
00:59:58Israel and two Arab countries, the UAE and Bahrain,
01:00:01announced they would normalize relations.
01:00:05Netanyahu dropped his annexation plans.
01:00:08It was the first peace treaty between Israel and any Arab country in almost 30 years.
01:00:14We're here this afternoon to change the course of history.
01:00:18Ultimately, the deal that Trump announces with great fanfare at the White House
01:00:23is not a deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
01:00:27It's not the Mideast peace you were looking for.
01:00:29It's a totally different issue.
01:00:32It's a step forward.
01:00:33It's a significant step forward.
01:00:35This day is a pivot of history.
01:00:39They're doing all this without any real movement on the Palestinian issue.
01:00:43For Netanyahu, this was the crown jewel of his legacy to a certain degree.
01:00:48It's a wake-up call to the Palestinians to say,
01:00:50guys, you know what?
01:00:51Everybody's got their own issues.
01:00:52Not everybody is laying up at night worrying about yours.
01:00:58The Abraham Accords were definitely seen as a betrayal by Palestinians.
01:01:02And Palestinians in general felt that the Arab states had abandoned them.
01:01:10The Palestinian Authority called the Accords despicable.
01:01:15Palestinians did not take advantage of the opportunity the Abraham Accords made.
01:01:19If the PA had gone to the Emirates and said,
01:01:22okay, you're going to do this, it's, okay, we appreciate no annexation,
01:01:26but here are some other things that you should be asking for.
01:01:30And the Emirates would have done it.
01:01:32But they were so quick to sort of condemn them.
01:01:36You betrayed us.
01:01:37There's a constant theme of betrayal in the Palestinian narrative.
01:01:42And there isn't a constant theme of responsibility on the Palestinian side.
01:01:48Iran sees the Abraham Accord as a threat.
01:01:51The Abraham Accords would incite Israel's enemies and cede conflict to come.
01:01:57What you see if you're Hamas is the world is moving beyond you.
01:02:01They no longer care, it seems like, about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza.
01:02:07And this is a deal that is essentially marginalizing Hamas,
01:02:13marginalizing the Palestinians, marginalizing their grievance.
01:02:18And they're left to wonder, well, what becomes of us?
01:02:22You know, what do we do to get some attention to our cause again?
01:02:30You cannot ignore the Palestinian people.
01:02:33No matter how much you try, by the power of the missiles and the tanks,
01:02:39as we have seen throughout the years and now,
01:02:41or by the power of the complete capitulation of a U.S. administration like Trump,
01:02:46or by the power of getting some Arab countries to normalize without a real solution,
01:02:51all that does not work and shall never, ever work.
01:03:01May 2021.
01:03:04In Jerusalem, violent protests erupted over the potential evictions of Palestinians from their homes.
01:03:14The conflict escalated when Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque,
01:03:18one of Islam's holiest sites.
01:03:23From Gaza, Hamas retaliated,
01:03:28firing rockets toward Jerusalem.
01:03:34And in response, Netanyahu launched multiple airstrikes.
01:03:47It was just four months into President Joe Biden's term,
01:03:51and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was suddenly front and center.
01:03:57Early in Biden's tenure, he has sort of a test case of what's going to happen in Israel and Gaza
01:04:03region.
01:04:07And the question for Biden as the American president is,
01:04:09OK, what are you going to do about it?
01:04:12He'd known Netanyahu for more than 40 years.
01:04:15And as Israeli forces pummeled Gaza, he picked up the phone.
01:04:20He basically is not willing to restrain Netanyahu at first.
01:04:24He says, we're with Israel.
01:04:26They have a right to defend themselves.
01:04:28He thought, we don't criticize Israel on the world stage because they get enough of that,
01:04:33but we hold them close.
01:04:34And that way, when we pick up the phone and we say,
01:04:37time's up, your military operation has run its course, that they'll listen.
01:04:46As the violence intensified,
01:04:52Biden pushed Netanyahu for a ceasefire.
01:04:54It ended in a sort of a miserable draw.
01:04:58A ceasefire was reached.
01:05:04As usual, the Israeli leadership were saying,
01:05:07we've won this round again, and Hamas is weakened and deterred.
01:05:12We're stronger.
01:05:13We proved our military might.
01:05:15Hamas is deterred.
01:05:17But for Hamas, the conflict was a breakthrough.
01:05:21They used it to tout themselves as fighting not just for Palestinians in Gaza,
01:05:26but in Jerusalem as well.
01:05:28They bombed Jerusalem.
01:05:29They bombed Tel Aviv.
01:05:30They saw themselves as regional leaders,
01:05:34not as a local organization that is fighting Israel over the border between Gaza and Israel.
01:05:40Hamas now is not just protecting its fiefdom in the Gaza Strip,
01:05:45but now vying for leadership of the Palestinian struggle as a whole
01:05:52by being the only party that is responding to events in Jerusalem.
01:06:02In contrast to the impotence and ineffectiveness of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah.
01:06:10In the wake of the conflict, a photo of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in Gaza,
01:06:16sent a foreboding message.
01:06:18What Sinwar did, which was quite interesting,
01:06:21is take a picture of him sitting on an armchair.
01:06:26The destruction around him was quite clear.
01:06:29This was saying, okay, you're maybe stronger right now,
01:06:32but I haven't lost anything.
01:06:34I'm willing to go for another round whenever I choose.
01:06:38At the same time, Hamas was also beginning to prepare its plan of attack,
01:06:43something that it implemented so horrifically on October 7, 2023.
01:06:56Netanyahu's go-to strategy toward Hamas, containment in Gaza, was beginning to crack.
01:07:02But his focus was elsewhere.
01:07:05Netanyahu is currently on trial for corruption.
01:07:07Allegedly accepting bribes and a breach of trust.
01:07:10He was embroiled in scandal, facing charges of bribery and corruption.
01:07:14He and his coalition government were briefly toppled.
01:07:18We'll be back soon.
01:07:21We'll be back.
01:07:23His own personal affairs lead eventually to three different indictments on criminal charges,
01:07:30including bribery.
01:07:31Charges that he has always claimed are bogus and are intent to persecute him.
01:07:36To regain power, Netanyahu courted Israel's most extreme parties.
01:07:42And so for Netanyahu, he felt, I have no chance but to go to the right, even the very far
01:07:47right.
01:07:47Even parties on the extreme far right that his own Likud party had always shunned.
01:07:53Some members of Likud warned him that this would be very dangerous,
01:07:57that the whole government would take a very dangerous ideological direction.
01:08:01Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has inaugurated the most far right government in the country's history.
01:08:08Recently re-elected, and now the head of a new far right government.
01:08:12Controversial plans to overhaul the justice system.
01:08:14Netanyahu started pursuing a dramatic overhaul of Israel's judicial system
01:08:18that would weaken the court's power over the executive branch.
01:08:23It was a sudden outpouring of rage.
01:08:27Protests erupted across Israel.
01:08:29Bibi is not here for the democracy. Thank you very much.
01:08:32We see hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the streets,
01:08:36which is pretty amazing for a country of just 10 million people.
01:08:39And they are there week after week after week protesting Netanyahu's efforts,
01:08:44which they see as a threat to democracy.
01:08:48They see it as a power grab by the prime minister.
01:08:51He's facing trial for three different counts of corruption.
01:08:56And for him, it was a life or death moment.
01:09:00He needed to change Israel's legal system so he could somehow stop the trial.
01:09:06That led to, I would say, the biggest wave of protests in the history of the country.
01:09:12And probably the most severe political crisis and social crisis in the history of the country.
01:09:21Looking at this now, after October 7, that seems like a sweet dream for Israelis.
01:09:27But back then, it was the country being on the brink of civil war.
01:09:35Inside Netanyahu's government, intelligence officials worried that the political unrest
01:09:40was leaving the country vulnerable to its enemies.
01:09:43In many meetings, the chiefs of Israeli intelligence warned Netanyahu that the political crisis
01:09:51and its effect on the military are perceived by Israeli enemy as the time to take more aggressive
01:09:59initiative against Israel.
01:10:02There were actually quite a lot of warnings saying, look, we're creating here the perfect storm.
01:10:07And at one point or another, one of our enemies would use that to start a war
01:10:12because they would feel that we're weak and that we're consumed with our own domestic political problems.
01:10:18But those protesting say that this is escalating into an existential battle...
01:10:23In Washington, President Biden watched the situation with alarm
01:10:27and urged Netanyahu to reverse course.
01:10:30They cannot continue down this road.
01:10:33And I've sort of made that clear.
01:10:36I'm hopeful, hopefully, the prime minister will act in a way
01:10:42that he can try to work out some genuine compromise, but that remains to be seen.
01:10:47The president's meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin...
01:10:50For Biden, the unrest in Israel threatened to disrupt a plan he'd been nurturing
01:10:54to take the Abraham Accords to the next level in the Middle East.
01:10:58He and Netanyahu had been quietly courting Saudi Arabia.
01:11:02They did push and try to expand on the Abraham Accords,
01:11:07in particular with a vision of Israeli-Saudi normalization
01:11:10that would offer a dramatically different vision of the Middle East
01:11:13and one that would fit in well to their vision of creating alliances,
01:11:18in particular in competition with China and Russia.
01:11:23By late September 2023, at the U.N. General Assembly in New York,
01:11:28a deal was taking shape.
01:11:31Netanyahu met with Biden for the first time since forming his far-right government.
01:11:36There's a lot of anticipation leading up to this meeting.
01:11:38You see the friendly version of Biden and Bibi, right?
01:11:42You see the bon ami, you see the collegiality.
01:11:44We've been friends for decades, and yes, we can disagree,
01:11:46but on the important stuff, we're on the same page.
01:11:49And it's an important moment.
01:11:50Biden used the meeting to discuss how to bring the Palestinians into the deal.
01:11:55When he sat down with Prime Minister Netanyahu,
01:11:58the main topic of that meeting, which lasted almost two hours,
01:12:02was about the Palestinians and how they fit into the Saudi deal.
01:12:07Now, I'll say, Gaza was not a part of that process,
01:12:11and that's because Hamas is in charge of Gaza.
01:12:14Prime Minister of the State of Israel, I invite him to address the assembly.
01:12:22Less than three weeks before the October 7th attacks,
01:12:26Netanyahu would make a fateful speech.
01:12:28He said, we are going to have peace with Saudi Arabia,
01:12:32and the Palestinians should not have a veto on that.
01:12:35I've long sought to make peace with the Palestinians.
01:12:39But I also believe that we must not give the Palestinians a veto over new peace treaties with Arab states.
01:12:48Which is, in a different language, from my point of view, the Palestinians can f*** off.
01:12:54Sorry, excuse my French.
01:12:56Now, for years, my approach to peace was rejected by the so-called experts.
01:13:02Well, they were wrong.
01:13:04Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will truly create a new Middle East.
01:13:10The leaders of Hamas, as they explained to us, they see this, and they understand that in a moment,
01:13:17the Palestinian issue will be completely taken off the world agenda.
01:13:24Now, they came to the conclusion, a jihadist conclusion,
01:13:29of blood, of murder, of massacre.
01:13:35They wanted regional war.
01:13:41There is an Israel before October 7th,
01:13:45and there is an Israel after October 7th.
01:13:59The barbarity, the hate, the raping, the burning, the killing of children, the ruthlessness,
01:14:09those atrocities are second only to what the Jews met in the Holocaust.
01:14:20After October 7th, every single Israeli I know is asking themselves one question.
01:14:27Is this a place where I can have a tomorrow?
01:14:31Is this a place where I can live?
01:14:37Israel is at war.
01:14:39We didn't want this war.
01:14:41It was forced upon us in the most brutal and savage way.
01:14:45Hamas had carried out the deadliest single assault in Israel's history,
01:14:49and it had happened on Benjamin Netanyahu's watch.
01:14:53He saw himself as the greatest protector of the state of Israel.
01:14:57And persuaded himself and his supporters that Israel was safe and that he could handle everything.
01:15:04Hamas will understand that by attacking us, they've made a mistake of historic proportions.
01:15:11He would manage the Palestinian conflict without attempting to solve it.
01:15:15He would keep Hamas as an enemy entity, but a weak one.
01:15:20The problem, of course, is that he refused to accept the fact that actually some of his actions
01:15:25were pushing Hamas in the worst direction possible.
01:15:31Israel will win this war.
01:15:41In Washington, President Biden was visibly shaken by the killing and taking of hostages.
01:15:47This was an act of sheer evil.
01:15:50More than 1,000 civilians slaughtered, not just killed, slaughtered in Israel.
01:15:56It was just a few feet away from him.
01:15:57You could just see in his face and see in his mannerisms that he really was viscerally outraged.
01:16:05Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with no regard to who pays the price.
01:16:12I don't think I've ever seen a president quite as angry in a speech as Biden was that day.
01:16:17Let there be no doubt, the United States has Israel's back.
01:16:23We'll make sure the Jewish and democratic state of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow, as we always have.
01:16:30It's as simple as that.
01:16:33These atrocities have been sickening.
01:16:38We're with Israel.
01:16:39Let's make no mistake.
01:16:43But despite his full-throated public support,
01:16:50as Israel began airstrikes in Gaza,
01:16:53behind the scenes, Biden was concerned.
01:16:56Their position was no humanitarian assistance should go into Gaza
01:17:01until the hostages come home.
01:17:03That was the unanimous view.
01:17:05And the president wanted to go face-to-face and say,
01:17:08we cannot accept that.
01:17:10We cannot accept that policy.
01:17:15Within days, the president arrived in Tel Aviv.
01:17:19President Biden really wanted to make a statement with this trip.
01:17:23It was really a very dramatic moment.
01:17:27He is now descending the stairs of Air Force One,
01:17:30making this historic visit to Israel.
01:17:33The famous bear hug, with its dual message of solidarity and caution.
01:17:37He doesn't want to look like that he is telling the Israelis how to respond,
01:17:43but he's just giving them the caution of a friend, is the way he would put it.
01:17:47We're with you here, but be careful.
01:17:50There are limits to how far you should go.
01:17:54The bear hug approach.
01:17:57Hug Israel publicly, show no daylight with Israel,
01:18:02while privately delivering messages to show restraint
01:18:07and to be more cautious and so forth.
01:18:11That approach doesn't work.
01:18:14It's never worked.
01:18:18There needed to be a more stern message
01:18:25about the need to operate within the constraints of international law.
01:18:31We are seeing unprecedented levels of civilian casualties.
01:18:38The vast majority of people who are killed in Gaza right now are women and children.
01:18:46And for what?
01:18:50What is the upper ceiling?
01:18:53Is it 20,000 killed?
01:18:55Is it 100,000?
01:19:05What is the upper limit?
01:19:08What is the upper limit?
01:19:14The bloodshed has played into Hamas' hands.
01:19:19They blessed, they prayed, they wanted this to happen, so Israel will react with force.
01:19:27The whole region is destabilized, and according to them, the Palestinians are not forgotten.
01:19:33They were willing to sacrifice Gaza and all the Gazans in exchange of their jihad.
01:19:41A very intense few days of protest around the world.
01:19:44The humanitarian crisis from Israel's military response has brought widespread condemnation.
01:19:50Israel is a terrorist state!
01:19:54But, with Hamas still holding hostages, Netanyahu has been pushing forward.
01:20:00There is no peace between the nations.
01:20:02There is no peace between the nations and our nation.
01:20:05We will not be aware of our faith in our way, in our favor and in our favor to protect
01:20:12ourselves.
01:20:12If you go to Israel, this is a country that is united and mobilized behind this campaign.
01:20:20The mounting isolation of the United States...
01:20:23In the U.S., there has been increasing pressure on President Biden to do more to restrain Israel's response.
01:20:30We all want this war to end yesterday.
01:20:32If someone says, do you want the war to continue or stop?
01:20:35The answer is, of course, stop.
01:20:36But recognizing that if Hamas is fully intact, it simply creates the conditions for the next conflict.
01:20:44This is an incredibly difficult dilemma.
01:20:47It's something we are confronting, really, even at this hour.
01:20:51In the face of the criticism, the President has been trying to turn attention to the day after.
01:20:56We're working very hard to bring it to a point of conclusion to which something better and more durable can
01:21:05be established.
01:21:07Including, ultimately, a Palestinian state. And we've said that very clearly.
01:21:10I think the only ultimate answer here is a two-state solution that's real.
01:21:15I've been really struck by the extent to which Joe Biden and some of those around him have immediately revived
01:21:22the language of the two-state solution.
01:21:26What Biden seemed to want is to use this tragic moment for something bigger. For two-state solution. For negotiation.
01:21:36And this is where he and Netanyahu are, like, in total different worlds.
01:21:43Now, the two men who'd embraced on the tarmac are increasingly at odds.
01:21:50Last week, for the first time since the war started, Biden criticized Netanyahu directly for what he called indiscriminate bombing.
01:21:59He stepped up the pressure for Israel to scale back the military campaign. And he called on Netanyahu to support
01:22:06a Palestinian state.
01:22:09Netanyahu staked out his own hard line.
01:22:19Bibi now, here in Israel, behind the scenes, is already talking to members of the Likud party and the right
01:22:27-wing camp that I am the only one who will stand against the two-state solution after this war ends.
01:22:35If anyone can stand against Joe Biden and block the two-state solution, it's me, Bibi.
01:22:44We have a leader who's mistrusted by most of the Israeli voters, and yet he's leading us through our worst
01:22:51crisis since this country was established 75 years ago.
01:22:54And this is part of the tragedy. We may be facing not only our worst security situation, but also a
01:23:02huge political crisis with no kind of solution on the horizon.
01:23:07There is no going back. Everyone agrees. Israelis, Americans, Palestinians, Gaza, West Bank, anywhere you ask. Everyone agrees there's no
01:23:18going back to the October 6 status quo.
01:23:20The question is, where do we go from here? Is it a pathway to something less awful? Or is it
01:23:27more destruction and death and something considerably worse than what we've had before?
01:23:34Those are still open questions.
01:23:42Go to PBS.org slash Frontline for more coverage of the ongoing conflict from our partners of The Washington Post
01:23:49and more from Frontline, including selected interviews.
01:23:54Is this a place where I can have a tomorrow?
01:23:57You cannot ignore the Palestinian people.
01:24:00Connect with Frontline on Facebook, Instagram, and X, formerly Twitter, and stream anytime on the PBS app, YouTube, or PBS
01:24:09.org slash Frontline.
01:24:13Frontline on Facebook, Instagram, and Instagram, and Instagram, and Instagram, and Instagram.
01:24:39For more on this and other Frontline programs, visit our website at PBS.org slash Frontline.
01:24:48Frontline.
01:25:01Frontline.com slash Metanyahu.org slash Netanyahu America and the Road to War in Gaza and Failure at the Fence
01:25:06are available on Amazon Prime Video.
01:25:29Transcription by CastingWords
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