Natan Sachs, Brookings Institution:
Well, there are both substantive differences between the two parties and also political ones.
Substantively, the president and the prime minister see quite differently, especially the day after of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. We're looking at probably the last few weeks of this phase of the ground operation. And what follows has been described very differently by the two leaders.
President Biden has said no Hamas ruling the Gaza Strip after the war, but also no Israeli reoccupation of the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu, on the other hand, has described an indefinite Israeli security overall responsibility in the Gaza Strip, believing that no other force, international or multinational, would have the wherewithal and they would agree to pay the price to conduct counterinsurgency in the Gaza Strip.
He's probably right in this assessment. But there's also other differences. The president sees a major role for the Palestinian Authority that currently controls parts of the West Bank, at least rejuvenated, reformed, but then entering into the Gaza Strip as the main Palestinian force there.
Netanyahu has staked out a position that that would be unacceptable and there would be no future at least for this current form of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. That's a major difference between the two.
There's also politics involved. Biden has a lot of pressure domestically and internationally, and sees a need to make clear that he's been using not only his love for Israel, but also his pressure, the leverage that he's gained by showing this close affinity to Israel.
And Netanyahu is struggling for his political future himself. He's now trailing badly in the polls against the presumptive winner, would be Benny Gantz, who's currently in the coalition, but only temporarily.
And he's trying to stake out a position that would differentiate between him and Benny Gantz, in particular, on the question of the Palestinian Authority and whether there might be a Palestinian state and a two-state solution down the road, something Netanyahu is hinting that he is the only one who would prevent, as most Israelis are very fearful of it today, and hinting that Benny Gantz perhaps would not be able to prevent it.
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