Nearly 28 years ago, Benjamin Netanyahu reached the pinnacle of Israeli political power. Fresh off a razor-thin general election victory over the incumbent prime minister Shimon Peres, the 46 year old Netanyahu flew to Washington, DC for his first official visit with Bill Clinton.

According to an account by Aaron David Miller, a veteran Middle East policy official for six US secretaries of state, the confab didn’t go well. Venting to aides after the meeting, Clinton asked: “Who’s the f—ing superpower here?”

Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu.Credit: AP

Fast-forward to today and the same exact question rings true.

But it seems doubtful Joe Biden has the good sense to even ask it.

From the moment Hamas burst through the southern border fence into Israel, slaughtered 1200 people and stole more than 250 hostages from their homes, Biden has pledged his support for Israel’s war every step of the way. Three days after the October 7 attack, he delivered a nationally televised address from the White House stressing that Israel had the right and indeed duty to respond militarily in self-defence.

President Clinton talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the US in 1998.Credit: AP

On October 19, Biden upped the ante and tied Israel’s campaign against Hamas with Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, categorising both as an existential struggle between peace and mayhem. The Biden administration declared a national emergency not once, but twice, to expedite weapons supplies to Israel without having to wait for congressional approval. Through it all, Biden has taken flak from core constituencies in the Democratic Party who are infuriated by his seemingly tough stance.

Netanyahu is no fan of Biden, however. He has disregarded Washington’s advice, turned a deaf ear to the president’s protestations about civilian casualties in Gaza and objected strongly to the notion that Israel isn’t doing enough to alleviate the humanitarian situation there.

Biden’s foreign policy has left the US looking increasingly like an enfeebled partner in this decades-long relationship.