As a war machine, Israel's control button is in the hands of the U.S. If the U.S. wanted, it could press the button and stop Israel. Instead, the U.S. continues to provide military, financial, and diplomatic support that enables Israel to carry out genocide while pretending to call for a ceasefire. This policy emboldens Netanyahu to carry on with his actions.

If the U.S. genuinely wanted to, it could force Netanyahu into a ceasefire and hostage agreement by pressing Israel's button. Should Netanyahu, under the illusion of his own power, continue his course, the "Zionist establishment"—including the military, judiciary, media, and intelligence agencies—would not hesitate to bring him down, knowing Israel cannot survive without U.S. support.

Israel has never defied what the U.S. truly wants. Israel's military and political elites know where the real power lies. Israel is an entity that survives by leveraging the power of the "American Empire," and the primary role of the "Israel Lobby" in the U.S. is to ensure this relationship remains intact.

The "special relationship" with Israel operates between the American establishment, the Military-Industrial Complex, and Israel's military-civilian bureaucracy. However, things haven't been going smoothly in the U.S. lately, and bipartisan support for Israel is waning. One reason the "American Empire" occasionally reminds Israel who the real boss is stems from this decline.

Currently, the U.S. is telling Israel, "I'll pass you the ball, and you kick it out of bounds." This is how the Biden administration's efforts toward a ceasefire and hostage agreement are unfolding. If the U.S. didn’t want it this way, it wouldn’t continue to supply weapons and money to Israel, which is openly committing genocide in Gaza, nor would it send aircraft carriers to the Eastern Mediterranean. Clearly, the U.S. believes it’s not yet time to push Israel into a permanent ceasefire agreement.

In a November 2023 interview, retired Israeli Major General Yitzhak Brick summarized Israel's military dependence on the U.S.: "All our missiles, ammunition, precision-guided bombs, all our planes and bombs, they all come from the U.S. The moment they shut off the supply, you can't keep fighting. You have no capability. Everyone understands that we cannot continue this war without the U.S. Period."

Israeli-American Jewish historian Prof. Omer Bartov also highlighted that the situation would change if Biden told Netanyahu, "You must reach an agreement and stop the war. If you don’t, you’ll be on your own. Fine, you're a head of government; you can do what you want, but you'll be on your own. No diplomatic protection, no weapons from us. If Biden had said this, the war would have ended."

As long as the U.S. doesn't cut off the flow of weapons and bombs to Israel, Netanyahu will continue with genocide. Over 40,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom are women and children, have died in Gaza. Would the U.S., which dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities in 1945, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, be troubled by the genocide in Gaza?

An interesting anecdote about Biden was featured in Chris McGreal's March 8, 2024, article in "The Guardian," titled "Why Biden Ignores the Rising Anger Over Gaza Attacks." The source of the story is a "Yediot Ahronot" interview with former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Begin recounted a speech he gave to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee days after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. According to Begin, no one in the committee was more eager to support Israel than Senator Joe Biden.

Even more surprising was Biden's remark, "If attacks were launched from Canada against the U.S., everyone here would say, 'Attack all of Canada's cities; we don't care if all the civilians die.'" Begin was so taken aback by Biden's words that he distanced himself from the statement, saying, "No sir, caution is needed. According to our values, harming women and children is forbidden even in war." Prof. Ben Burgis, who first brought attention to this anecdote in "Jacobin" magazine, noted, "As far as I know, these details have never appeared in the English press."