What a difference a week makes, and not just in that extraordinary battle for power, aka the election in the United States. Consider too a tumultuous week in that age-old conflict in the Middle East, between the Israelis and Palestinians. It’s time to digest signs of ground-breaking change on both sides of that war — one coming from the Israeli leader in Washington DC, the other from the Palestinians, in Beijing of all places.

What we are seeing is how the Gaza crisis has re-shaped fundamentally the pecking order of who has power, political muscle in the region. In Israel’s case, we have watched a leader ready to push its special relationship with the United States to the brink, in pursuit of “total victory,” paying little more than lip service to the policy goals of the United States, challenging the notion that Washington can keep a leash on Jerusalem.

The White House clings to the hope that a deal can be made between Netanyahu and the leadership of Hamas

On the Palestinian side, we have glimpsed the leading factions, including Hamas in Gaza, agree notionally in Beijing on a National Unity government, a truce that may turn out to be not worth the paper it’s written on. But the real import of this lies in Xi Jinping’s China making itself an indispensable player in the future of the Middle East, so challenging America’s primacy there as never before, an issue diagnosed in these pages within days of the start of the Gaza conflict.

Amid all the back-and-forth of Joe Biden leaving the election campaign, and new Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris seeking to assume the mantle of Donald Trump’s prosecutor-in-chief, the two of them had to make time to see Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, the day after he broke Winston Churchill’s record for the number of addresses made to the United States Congress (Churchill made three, Bibi now has four).

With mass protests outside, crowds carrying signs accusing Netanyahu of genocide, this was no longer a lovefest between Biden and Netanyah. President Biden’s  longtime, pro-Zionist views have been sorely tested by Israel’s never-ending siege of Gaza and the daily news diet of civilian casualties from military strikes on everything from hospitals, to schools, to refugee shelters. Indeed as the Israeli leader visited, the death toll reported from Gaza topped 39,000, and the latest Israeli attacks included an assault on a humanitarian shelter in Khan Younis, killing dozens.

Yet this White House clings to the hope that a deal can be made between Netanyahu and the leadership of Hamas, the Islamic zealots who rule Gaza and the authors of the murderous onslaught on Israel last October. In the countdown to this latest meeting between the two, Biden’s team insisted a truce, with the release of hostages leading to a ceasefire, needed “just a final push to get us across the line.”

In the circumstances what the Biden team heard from Netanyahu in Congress represented what they feared. Yes, the Israeli leader stressed how his country was “America’s indispensable ally,” standing alongside Washington in the conflict between “barbarism and civilisation,” defending America against the likes of Iran, to standing ovations from Republicans. Yet he dared to suggest there had been “practically none” civilian casualties of late, lambasted those protesters as “Iran’s useful idiots,” and made no mention of a Palestinian State going forward, a central plank of US policy.

“The downplaying of the humanitarian crisis was astonishing to hear,” remarked Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, suggesting this was a “watershed break” in the alliance with Jerusalem. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had just shown her clout in cajoling Joe Biden to leave that election stage, was withering. “That was by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary honoured with the privilege of addressing the Congress,” she concluded.

“There’s nothing Kamala Harris or Biden can do to make him accept a ceasefire”

At the White House, and the State Department, the writing on the wall was damning. “Dismaying is putting it mildly…Netanyahu tone-deaf….tantamount to breaking the umbilical cord between us,” according to one Mideast veteran who has worked for Presidents from Bill Clinton, to Barack Obama, to Biden. He pointed to Netanyahu’s repeated refrains in the speech, warning that absolute victory remains the goal in Gaza, “whatever pressure is brought to bear,” and likewise the Israeli leader’s insistence that “the hands of the Jewish State will never be shackled.”

He concluded: “the subtext is that Netanyahu does not accept Washington has a leash given our economic support, our weaponry, let alone the security blanket we have always given Israel. He’s shown his hand, declaring his independence.”

Those who have watched Netanyahu for decades offer a simple diagnosis. Just listen to Aaron Miller, who has worked on peace negotiations for successive American administrations since the 1980s. “It’s now all about Bibi’s survival, that’s his prime directive,” he said, noting that Netanyahu faces criminal prosecution on corruption charges the minute he loses power. “There’s nothing Kamala Harris or Biden can do to make him accept a ceasefire, it’s all about what he can get away with.”

Or hear Alon Pinkas, longtime Israeli diplomat who knows Bibi of old, concluding Netanyahu’s final call in the United States, to see Donald Trump, spoke volumes. “He kisses Trump’s ring, believing Trump will let him do as he wishes if and when Trump wins,” said Pinkas. “What you see now is not the Prime Minister of Israel, but a Republican Party Senator from Jerusalem.”

Interestingly, Trump has served notice that he wants Netanyahu to end the war, and has added his voice to those insisting that the Israeli leader should sign up for a deal with Hamas that would see Israeli hostages freed in return for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, alongside an Israeli withdrawal from key areas and then a ceasefire. “Finish it up, and get a deal done quickly,” said Trump.

Fact is, whatever else is shifting, one key element has not changed over nearly 10 months that separate us from the bloodletting of last October, despite Netanyahu’s patent wish to re-write the relationship with Washington and the display of notional unity seen from the Palestinians in Beijing. “The Israeli Prime Minister puts his own survival ahead of all else, that’s the crux,”  to quote Edward Djejerian, former US ambassador to Netanyahu’s Israel, who concludes his government collapses if he does not stick to “total victory” and finish Hamas off, “Staying in power is his goal, come what may.”