>> History will not give the
Jewish people another chance.
>> Tonight on Frontline...
 Benjamin Netanyahu at war.
>> He is at war.
He's under siege.
>> In conflict with the
president of the United States.
>> That's not going to happen.
Everybody knows it's not going
to happen.
>> I've never seen a foreign
leader speak to the president
like that.
>> Outrageous, outrageous.
>> He is so convinced that he's
right, equally so convinced that
Obama is dead wrong.
>> From the battles that shaped
 him...
>> Palestinians were fed up.
So everything unravels.
>> And boom!
It explodes.
>> And his political rise.
>> The country's political
system was super-heated.
>> He was able to translate the
horror of suicide bombers into
political power.
>> An epic story of Israel,
 America, and the life of
 Benjamin Netanyahu.
(man speaking Hebrew)
>> NARRATOR: March 2015.
>> The Israeli Prime Minister
 Benjamin Netanyahu...
>> NARRATOR: Jerusalem.
The prime minister's residence.
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu is determined to stop
President Barack Obama's nuclear
deal with Iran.
>> The prime minister has a
Messianic notion of himself, as
a person called to save the
Jewish people.
>> NARRATOR: He was about to
deliver a speech to the American
Congress.
>> He never made such an
important speech.
He felt he had a historic role
to play and he cannot make a
mistake.
>> He wants to be the Winston
Churchill who stops the new evil
power, Iran, in the way that
Churchill stopped Nazi Germany.
>> The prime minister left Tel
 Aviv this morning.
 He is scheduled to address
 Congress.
>> He wants it to be clear that
he made the most powerful
statement possible to warn
against this deal.
So, when the deal turns bad
he'll go down in history as the
person who warned us all from
what's about to happen.
>> Benjamin Netanyahu has
 arrived in Washington DC.
(reporter speaking foreign
language)
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu came as
Israel's right wing leader
vowing to keep his country safe
from its archenemy, Iran.
>> Mr. Netanyahu was invited to
 speak by John Boehner.
 A row between the Obama
 administration and Israel...
>> It's rarely somebody who
comes to say your president is
wrong and you, the Congress, in
effect, need to stop it.
>> Growing tensions between the
U.S. and Israel...
>> It was extraordinary for a
foreign leader to come into the
United States Congress and use
it as a platform to try and
undermine administration policy.
It was a really audacious thing
to do.
>> He is definitely willing to
sacrifice Israeli-U.S.
relations in order to do what he
thinks is proper to fight off
the Iranian challenge.
>> NARRATOR: His audience-- the
Republican controlled Congress--
the president's fiercest
critics.
>> The days when the Jewish
people remained passive in the
face of genocidal enemies, those
days are over.
(cheers and applause)
We must always remember the
greatest danger facing our world
is the marriage of militant
Islam with nuclear weapons.
(cheers and applause)
>> There was no other time when
the Israeli prime minister let
himself be so deeply involved in
American politics recruiting,
redrafting American politics
against the American president.
>> America's founding document
promises life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
Iran's founding document pledges
death, tyranny, and the pursuit
of jihad.
>> Netanyahu did an end run
 around President Obama today.
>> Thank you, America.
>> With even some Democratic
 supporters of the president
 calling the speech powerful...
>> Netanyahu did not mince words
 about U.S.-led nuclear talks
 with Iran.
>> Bring relations between
Israel and the White House to a
 new low.
>> NARRATOR: President Barack
Obama's anger was no secret.
>> They seemed to hate each
 other.
>> This was the height of the
White House's animosity towards
Netanyahu.
I think they viewed this almost
as a usurpation, as a coup
d'état and they were livid.
>> NARRATOR: It was a direct
attack on his foreign policy
legacy.
>> He very much wanted to recast
the United States as a friend of
the Islamic world.
Part of that narrative is that
we've been associated with
Israel too closely.
>> NARRATOR: Obama summoned the
press into the Oval Office.
>> Tell me when everybody's in.
>> Barack Obama is furious.
Furious.
It's a humiliation for him.
It's a humiliation in the midst
of a very delicate negotiation
with Iran.
>> The alternative that the
prime minister offers is no
deal, in which case Iran will
immediately begin once again
pursuing its nuclear program.
>> The president was angry; he
thought this was an affront...
>> Without us having any insight
into what it is they're doing.
>> ...and it was deliberate and
he wasn't going to try to make
nice and pretend it wasn't what
he thought it really was.
>> All right, thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
>> It clearly reveals a degree
of dysfunction on both sides.
This is some respects was a
train wreck waiting to happen
even from the beginning.
>> NARRATOR: For Benjamin
Netanyahu, the clash with the
American President was only the
latest in a lifelong battle.
>> Three armed Arabs today
hijacked a Belgian airliner
flying from Vienna to Tel Aviv.
>> NARRATOR: In his early 20s,
Netanyahu saw military action.
>> After being hijacked by three
 Arab guerillas.
>> NARRATOR: Palestinian
militants had hijacked a plane
bound for Israel.
>> ...the plane and its
occupants would be blown up.
>> NARRATOR: The world watched
to see how the Israelis would
react.
>> The basic news is that armed
persons who claim to belong to a
terroristic organization, which
is called the Black September,
took over a Sabena plane.
>> NARRATOR: Lieutenant
Netanyahu would be part of the
special Israeli strike force.
>> Mr. Netanyahu was a member of
the Sayeret Matkal Unit, which
is the... it's like the Navy
SEALs.
It's the fabled unit of the
Israeli Army.
It's the one that anybody who
was anybody wanted to belong to.
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu and the
others dressed in airport
mechanics white overalls.
>> The decision was to act as a
mechanical and technicians, you
know, who is coming to take care
about the airplane.
And then they penetrate very
quick into the airplane.
(gunshots)
>> Are they shooting?
Yes.
They're shooting.
They are inside the aircraft.
>> Suddenly they burst through
the doorways and escape hatches
 guns blazing.
Passengers leaped from the plan
 while the Israelis dueled with
 the hijackers.
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu charged
to the front of the plane.
>> Gunned down the male
 hijackers, captured the Arab
 women, and freed the
 passengers.
>> This was an unbelievable
success.
Two of the hostages dead,
terrorists dead, and some of the
Sayeret Matkal team injured,
including Benjamin Netanyahu,
who was injured in his hand,
because of his friend's bullet
that was fired in the wrong
direction.
But, you know, minimal cost.
>> The passengers, many of them
Israelis got a jubilant welcome
 as they trooped into the
 airport building.
>> NARRATOR: In the days after
the raid, Netanyahu received
praise from Israel's president.
>> I think there was this
element of a rite of passage for
Netanyahu to be in such a unit.
There was nothing grander than
being in Sayeret Matkal.
>> NARRATOR: He had earned
full-fledged Israeli status,
essential experience for a young
man who spent his formative
years in America.
When he was seven, Benjamin, who
was called Bibi, and his two
brothers, Yoni and Iddo, left
Israel.
>> He spent some of his best
years in the United States.
And Netanyahu truly admires
America, the American culture,
the American language,
everything about America.
>> NARRATOR: He attended
elementary school in New York;
high school in suburban
Philadelphia.
He picked up flawless American
English.
>> He's so American.
When you have a conversation
with Netanyahu, when he really
gets engaged in it, he switches
from Hebrew to English.
>> NARRATOR: The move to America
was not voluntary.
Bibi's father believed he was
forced to leave Israel because
of his strident right-wing
politics.
>> Benzion Netanyahu did not get
tenure at the Hebrew University
as a historian.
And he considered it a great
defeat and a humiliation to have
to leave the country and find
his academic way in the United
States.
>> NARRATOR: As a history
professor in America, Bibi's
father Benzion drew a dark
picture of the threats facing
the Jewish people.
>> He sees a world that is
fundamentally hostile, a world
that is afflicted by an eternal
anti-Semitism, that the Nazi
Holocaust was part of a long
series of acts against Jews.
>> NARRATOR: It was a worldview
passed on to Bibi and his
brothers.
>> The outlook that is coming
from his father is that there
will always be a hostile world
that would not care for the
security and welfare of the
Jewish nation.
And one thing that we should do
is do it ourselves.
>> NARRATOR: The brothers were
told it was up to them to
protect Israel.
>> They're out to get us.
They might kill us.
Israel is fragile.
My role is to save this people
who are like childish, they
don't understand history and
world politics and my role is to
try to save them from their own
mistakes and from these terribly
demonic evil forces surrounding
them.
This is basically the Netanyahu
gestalt.
>> NARRATOR: And in 1967...
>> Jordanian King Hussein signs
a military pact with...
>> NARRATOR: ...Bibi watched as
his father's dire warnings were
transformed into reality.
Arab armies had massed on
Israel's borders.
>> In Egypt alone there were
 more than a quarter of a
 million soldiers.
>> NARRATOR: Thousands of tanks
from Egypt, Jordan, Syria
surrounded the Israelis.
>> Hundreds of rocket launchers.
>> The feeling here in Israel is
that we'll look at a very close
and clear danger of being
exterminated.
>> The head of the Palestine
 Liberation Army, Ahmed Shukri,
 calls for a jihad, a holy war.
 "We shall slaughter you, we
 shall wipe you out.
 Kill the Jews.
 Wipe out Israel."
>> At least for Netanyahu's
father, this was, you know,
history repeating itself.
>> ...by low-flying Israeli jets
 who swooped in from the
 Mediterranean, avoiding radar.
>> NARRATOR: Following a
surprise air attack, Israel
defeated the Arab armies.
>> ...as crack air force,
 infantry, artillery, and tank
 corps combine to sweep across
 the Sinai Peninsula.
>> NARRATOR: The 1967 war lasted
only six days.
>> Israel saves its own life.
The victory was so profound, and
so sudden that it had a
destabilizing effect.
It set in motion a lot of what
we're dealing with today.
>> The war has created new
refugee camps.
More than a million Arabs have
been displaced, homeless and
helpless.
They struggle to survive while
the search for peace, lasting
peace, goes on.
By the end of the '67 war.
Isreal occupied the Golan
Heights, The West Bank,
The Gaza Strip, and the Sinai.
Isreal had more than
tripled in size.
The occupation of land
inhabited by Palestinians
Would ignite decades of conflict
But for the Isrealis
it was a historic victory
>> That's the story of the Six
Day War.
It shows you have to be alert;
you have to have good
intelligence, and if your
country is threatened, you have
to respond quickly.
>> NARRATOR: A senior in high
school in America, Bibi had
skipped his graduation to return
to Israel for the war-- to dig
trenches.
He would witness a turning point
in Israeli history.
>> You could understand why it's
so intoxicating, and if you're
an 18 year old, who was raised
in the household of Benzion
Netanyahu, who has a fatalistic
understanding of the nature of
the world, you assume the worst;
you assume the worst thing is
going to happen, and then this
miraculous best thing happens,
and it has to sort of set you on
a course for the rest of your
life.
>> NARRATOR: That course would
lead him to fight in yet another
war with Israel's neighbors.
And then to the devastating loss
of his older brother Yoni, a
national hero who was killed in
action.
>> Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan
 Netanyahu of Israel.
>> Yoni in Israel is one of the
line of mythical heroes of
Israel's independence.
People name their children Yoni
after Yoni Netanyahu.
His book, Letters of Yoni,
became one of the most read
books, rivaling The Diary of
 Anne Frank.
So Yoni is certainly a national
hero.
>> The death of his brother
affected him immensely, as the
violent death of anyone's
brother would.
But it also enlarged his sense
of purpose, his self-regard, his
sense of destiny, his sense of
mission and purpose.
There's no question about that.
>> From Faneuil Hall in Boston:
 The Advocates.
>> NARRATOR: Not long after his
brother's death, Netanyahu began
a new life on American
television.
>> The first thing that happens
is that Benjamin Netanyahu
begins to present himself as an
expert on terrorism.
>> I call now as my first
witness, Mr. Benjamin Nitay.
>> NARRATOR: Having graduated
from MIT and Americanized his
name to Ben Nitay, he would
fight for Israel in his own
way, waging the battle for
public opinion.
>> Look, I'm 28 years old.
I've had to defend my country in
two wars and in many battles.
Nobody wants peace more than
Israel.
But the stumbling block to the
road to peace is this demand for
a PLO state which will mean more
war, which will mean more
violence in the Middle East.
>> Netanyahu was one of the
earliest people who brought up
this message: that there is a
war going on and it's a war
between good and evil.
>> And as I said...
>> I'm not talking about the
Arabs in Israel, I'm talking
about the Arabs on the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip.
>> If you let me, I'll answer
your question, please.
>> And that you have to stand up
in that war.
And you cannot just run away.
You have to fight it and win it.
>> Israel wants to live in peace
and wants to be secure.
If that involves maintaining our
own military guarantees against
the destruction of people who
surround us, yes, I believe we
should fight for our survival.
If I have to, I'll fight again,
but I hope not to.
>> Thank you, thank you, Mr...
>> NARRATOR: By the 1980s, he
was appointed an official
spokesman at the Israeli Embassy
in Washington as "Benjamin
Netanyahu."
>> Benjamin Netanyahu begins his
Israeli political career in the
United States.
He's unknown in Israel in the
1980s.
>> I cannot imagine the growth
of international terrorism in
the last 15 years without the
pivotal role played by Yasser
Arafat's PLO.
What we are doing is trying to
stop this kind of terror from
spreading.
>> The idea of Bibi being a
performer on television goes way
back.
You represent your country.
You sell your country.
And that is what he did and he
did it with enormous pride and
confidence.
>> The Arabs tried regular war,
they failed.
They tried terrorism, they
failed.
They've now embarked on a new
strategy.
It's called anarchy and trial by
media.
>> He has a perfect American
accent, what he thinks is a
fingertip feel for American
sensibilities and touch points,
and he's great for CNN.
>> NARRATOR: And in Ronald
Reagan's America, Netanyahu was
a rising star.
>> He's already a celebrity with
the Jewish right in the United
States.
>> He cultivated from the outset
Jewish rich people, Jewish
millionaires who would pay
almost any sum at the time to be
near him and to, you know, to
sort of get a whiff of his,
what's it called, stardust.
>> Diplomats here were gathering
 a short time ago for their
 third anti-Israeli resolution
 in as many weeks.
>> NARRATOR: At age 34,
Netanyahu was appointed Israeli
ambassador to the United
Nations.
He became Israel's chief
defender against criticism of
its ongoing occupation of the
West Bank and Gaza.
>> ...Israeli ambassador was in
 action immediately.
>> What the Security Council is
doing is sending a very clear
message, it's saying basically
this.
It says, "We condone all
Palestinian violence against
Israel.
We condemn any Israeli
countermeasures."
>> That's what he was built for.
That was what he was designed
for.
It was Reagan's America, 1980s.
Terror is the danger, and at the
heart of the Netanyahu
worldview is seeing Israel as
the fortress facing forces
endangering Western
civilization.
>> NARRATOR: In 1988, Netanyahu
resigned.
He returned to Israel to build
his own right-wing political
base.
>> Preparations are underway.
 We expect to see the president
 shortly...
>>> ...for what he called a
 historic and honorable
 compromise.
>> NARRATOR: By the early 1990s,
Netanyahu's hard-line politics
were out of fashion.
The talk was no longer of war,
but of peace.
Negotiations were underway with
their Arab neighbors.
>> It's a day for optimism.
>> NARRATOR: And now with the
Palestinians.
>> A deal was struck in secret
by the principles-- by the PLO,
 and the Israeli...
>> NARRATOR: Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a former
general and hero of the '67 war,
represented Israel.
>> Have now agreed to lay down
their guns.
>> NARRATOR: Representing the
Palestinians, Yasser Arafat, the
chairman of the PLO.
>> A historic peace agreement
 designed to put an end to 45
 years of armed conflict.
>> This is a historic
breakthrough, between Israel and
the PLO, two national movements
competing for the same space and
for the first time, they're
prepared to recognize each
other.
>> NARRATOR: Known as the Oslo
Accord, it was designed to end
years of violence by laying out
a peace process, a deal that
could give Palestinians their
own state and land captured in
the '67 war.
>> Once the agreement was done,
it was the White House as the
venue agreed for the signature.
President Clinton felt this was
his baby.
>> NARRATOR: But that day things
were tense.
>> To the last minute there were
issues.
Rabin was insisting that Arafat
can't come in anything that
looks like a uniform.
We're telling Arafat, "You can't
come with a... you don't bring a
weapon."
You know, he always had a
pistol.
"You don't bring a weapon to the
White House."
>> Then, at a point, the
president looks at Rabin, and he
says, "You're going to have to
shake his hand."
And Rabin looked like someone
had punched him in the stomach.
And he stood there for a moment.
This is a man he considered a
terrorist all his life.
And he said to Clinton, "Okay,
but no kissing."
So we then went down to the Oval
Office and we worked out
maneuvers with Clinton of how
if... Arafat liked to kiss,
usually three kisses.
And we worked out sort of
football/basketball maneuvers of
how Clinton could step in
various ways, if Arafat made a
lunge towards Rabin, how Clinton
could break them up.
>> Ladies and gentlemen, Mr.
Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, the
President of the United States.
>> NARRATOR: The ceremony was
carefully scripted.
There were speeches, the signing
of the Oslo Accord, and all eyes
were on Arafat and Rabin.
>> Rabin is very uneasy.
The idea of personally shaking
hands with this guy is
physically difficult for him.
He couldn't hide his feelings.
And that comes through.
>> The first agreement ever
 signed between...
>> NARRATOR: And then the
handshake.
An image that would become
iconic.
>> These hands that shook knew
nothing but to shoot-- the
trigger, the bullets, the bombs,
the fight.
And the question to me is, can
this handshake lead to the
culture in the minds of
Palestinians and Israelis, that
coexistence is possible, that
peace is possible to live and
let live.
(applause)
>> NARRATOR: Now in Israel,
Netanyahu was building a
coalition of the ultra-religious
right and security-minded
conservatives.
They strongly opposed the Oslo
agreement.
And in no time, protests began.
>> The world celebrated that
handshake, that historic
handshake on the White House
lawn, but in Israel there was a
fair degree of skepticism.
>> NARRATOR: Week after week,
Netanyahu watched the protests
build.
>> The people on the right in
Israel were not happy about the
Oslo process, and recognizing
the PLO, the terrorists, was a
bitter pill.
>> We're demonstrating against
the inability of the government
to maintain order in this
country and to protect the
rights of Jews living in their
own land.
>> NARRATOR: With an election on
the horizon, Netanyahu
maneuvered the growing anger
into a political force.
>> He did not believe in the
possibility of a deal with the
Palestinians.
He didn't trust them, he didn't
like them, he doesn't and he
doesn't want to have a deal with
them, he didn't want to have a
deal with them.
>> NARRATOR: As head of the
conservative Likud party,
Netanyahu himself became the
face of the opposition to Oslo.
>> Netanyahu saw a moment of
betrayal, and peril, and an
agreement that would never and
could never work.
(chanting and shouting)
>> There's a really ugly
character to it.
The level of vitriol, the anger,
the scope of these
demonstrations.
The kind of incitement, the
portrayal of Rabin, dressing
Rabin in Nazi uniforms or
putting a keffiyah on him.
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu found
himself at the center of the
anger.
>> In most cases he doesn't do
anything about it.
I think Netanyahu even in some
ways benefits from this
association with the rabble
rousers on the right.
>> I think the country's
political system was
superheated.
It was like a car riding on a
highway that had no water left
in the radiator.
And you could look at the
temperature gauge, and it's all
the way in the... in hot.
>> NARRATOR: The intensity grew,
culminating in a massive
protest.
Tens of thousands crammed into
the center of Jerusalem.
>> He was genuinely outraged,
but he knew how to channel that
outrage and that coincided with
his rise to power.
>> NARRATOR: In Netanyahu's
conservative Likud party, there
was concern about the growing
tension in the crowds that
night.
>> There were moments when
Netanyahu was advised that, you
know, there are real nutcases
in the national religious camp
that we see, that we need to
calm down, even gesturally.
(chanting)
Netanyahu never did that, he
never did that, to his enormous
discredit.
>> (speaking Hebrew)
>> NARRATOR: The crowd was with
him as he attacked Arafat...
>> ... Arafat...
(crowd booing)
>> NARRATOR: ...and then the
government of Yitzhak Rabin.
>> All Likud leaders, especially
Benjamin Netanyahu, they have
used very strong language
against Prime Minister Rabin.
>> They didn't use any kind of
condemnation against the
violence that was starting to
take place.
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu would
later say he never saw the
ugliest moments that night.
Throughout Israel the anger
boiled over.
(people shouting)
(police whistle blowing)
(sirens blaring)
>> I was there and a lot of
other people my age were there.
This was such a volatile
atmosphere at the time and the
writing was on the wall.
(chanting)
>> NARRATOR: Night after night,
the crowds massed across the
street from Prime Minister
Rabin's apartment in Tel Aviv.
>> I'm there one Shabbat
evening.
We're talking.
And it's just the two of us.
And there is a demonstration
outside.
And I said to him at the time,
I said, "Don't you worry about
some of this?"
And he goes, "No."
I mean he was... it's not that
he was completely dismissive of
it, but he took it as kind of a
given.
He knew, in a sense, what was
coming, and simply accepted it.
>> NARRATOR: Rabin responded
with his own rally, more than
100,000 supporters singing of
peace.
(woman singing)
(cheers and applause)
Then as Rabin was leaving--
that's him coming down the
ramp-- the man in the blue
t-shirt approached.
(gunshots)
Three shots from behind.
>> The Israeli prime minister,
Yitzhak Rabin, the architect of
 the Middle East peace process
 has been assassinated.
>> NARRATOR: The assassin, a
right wing Israeli Jew: Yigal
Amir.
>> Truly shocking news from the
 Middle East tonight-- Israel's
 prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin,
 has been assassinated.
>> An evening spent dreaming of
peace turns into a national
nightmare.
>> NARRATOR: Outside the
hospital, the crowd began to
chant, "Bibi is a murderer."
(chanting)
>> ...this evening, there is
 anger, shock, and
 understandable sadness.
>> NARRATOR: The sign says,
"Bibi, Rabin's blood is on your
hands."
(shouting)
>> An assassin has taken yet
another world leader away from
us.
It was just after the biggest
peace rally in Tel Aviv...
>> NARRATOR: Rabin's widow
blamed Netanyahu for
contributing to her husband's
death...
>> The assassination of Yitzhak
 Rabin has also produced shock
 in the Palestinian community.
>> NARRATOR: ...and said so on
worldwide television.
>> Your husband pointed the
finger at Mr. Netanyahu and
said, "You must stop this
incitement."
To what extent do you blame Mr.
Netanyahu and the Likud for what
has happened?
>> I do-- I do blame them.
The rally in Kikar Zion in
Jerusalem that showed him in the
uniform of a Nazi.
So Mr. Bibi Netanyahu now we can
say from here to eternity that
he didn't support it and didn't
agree with it, but he was there
and he didn't stop it.
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu's close
advisor at the time vehemently
disagrees.
>> The attempt to pin on him the
murder of the prime minister is
a cheap, political propaganda
trick that was taken by his
political opponents-- mostly
from the left-- in order to
de-legitimatize Netanyahu as the
political public and to
de-legitimatize the positions of
Likud in the Israeli open
political debate.
(man singing mournfully)
(sobbing)
>> NARRATOR: As the nation
mourned, Bibi Netanyahu faced
the political consequences of
Rabin's death. The American
ambassador says they spoke about
it the day before the funeral.
>> I remember Netanyahu saying
to me, "Look, look at this.
He's a hero now.
But if he had not been
assassinated I would have beaten
him in the elections and then he
would have gone into history as
a failed politician."
Netanyahu was thinking, well,
politically he was on the ropes
before he was assassinated.
>> NARRATOR: And Netanyahu had a
new and powerful opponent: the
American president.
>> President Clinton was really
affected by Rabin's
assassination.
And he viewed, I think,
Netanyahu through the eyes of
Rabin as the person who would
bring down Oslo if given half a
chance.
>> Your prime minister was a
martyr for peace, but he was a
victim of hate.
Surely, we must learn from his
martyrdom that if people cannot
let go of the hatred of their
enemies, they risk sowing the
seeds of hatred among
themselves.
>> He felt a real responsibility
to Rabin, a personal
responsibility to see through
his legacy, and the Oslo accords
was Rabin's legacy.
>> NARRATOR: But Rabin's legacy
was in jeopardy.
His successor, Shimon Peres,
would have to win an election,
and that meant facing Bibi
Netanyahu.
>> Bibi in the election is
running against Oslo.
So the choice seems so clear.
Clinton wants to do everything
we can to help Peres.
And he probably goes overboard
in terms of that.
>> I mean, if there's ever a
time where we tried to influence
an Israeli election, it was
Peres versus Netanyahu.
>> NARRATOR: Clinton's political
operatives opened a back channel
with the Peres campaign.
Clinton authorized hundreds of
millions in additional military
aide, and returned to Israel to
personally campaign for Shimon
Peres.
>> Israelis loved Clinton; if he
ran here for prime minister, he
would win easily, no matter
under which banner.
Israelis loved Clinton.
Bill Clinton.
>> NARRATOR: The week after the
assassination, Netanyahu was
behind in the polls by 31
points.
>> People that have spoken to
him in those days have said that
he thought that his career was
over.
>> NARRATOR: Then, as election
day neared...
(loud explosion)
>> Ten kilograms of explosives
 reduced this commuter bus...
>> NARRATOR: It was the number
18 bus, right through the heart
of Jerusalem-- a symbolic act.
The Palestinian extremist group
Hamas claimed responsibility.
>> There were some Palestinian
groups trying to make sure that
sabotaging of the peace process.
"Rabin was assassinated, let us
stop the whole process.
(loud explosion)
>> It was the bloodiest day...
>> NARRATOR: And it was just the
beginning.
>> It's easy to forget that
actually Rabin's great, heroic
act ended up with terror in our
streets, and people dying, and
we were all driven nuts by...
you had peace ceremonies one
day, and terror the other day.
And it drove people crazy.
>> NARRATOR: For Netanyahu, it
was an opening.
>> And so Netanyahu is naturally
returned to center stage as the
person who had warned about
terrorism and slowly starts to
recover.
>> This morning the sound of
 sirens again interrupted the
 morning commute.
>> NARRATOR: Six days later, the
Number 18 bus again.
>> Police combed the hellish
wreckage for clues...
(speaking foreign language)
>> Victims were hurled from the
demolished bus, only body parts
 could be recovered.
>> NARRATOR: Over nine days,
four bombs, 59 dead, hundreds
injured.
>> Many Israelis did not, could
 not believe the morning news.
 Another bloody Sunday.
>> A suicide bomber has once
 again blown up a city bus.
>> And Israelis lost faith in
the process, in that process.
One of the slogans that came
from grassroots was, "This
peace is killing us."
(chanting)
>> "Peres go home," screamed
these Jews opposed to the peace
 process.
 They taunted him, chanting the
 name of the Prime Minister
 Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir.
>> Yigal Amir!
Yigal Amir!
>> I will never forget this.
In Tel Aviv once, there was a
horrible terrorist bombing.
I drove by about three days
afterwards, and somebody had
written graffiti on the wall,
and they wrote, "The Likud was
right."
(woman speaking foreign
language)
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu started
to climb in the polls.
>> He was able to speak to the
masses and translate the horror
of suicide bombers into
political power.
And say, "I will be able to
solve this.
I am strong.
I come from a military
background.
I have the experience and the
spirit to stop suicide bombers."
>> NARRATOR: But by midnight on
election day, it looked like
Netanyahu's surge had fallen
short.
>> The entire country went to
sleep convinced that Peres had
been elected and woke up with
Benjamin Netanyahu as prime
minister.
>> The Arab world and the United
 States will now have to deal
 with a much more
 conservative...
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu had
promised security to the growing
number of Israelis scarred by
the violence.
It worked, barely.
>> ...and the current Prime
Minister Shimon Peres is a mere
 fraction of one percent.
>> I walk into his suite at
about 5:30 in the morning and
basically I didn't leave it.
He said, "You, you, you, all
three or four of us were there.
You're the core team."
And that's how it officially
started.
(sirens blaring)
>> Netanyahu is one his way to
the United States for his first
 visit since becoming Israel's
 prime minister.
>> Benjamin Netanyahu's dealings
 with the president of the
 United States will be of
 intense interest among Arabs
 who have already begun...
>> NARRATOR: Just over one month
later, Prime Minister Netanyahu
was at the White House.
>> President Clinton and Prime
Minister Netanyahu will hold a
joint news conference...
>> NARRATOR: Waiting alone for a
face-to-face meeting with Bill
Clinton.
>> When he came in as prime
minister to meet the president
of the United States, he knew
that he was dealing with another
young guy, just as smart as he
was.
But as president of the United
States, Clinton had his set of
responsibilities.
Netanyahu as an Israeli leader
has his responsibilities.
And they were in collision.
>> They were of very different
minds.
Bibi had just been elected.
The president had intervened
against him.
There was a kind of... not a
very good way to start a
meeting.
>> NARRATOR: Behind closed
doors, Clinton would demand
Netanyahu continue the Oslo
peace process and personally
meet with Yasser Arafat.
It didn't take long for the
meeting to become contentious.
>> He came in pretty full of
himself.
And he was pretty much telling
the president how to deal with
the Arabs.
He understands how to deal with
the Arabs.
>> His sort of posture was, "Let
me tell you about the Middle
East."
And then he proceeded to lecture
the president on the realities
of the Middle East.
"Here is the way it is."
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu did not
hold back on his feelings about
Oslo.
>> Netanyahu wanted to make
clear that even though the
previous government had signed
the agreement that he had some
real reservations about it.
And so I think that that's where
it got off to a bad start.
>> And so when the meeting's
over, Clinton turns, and he
says, "Who does he think the
superpower is?"
>> NARRATOR: But Clinton
wouldn't give up on the peace
agreements, and Netanyahu
couldn't ignore him-- the U.S.
was Israel's biggest supporter.
>> And I think there's a moment
where Netanyahu has to decide:
can he try to block the actual
implementation of the agreement,
but concede some things that
Clinton was pressing for in
terms of an on camera, for
instance, handshake with Arafat?
I think that was the
calculation.
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu decided
to go along with one key Clinton
demand.
He drove 50 miles to the border
of Palestinian territory in
Gaza.
At the Erez crossing he met his
enemy, Yasser Arafat.
>> And that day I was there.
And I was thinking, how will
this happen?
I was trying to do whatever I
can to make sure that if needs
to I will employ every damage
control mechanism, every crisis
management, everything.
>> NARRATOR: It was a meeting
Netanyahu had insisted would
never happen.
>> Very, very hard.
Very hard.
He swore he would never shake
Arafat's hand.
>> NARRATOR: But now he was in
the same room with the man he
had called a terrorist.
>> He is, in some ways, in many
ways a reality-based politician.
He had to meet with Arafat.
He had to work within the
context that Rabin created, but
he didn't want to work within
the context Rabin created.
>> NARRATOR: Bill Clinton got
what he wanted: the handshake.
Netanyahu said he feared his
father would disapprove of the
gesture.
But, once started, the
handshakes just kept on coming.
And he took other steps.
He pulled Israeli troops out of
the West Bank city of Hebron and
signed a treaty agreeing to
further implement Oslo.
But close observers say he was
slow walking the peace process.
>> Netanyahu made life very,
very difficult for the American
administration, and for those
Israelis who wanted peace.
He was really difficult, he was
slow, he was stubborn, he made
life very difficult for all the
peaceniks-- Americans,
Europeans, and Israelis.
>> NARRATOR: And behind the
scenes at one peace conference,
Bill Clinton let Bibi Netanyahu
know how frustrated he was.
>> One morning, I think it was
4:00 a.m. in the morning, I hear
shouting.
Real shouting.
Screaming.
4:00 a.m. in the morning,
President Clinton shouting from
the depth of his stomach, and
head, and ears, and eyes, and
nose, and mouth, and legs at
Bibi Netanyahu.
>> NARRATOR: Erekat and others
say Bibi's maneuvers could be
maddening.
>> I've seen the frustration of
many people.
I've seen the frustration of
Israeli negotiators.
I've seen the frustration of
American presidents.
I've seen my frustration.
>> NARRATOR: Before long,
Netanyahu's political support
began to erode.
>> Nobody was happy with him.
The left weren't happy with him
for what he was doing to
undermine Oslo and the right
wasn't happy with him for what
he was doing to keep Oslo.
He was in this sort of
impossible balancing act.
(shouting)
>> At that point, the prime
minister's conservative base
folds, and some people on the
conservative right work with the
Israeli left to bring down Prime
Minister Netanyahu.
>> NARRATOR: By election night,
it was clear Netanyahu was
headed to a decisive defeat to
Ehud Barak.
>> I remember that night of
elections, you know it was a
total disaster.
He stood up, he said, "I'm
taking time off from politics."
And I remember saying, "Okay,
we're not going to see him
again."
(car engine starting)
>> Israelis and Palestinians,
 in a last-ditch pitch for
 Middle East peace...
>> ...a summit at Camp David, a
 summit the Clinton
 administration believes...
>> NARRATOR: Now with Netanyahu
out of the picture, Bill Clinton
tried to personally push through
a final peace deal.
At Camp David, he brought
together Yasser Arafat and
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak for the high-stakes
negotiation.
But coming to any agreement
proved elusive.
>> Barak made a far-reaching
offer, I think, went further
than we was planning to do, but
for Arafat it was unacceptable.
>> And he said, "If I accept
this, you'll be... do you want
to walk behind my casket?"
That's what he said.
>> NARRATOR: Among the most
contentious issues: the future
of Jerusalem.
>> Ehud Barak comes with the
help of the American team, and a
lot of American support.
And Barak does everything.
He is a courageous guy-- a bit
too courageous-- but he tries
everything and boom!
It explodes, and there's no
Netanyahu around.
You cannot blame... when the
Camp David peace summit fails,
no, Netanyahu is not there.
(loud explosion)
>> NARRATOR: Palestinians
launched a new round of
violence, a sustained uprising:
the Intifada.
>> Palestinians were fed up.
There were years of failed
negotiations.
Security for them went
backwards.
Freedom of movement went
backwards.
Freedom of religion went
backwards.
The economy went backwards.
And there was a point at which
Palestinians said, "Enough.
We are done with this process of
negotiations."
And so everything unravels.
Everything unravels.
>> NARRATOR: Amid the turmoil,
Netanyahu worked at rebuilding
his political support and found
a receptive audience.
>> The conclusion on the Israeli
right certainly is this is what
you get for weakness.
This view spreads from the
Israeli right really rather more
broadly in Israeli society, the
view that there is no partner
for peace.
>> NARRATOR: To his supporters
the continuing violence seemed
to be evidence that Netanyahu
should be returned to power.
>> We warned beforehand that
this is exactly what is going to
happen.
If you put yourself to be in a
situation that the other side
sees you as such a weak leader,
the result is not going to be
reconciliation.
It's not going to be a historic
shift, metamorphosis of the
Palestinians.
It is going to be war.
(loud explosion)
>> NARRATOR: As he rebuilt his
political coalition, Netanyahu
would watch as terror struck
beyond the Middle East.
>> An apparent terrorist attack.
>> A very large plane just flew
 directly over my building and
there's been another collision.
>> September 11th, the year
2001, a day unlike any other...
>> NARRATOR: Muslim extremists
struck America.
>> I can hear you and the rest
 of the world hears you.
>> NARRATOR: A new American
president used rhetoric that
would resonate with Netanyahu's
view of the world.
>> There's no neutral ground in
the fight between civilization
and terror because there is no
neutral ground between good and
evil.
>> NARRATOR: And in Israel, the
violence continued as even more
efforts at peace collapsed.
>> Another suicide bomb, more
 violence and death.
>> NARRATOR: By 2008,
Netanyahu was on the rise,
once again the head of Likud
and preparing to run
for prime minister.
>> The political culture
has shifted.
In fact, he is one of the main
political forces that's helped
move the entire Israeli
political spectrum to the right.
>> He is a great politician
and he has understood the DNA
of the Israeli public.
He understands that you have to
look them in the eye and you
have to say, "I'll keep you
safe."
>> NARRATOR: By that summer,
he was ahead in the polls.
And as his advisors began to
prepare for the future, they say
they were worrying about a
different election.
In America, it looked like
the Democrat might win.
>> Fired up!
Ready to go!
Fired up!
Ready to go!
>> Barack Obama came pretty much
out of nowhere.
He was a senator for about
ten and a half minutes,
and suddenly, he was running
for president.
This a pretty alien creature
to Netanyahu and to a lot of
Israelis.
>> NARRATOR: They met in
Jerusalem in the summer of 2008.
>> I was at the first meetings
between Prime Minister Netanyahu
and President Obama, before
each was elected.
What I sensed were two
individuals who come from
different parts of the political
spectrum, one very liberal in
his foreign policy assumptions,
the other conservative,
national security oriented.
>> NARRATOR: And Netanyahu
himself was concerned.
>> I happened to be on a
reporting trip in Jerusalem.
And I went into the coffee shop
at the King David Hotel.
There was one other person
there, and it was Netanyahu
sitting in a corner by himself
reading newspapers.
There was one thing on his mind:
who is this guy Obama?
Who is he?
What is he really like?
And he wanted very much to point
out to me, as if I didn't know
it, that Obama's middle name was
Hussein, and that his father
was a Muslim.
What kind of objectivity
could this man bring to bear
on Israel?
>> I, Barack Hussein Obama,
do solemnly swear...
>> It's the inauguration day
 for the nation's first
 African-American president...
>> NARRATOR: The new American
president's first moves would do
little to reassure Netanyahu.
In his inaugural address,
Barack Obama reached out
directly to Muslims.
>> To the Muslim world,
we seek a new way forward,
based on mutual interest
and mutual respect.
>> He very much wanted to break,
certainly with the Bush legacy,
from the Iraq war, and maybe
the longer legacy of America's
estrangement from the Arab
world, from the Muslim world,
as he would call it.
>> NARRATOR: On his first day
in office, he set a new tone.
His first phone call,
to Yasser Arafat's successor,
the Palestinian president
Mahmoud Abbas.
>> He started off by sending the
right signals to Palestinians.
And I found that very sincere
because he didn't need to make
that phone call.
>> NARRATOR: Later, his first
television interview.
He chose an Arab TV network.
>> I have Muslim members of my
family.
I have lived in Muslim
countries.
My job is to communicate the
fact that the United States has
a stake in the well-being of the
Muslim world.
 It is my privilege to come
 here...
>> NARRATOR: And he decided
to send a signal to
Palestinians and Israelis.
He wanted to restart the peace
process.
>> History shows us that strong
and sustained American
engagement can bridge divides
and build the capacity that
supports progress.
>> I think Obama really believed
in 2009 he could sit down with
rational people and come up
with a rational solution.
"All we have to do is get them
together, and of course we can
settle this thing.
We all know it can be settled.
I can be the one to do it."
>> NARRATOR: Obama had built his
political career on his ability
to bridge differences.
>> The history of Obama is a
belief in his own ability to
bring people of disparate views
and cultures and backgrounds
together to solve difficult
problems.
>> Blacks, whites, Hispanics...
>> NARRATOR: In his 20s,
Obama had started his political
education in Chicago, not long
after the city had elected its
first black mayor, Harold
Washington.
>> ...have joined hands to form
a new democratic coalition!
>> Washington's election really
is Chicago's version of the
civil rights movement.
And like the larger Civil Rights
movement, it is an alliance
in many ways between African
Americans and a lot of
progressive Jews.
>> NARRATOR: As a candidate,
Obama forged an alliance with
the city's powerful progressive
Jews.
>> Obama identifies with the
Jewish community as the
community that stood with the
African American community
in those very difficult fights
back in the '60s.
>> NARRATOR: Newton Minow and
Judge Abner Mikva were two of
his closest Jewish supporters.
>> He bonded with these leaders
in the Jewish community here
because they shared this
powerful commitment to social
justice work.
My father describes Barack Obama
as having a Yiddish neshama--
a Jewish soul.
>> The man has been surrounded
by Jewish influences: the law
professors, the law colleagues,
fellow community organizers,
his early backers in Chicago.
He has a vision of an idealized
Israel.
Israel's this chance to get it
right, to build a nation state,
but to do it right,
in a progressive way.
>> NARRATOR: He would be elected
with more than 70% of the Jewish
vote.
Many of them shared his belief
that Israelis and Palestinians
could sit down and resolve their
differences.
>> By and large, their politics
was liberal, progressive,
and that extended not only
to their views of, say, social
policy in the United States or
any other issue, but also having
to do with Israel.
>> NARRATOR: It was a vision
that was very much at odds with
what Benzion Netanyahu had
taught his son.
>> What Obama is admiring in the
Jewish tradition and in the Jews
that he knows is exactly what
Netanyahu fears.
It is the sense that Jews have
this instinct towards making the
world better.
That may make them, in
Netanyahu's eyes, too
idealistic to deal with the
actual threats that they really
face, especially in a place like
the Middle East.
>> The deeper clash here is
really, if you wish, like
between two versions of Judaism.
One is the universalist,
liberal, progressive Judaism,
and one is the under-siege
fortress Judaism which Netanyahu
is all about.
>> NARRATOR: And now as
president, Obama sought to make
those progressive ideals a
reality, doing what no other
president had done: creating
peace between Israelis and
Palestinians.
>> I think in a lot of ways, the
president and the people around
him were caught up with Obama
being a transformative figure.
They were caught up in the
moment that he represented such
a transformation, such a change,
and that in itself had a kind
of power.
And it created a kind of
leverage, and I think it
created a set of expectations
about what they could produce
as a result.
>> NARRATOR: To help bridge the
differences between Israelis and
Palestinians, Obama turned to
veteran conflict negotiator
George Mitchell.
>> Just 48 hours after he had
been inaugurated as president,
he said to me, "I'm serious
about this.
I want to do something.
And I want you to go there right
away as an indication of my
seriousness."
I said, "Well, I can't leave
tonight," I said, "because I've
got to go home and pack a bag."
But I left a couple of days
later.
>> We begin tonight with
 breaking news.
 New explosions in Gaza.
 Fresh Israeli air strikes.
>> NARRATOR: But on the ground
in Israel, Mitchell quickly
found that Obama's hopes did not
match the stark reality.
In Gaza, the extremist group
Hamas was in charge.
>> Hamas security forces the
 target in a third day of
 Israeli missile strikes
 in Gaza.
>> The timing for the potential
for success in early 2009
could not have been worse.
President Obama was sworn in
just four days after the war in
Gaza between Israel and Hamas
had come to a conclusion.
Emotions were very high
and very negative.
There was a lot of hostility,
a lot of feelings of
victimization on both sides.
The circumstances were not
conducive to moving forward.
 >> Likud leader Benjamin
 Netanyahu appears to have
 locked up the prime minister's
 office. 
>> NARRATOR: And there was
a political challenge.
Israel elected a new prime
minister.
Now Barack Obama would have to
deal with Bibi Netanyahu.
>> They are completely
opposites, because it's deep.
It's not only a progressive
and a conservative.
Barack Obama has Martin Luther
King in him.
He has Nelson Mandela in him.
The world is moving in the right
direction, and his role is to
accelerate that.
And Netanyahu is profoundly
a pessimist, profoundly
a pessimist.
So it's not only the clash
between the progressive
and the conservative;
it's a clash between the
optimist and the pessimist.
>> NARRATOR: At the White House,
the president's staff were
anxious about Netanyahu's
victory.
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a
veteran of President Clinton's
clashes with Netanyahu, warned
Obama.
>> Rahm Emanuel in particular
has these vivid memories of
Netanyahu trying to push around
Bill Clinton, and comes to Obama
essentially and says, "We're not
going to do that over again.
Don't get played by this guy.
This guy is going to do X, Y,
and Z, and we're not going to
allow him to play his game."
>> So there was an instinctive
feeling that Bibi will never do
what he needs to do unless you
pressure him.
And I think that was basically
Rahm's attitude-- at least,
it's the way I understood Rahm's
attitude.
>> NARRATOR: The strategy would
be to show the Arab world that
Obama could take a hard line on
Israel-- could create some
daylight.
>> That's the expression,
"daylight," the imposing of
daylight in the relationship.
There's a belief that you win
friends in the Arab world by
distancing yourself from Israel.
>> NARRATOR: That May, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
arrived at the White House.
>> All right, everybody.
Just tell me when everybody's
set up.
Great.
Well, listen, I first of all
want to thank Prime Minister
Netanyahu for making this visit.
>> Obama is in the difficult
position of dealing with an
Israeli prime minister who has
now, from the American point of
view, regressed to the point of
view where it's hard to see
how you're going to have
any meaningful negotiation
with the Palestinians.
>> NARRATOR: Obama
insisted that Netanyahu
stop the construction
of Jewish settlements
on lands captured in the
'67 war. which were
claimed by the Palestinians
>> It wasn't a request;
it was a demand.
And I think that this shocked
Netanyahu, shocked the people
around Netanyahu, and gave proof
to the people who had been
whispering in Netanyahu's ears
that this guy is up to no good.
>> NARRATOR: A settlement
freeze-- a recurring demand of
American presidents, but it was
a deal-breaker for the right
flank of Netanyahu's fragile
political coalition.
>> The freeze notion was
a difficult one.
It had a very sharp point,
and it came at Israel in the
first instance with a knife.
>> Netanyahu is surprised by
that and feels that in a sense,
he's kind of walked into a trap.
>> Netanyahu found that
outrageous.
Palestinians weren't doing
anything, as far as he was
concerned, so why should he?
So there's already some real
scratchiness there over what
Obama expected Israel to do
and what Israel expected out
of Obama.
>> It will not be easy.
It never has been easy.
>> NARRATOR: And in front of the
press, Obama doubled down,
making the demand in public.
>> I'm saying publicly what I
said privately: that settlements
have to be stopped in order
for us to move forward.
That's a difficult issue,
I recognize that, but it's
an important one, and it has
to be addressed.
>> NARRATOR: For Netanyahu, his
first meeting with the president
couldn't have gone worse.
>> I think Netanyahu recognized
in Obama suddenly a person
who was hell-bent on setting up
a Palestinian state.
>> I remember him coming back
from his first meeting with
President Obama.
Something tells him it's going
to be a different president.
Super-intelligent lawyer who is
probably a brilliant, brilliant
man.
He has ideas, he has goals,
he has a vision, and something
what we in Hebrew call
a "neshama."
The soul is too cold
to be connected to Israel.
>> What ever happened
in that traumatic meeting,
he came back...
...angry, suspicious, hostile.
He came back from Washington
feeling that he is at war,
that he is under siege.
And that shaped the entire
relationship, because people
like Netanyahu, you don't get
a second chance.
>> NARRATOR: The president
of the United States was now
an adversary.
>> President Obama today
 delivers one of the most
important speeches of his young
 administration.
>> NARRATOR: Two weeks later...
>> A major speech to reach out
 to the Muslim world.
>> NARRATOR: ...the Obama
campaign to win the hearts
and minds of the Muslim world
continued.
>> The president turns his
attention to a much larger Arab
 audience in Cairo and beyond.
>> That speech was to try to
reset relations with the Muslim
world and send a message that
the United States was not
anti-Muslim.
>> Ladies and gentlemen, the
president of the United States.
>> NARRATOR: During his first
days in office, he had signaled
a change in tone.
With the Netanyahu meeting, he
had tried to show he could get
tough with Israel.
And now in Egypt, he would
personally make the case.
>> He believed that he could
make an overture to the Muslim
world, and the Muslim world
would believe him.
He meant to be a good soldier,
a good guy, a middle man,
an honest broker, an American
president you could deal with,
an American who is sympathetic
to you.
>> NARRATOR: It was billed as
an unprecedented address to the
world's one and a half billion
Muslims.
>> I've come here to Cairo
to seek a new beginning between
the United States and Muslims
around the world...
>> NARRATOR: But Israelis were
watching too, among them Michael
Oren, Israel's ambassador to the
United States.
>> It's the first time, to my
knowledge as an historian, that
a president of the United States
addresses the world adherents
of one faith.
>> So let there be no doubt:
the situation for the
Palestinian people is
intolerable.
>> Israel had no advance
warning of the Cairo speech.
Complete shock.
And there are many aspects of
the speech which have direct
impact on Israel, the most
obvious of which is the
condemnation of settlements.
>> The United States does not
accept the legitimacy of
continued Israeli settlements.
It is time for these settlements
to stop.
>> He addressed the Palestinian
issue in a way that was not
a political issue, but a just
issue, and I think that was
a hard point for the Israeli
public to swallow.
>> NARRATOR: For many of the
Israelis watching, the message
was clear.
>> We live in a world of images
and perceptions.
And for some, it gave the
impression that in choosing
between Israel and the Muslim
world, the choice was the Muslim
world.
>> May God's peace be upon you.
Thank you very much.
>> Immediately after the speech,
crystal clear, I remember
talking to an Israeli
journalist, a very senior
journalist whom the White House
cleverly had invited to Cairo
to hear the speech, and he
called me from Cairo.
He said, "This is a disaster.
This is a disaster."
I said, "Tell Rahm.
Tell him, because they need
to do something about this.
This is really going to lose
the Israelis."
>> NARRATOR: The president
then left the Middle East.
To the surprise of many,
he did not stop over in Israel.
>> The message of President
 Barack Obama's historic speech
 in Egypt...
>> Worse than anything, while he
was there, a 45-minute plane
ride to Israel, he didn't stop
there.
He just went on his way.
>> The Israelis were insulted.
I mean, you're coming into the
neighborhood, can't you drop for
coffee?
We're just so close.
I mean, Cairo, Tel Aviv?
Come on, say hello, we'll be
nice to you!
>> Don't forget, he went to
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt.
He didn't go to Israel.
For Israelis, the combination
of not visiting and the speech
sent them a very strong signal
that he didn't like them.
>> NARRATOR: The decision to
skip Israel had been advocated
by the President's senior
foreign policy advisors.
>> Ben Rhodes and Dennis
McDonough strongly argued
against going to Israel because
it would look like business
as usual.
And if he was going to show it
was different this time, he had
to act in a way that was
different this time.
He had to break the mold.
That was the reason.
>> NARRATOR: Deputy National
Security Advisor Ben Rhodes
insists it was the right move.
>> I have lived in this job for
seven years and have learned
repeatedly that you are damned
if you do and damned if you
don't.
Frankly, I see it as a lose-lose
proposition.
Whatever we were going to do was
not going to be the right thing
for this particular Israeli
government.
>> NARRATOR: Other Obama
advisors now admit it was
a mistake.
>> I personally think it would
have been wise had the president
gone on to Israel from there
and made a comparable statement
of reassurance.
>> I regret that.
I think if we were to do that
all over again, I think we
should have added a stop there.
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu
capitalized on Obama's decision
not to stop in Israel.
>> Netanyahu was the first
Israeli prime minister, in a
way, to run against an American
president.
To sort of go to his base and
say, "You've got to vote for me,
because I can keep this
American president at bay."
>> NARRATOR: Right wing
newspapers fanned the flames,
increasingly portraying the
president as an enemy of Israel.
>> The messaging has been
consistent that this guy is a
danger to us, and the only thing
stopping him from having his way
with Israel is Benjamin
Netanyahu.
>> NARRATOR: Obama's reputation
took a hit.
Just six percent of Jewish
Israelis said they considered
him pro-Israel.
>> Obama is very unpopular
in Israel, and he's the first
American president in a very
long time to be very unpopular.
We talk about how popular
Clinton was, that's not the case
for Obama. 
>> Once he lost the Israelis,
he couldn't move the Israelis
because he didn't have the trust
that Clinton had.
>> Netanyahu figured out that he
had the backing of his people,
the backing of his government.
He was perfectly comfortable
to stand still.
>> President Obama immediately
 dispatching his Special Envoy
 George Mitchell...
>> Mitchell visits Israel...
>> NARRATOR: Despite the
obstacles, Obama sent his envoy
George Mitchell to Israel
19 times over two years.
>> Mitchell says he will be
 going back to the region...
>> NARRATOR: Hundreds of
meetings.
It was tough going.
Neither side was ready
to do a deal.
>> Back again in Israel...
>> NARRATOR: Mitchell gave up.
He submitted his letter
of resignation in 2011.
>> I withdrew.
I concluded that the level of
mistrust between both societies
made it highly unlikely that
they would be able to overcome
that level of mistrust and reach
agreement.
>> NARRATOR: The president
had lost his point man,
and his Middle East policy
was in trouble.
>> The president asked his staff
for a report card about how well
they had done on executing on
the 2009 speech, and it was
basically a series of Ds and Fs.
They had done an extremely poor
job.
>> NARRATOR: And there was
mounting criticism by Jews
in Israel and America.
>> You know, I remember a time
when I worked in the White House
and I went to find the
president, and he was just
staring into space.
He was very contemplative.
I said, "What's on your mind?"
And he said, "You know, I think
I'm the closest thing to a Jew
who's ever sat in this office.
I feel very close to the
community, and it hurts to be
depicted somehow as hostile to
the community.
It bothers me."
>> NARRATOR: Then, this man in
Tunisia lit himself on fire.
>> Mohammed Bouazizi sets
himself on fire, and within
a very short period of time,
he sets the whole Middle East
on fire.
>> Thousands of angry
 demonstrators marched through
 the streets of Tunisia's
 capital this morning...
 >> We're tracking this very
 serious development...
>> NARRATOR: Within weeks,
protests had broken out
in Yemen, Bahrain, Libya.
And in Cairo's Tahrir Square,
hundreds of thousands turned out
to protest President Hosni
Mubarak.
At the White House, President
Barack Obama watched the
protests on television.
>> When Obama sees these
insurrections in North Africa
and the Middle East,
he is very excited by them.
>> Now suddenly, it looks like
the forces of history are in the
squares, not in the presidential
palaces.
And now the president wants to
be on the right side of history.
>> NARRATOR: For three decades,
Mubarak had been an American
ally.
>> The Arab Street is rising up
against these dictators, and I
think Obama faced this moment,
this decision.
>> Obama is very enthusiastic
about what's happening in Tahrir
Square, more than many people
in his own cabinet.
And he wants to put America
on the side of that.
>> NARRATOR: The president
decided to get involved:
he would tell Mubarak to leave.
>> I was with him in the Oval
Office when he does this phone
call to Mubarak.
He was trying to nudge Mubarak
in a certain direction,
and Mubarak was in a state
of complete denial.
Mubarak is telling the
president, "You don't
understand.
I understand my people."
>> NARRATOR: And in front of the
cameras, Obama repeated his
demand.
>> Good evening, everybody.
Over the past few days, the
American people have watched the
situation unfolding in Egypt.
What is clear-- and what I
indicated tonight to President
Mubarak-- is my belief that an
orderly transition must be
meaningful, it must be peaceful,
and it must begin now.
Thank you very much.
>> NARRATOR: He had issued
his ultimatum.
In Israel, Netanyahu expressed
amazement at what Obama had
done.
>> The Arab Spring is a perfect
example of where Netanyahu
believes that Obama was
colossally naive.
>> NARRATOR: Israel had made
peace with some of its Arab
neighbors, including Egypt.
Now Netanyahu was worried those
regimes would fall to Muslim
extremists.
>> Netanyahu's reaction was the
tragic realist reaction, which
is, "This ain't gonna work out,
guys.
Democracy's not going to take
root.
You're going to have the Muslim
Brotherhood in Cairo in a year
or two."
>> Israelis are slapping their
heads and saying, "Oh my God,
what a disaster."
Because what they see is not
an outbreaking of democracy;
they see an outbreaking
of chaos that's going to be
quickly snatched and dominated
by Islamic extremists.
>> NARRATOR: At the time,
Dan Meridor was the deputy
prime minister.
>> The quick pace with which the
American administration started
to push Mubarak off the cliff--
"He has to go, he has to go now,
he has to go now"-- amazed me.
The thinking that if Mubarak is
out, a new Thomas Jefferson is
going to be born on the Nile
and build a new republic
was miserably naive.
>> The president Hosni Mubarak
has stepped down...
>> The sound of freedom...
>> NARRATOR: Ten days after
Obama's phone call, Mubarak
resigned.
>> Tonight, the people of Egypt
have toppled their leader.
That nation has just been...
>> When he fell, I think
the amazement of Mubarak
and his people that America
deserted them openly, and the
amazement of many allies of
America, leaders in the region,
that America seemed not to be
a reliable ally and pushes you
when they need at least
not to interfere.
I think this was a big mistake.
>> NARRATOR: At the White House,
the president seized the moment.
Obama wanted a reset of his
approach to the Middle East.
He told his staff to prepare a
new speech.
>> The president wanted to speak
and lay out what the U.S.
principles were going to be as
we dealt with a region that was
going through seismic change.
>> The president of the United
States, Barack Obama.
>> NARRATOR: He delivered the
speech in front of a room filled
with staffers at the State
Department.
>> For six months, we have
witnessed an extraordinary
change taking place in the
Middle East and North Africa.
>> NARRATOR: He spoke for nearly
an hour, but the speech would be
remembered for just one line.
>> We believe the borders of
Israel and Palestine should be
based on the 1967 lines with
mutually agreed swaps.
>> NARRATOR: It was a familiar
demand, but one never said so
publicly by the president of the
United States.
>> It became the headline.
The headline in the New York
 Times was, "President Obama
endorses the '67 borders."
The rest of the speech about
the Arab Spring went virtually
unreported.
Now, for Israel, this was a
major development.
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu's
reaction was immediate.
He summoned his closest advisors
for an emergency meeting.
>> My secretary comes rushing
in, and she goes, "Dore, the
prime minister is on the phone."
I get on the phone, he goes,
"Dore, where are you?"
He says, "I need you to come
here right now."
I walk into his office where
his desk is, and he's surrounded
by his top advisors.
He's on a speakerphone
to Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton.
And while I won't go into what
was said in detail, I'll just
say roughly, he was not happy.
>> NARRATOR: What set Netanyahu
off was that the president had
made any mention of Israel's
borders before the '67 war.
>> Everyone says, "Go back
to June 4, 1967," as if that
will solve all the problems.
Here's the problem: June 4, 1967
were not lines of peace.
Those were lines of war.
A noose of death was placed
around Israel in those June 4,
1967 lines.
>> NARRATOR: The White House had
not briefed Netanyahu, and as it
turned out, he was planning a
trip to Washington the next day.
>> From Netanyahu's point of
view, he was convinced that this
was an attempt to ambush him,
embarrass him.
And put him in a situation
where the president was,
from Netanyahu's point of view,
weakening Israel's negotiating
position by declaring a stance
on the '67 lines.
So he was furious about it.
>> NARRATOR: When Netanyahu
landed, his ambassador could
tell there would be trouble.
>> I'd never seen him like
that coming out of the plane.
There was no smile,
there was no wave.
And you can almost imagine
steam coming out of his ears.
His team of advisors tried to
calm him down, but he had things
he wanted to say to the
president.
>> NARRATOR: At the White House,
Obama and his top advisors had
heard from Hillary Clinton that
Bibi was angry.
>> The president asked me, "Why
did Bibi react so negatively
to the speech?"
And I said, "Because he was
surprised by it and he felt he
was being put in a corner and
you were trying to jam him in
front of his own constituency
before he came here."
>> NARRATOR: But one of the
president's top advisors says
Netanyahu overreacted.
>> If you look at the principles
that we identified, the notion
of '67 lines with mutually
agreed swaps is not at all a
controversial idea.
That has been the basis for
every negotiation that has
neared a resolution over the
history of this conflict.
>> NARRATOR: Just as in their
first meeting, the press was
summoned.
>> Everybody set up?
All good?
Let me, first of all, welcome
once again Prime Minister
Netanyahu.
>> NARRATOR: But this time, Bibi
Netanyahu would lecture Barack
Obama, taking a hard line on the
peace process.
>> It's not going to happen.
Everybody knows it's not going
to happen.
And I think it's time to tell
the Palestinians forthrightly
it's not going to happen.
>> I have never seen a foreign
leader speak to the president
like that, and certainly not in
public, and I have never,
certainly never seen it happen
in the Oval Office.
>> Israel obviously cannot be
asked to negotiate with a
government that is backed by the
Palestinian version of al Qaeda.
>> You're watching President
Obama there with his face in his
hand, and you can tell it's not
going over well.
This is his house, and to be
lectured in his office rankles.
>> We cannot go back to the
1967 lines because these lines
are indefensible.
>> NARRATOR: Watching it unfold,
Chief of Staff Bill Daley.
>> Bill Daley is standing next
to me and he is going,
"Outrageous, outrageous."
It's like he's almost
levitating.
>> We cannot negotiate with a
Palestinian government that is
backed by Hamas.
>> That was intentional.
That was done for political...
for political effect.
I think he came with a mind
toward inflaming...
inflaming the relationship.
>> Mr. President, history will
not give the Jewish people
another chance.
>> Obama was treated to a
lecture on Jewish and Israeli
history that just went on and on
and deeply offended, deeply
offended Obama and his people.
>> It's the ancient nation of
Israel, and you know, we've been
around for almost 4,000 years.
We've experienced struggle and
suffering like no other people.
>> There was a sense of... gall.
What gall.
>> And now it falls on my
shoulders as the prime minister
of Israel.
>> I think Netanyahu frankly
had given up on Obama.
He felt, "This administration
from day one has disliked me,
has wanted me out, has wanted
me gone, so what's the point
of holding back?"
>> Thank you, guys.
>> The decision was made
to come directly at us.
I mean, imagine the president
of the United States going to
Jerusalem and saying things like
that next to the prime minister.
I mean, it was a fairly dramatic
moment.
>> NARRATOR: The president had
a choice: try to push Netanyahu
even harder or walk away
from the peace process.
>> I think Obama realized
at that time that the price that
he was paying for trying to ram
something down Netanyahu's
throat that Netanyahu didn't
want to have rammed down his
throat wasn't worth it for him.
>> NARRATOR: With the
president's reelection campaign
looming, the Obama White House
was keenly aware of the
political costs of confronting
Netanyahu.
>> The Obama people didn't want
to give the Republicans a weapon
by having open fights at this
point with Netanyahu because it
becomes a talking point.
"You know, this is a president
who's not supportive of our
great friend Israel.
How can he do this to our great
friend?"
They were looking to negate that
as an issue that might come out
or be used by the Republicans
against them.
>> Israel's prime minister
telling President Obama
exactly what he thought...
>> NARRATOR: The Palestinians
who had once cheered Obama's
election now watched with
disappointment.
>> His approach has been to send
signals, but to never follow up
his signals with actual action.
He didn't back up his statements
against settlements with actual
actions and saying to the
Israelis, "You have to make a
choice now.
Do you want these settlements,
or do you want the money
that we give you every year?"
It's always just been one signal
after another signal after
another signal, and this isn't
an area that deals well with
signals; this is an area
that requires concrete action.
>> NARRATOR: Indeed under
Obama, the United States has
continued to provided Israel
with as much as than $3 billion
a year in military aid.
Netanyahu had stood up
to the American president.
The peace process was on hold.
Now he could focus on an issue
he believed was more pressing:
the fear that Iran was building
a nuclear weapon.
>> Bibi Netanyahu has said 1,000
times, if once, that Iran
not only is an enemy of Israel,
but would literally use those
nuclear weapons against us.
Never again are we going to put
ourselves in a position of
allowing an outside force to use
overwhelming power to kill us,
to try to wipe us out.
It's not going to happen.
>> We are thinking Iran,
a regime which represents
extremist Islamic ideology that
would not accept our right to
exist at all, that denies the
Holocaust, trying to achieve a
nuclear weapon?
I mean...
>> NARRATOR: And in meeting
after meeting, Netanyahu's
military and intelligence
services delivered the bad news.
>> We're seeing Iran racing
ahead to produce the fissile
material necessary for nuclear
weapons.
They had not only low enriched
uranium, but they were starting
to pile up more and more bombs'
worth of low enriched uranium.
And we could see that month
after month, that number was
getting higher and higher.
>> NARRATOR: His defense
minister, Ehud Barak, once a
rival, was now on his side.
Iran, Barak said, was entering
"the zone of immunity."
>> The zone of immunity was
that place on the timeline after
which the Iranian nuclear sites
are going to be immune from
Israeli firepower.
>> There were a number of clocks
ticking.
One clock was the rate at which
Iran was enriching uranium.
Another clock was the rate at
which they would complete the
enrichment and move underground,
at which point it'd be too late.
>> NARRATOR: They ordered the
Israeli military to plan for a
direct strike on Iran's nuclear
program.
>> In the first three months
of 2012, everything was ready.
Huge military buildup, including
land bases in other countries,
intelligence cooperation,
advanced weaponry.
>> Breaking news...
>> There's breaking news about
 the possibility of an Israeli
 attack on...
>> Israelis have been talking
 about a so-called "zone of
 immunity"...
>> Panetta believes Israel will
 strike Iran in April, May...
>> Israelis say Iran has already
 produced enough uranium...
>> NARRATOR: But in the White
House secure basement Situation
Room, they were receiving
no word on when or if Netanyahu
would order the strike.
>> Mounting tonight that Israel
 is ready to attack Iran...
>> NARRATOR: Communications had
broken down between the
president and prime minister.
>> The American military
planners were assuming every
night when they went to sleep
that they would wake up to an
Israeli attack.
>> The Israeli government
certainly looked like they were
practicing an attack.
They did a military exercise
in which they flew from Israel
out over the sea exactly the
distance you would have to go
to hit Natanz and the other
major nuclear sites in Iran.
And that really set off a lot
of alarms in the United States.
>> NARRATOR: As the tension
mounted, the president's top
advisors warned that an Israeli
strike could ignite a war
in the Middle East.
>> Any military action would
have precipitated, in our view,
a much broader conflict with
Iran.
Iran would have been likely
to respond with proxies.
And that likely would have led
to a chain of events where the
United States is at war with
Iran.
>> You could imagine: Israel
attacks Iran in order to do
damage to its nuclear program.
Iran now fires missiles
at Israel.
There's a large casualty toll.
It continues.
What does the United States do?
>> NARRATOR: For Barack Obama,
the decision to initiate a war
with Iran was now in the hands
of Benjamin Netanyahu.
>> I think the president was
resigned to the idea that if
Israel went and attacked and
then needed help finishing the
job or protecting itself, there
wasn't any real choice that the
president of the United States
was going to go in and help.
>> NARRATOR: But as the
possibility of a strike grew,
Netanyahu had a problem.
The Israeli military was nervous
about attacking Iran on its own.
>> There are all kinds of
figures in the Israeli security
establishment, big military
figures, who all think that it
would be crazy, to say
nothing... counterproductive,
dangerous, ruinous, for Israel
to attack Iran.
>> NARRATOR: With his military
wary about a unilateral strike,
Netanyahu reluctantly asked
Obama for up-front assurance
that if Israel went ahead,
the U.S. would back them up.
>> What Netanyahu wants is
either a green light or a yellow
light to go bomb the Iranian
program, and the knowledge that
if the Iranians retaliated
against Israel, Obama would be
right with him to get into that
conflict.
And Obama wasn't going
to give him that.
>> NARRATOR: At just this time,
the president's reelection
campaign was beginning.
>> President Obama's approval
 ratings have hit an all-time
 low...
>> Obama is under 50%...
>> NARRATOR: In the early going,
he was in trouble.
>> No president has been
 reelected with this type...
>> NARRATOR: So Netanyahu
decided to take his argument
for striking Iran directly
to the American voters.
>> We've seen his approval
 ratings on the economy dip...
>> Netanyahu had his maximum
leverage in the summer and fall
of 2012.
This is the point of maximum
Israeli power on the issue.
>> The White House and the
president come to believe that
Bibi is using an election year
to try to leverage him on the
Iran issue.
And "if you're not going to let
us go militarily, then you have
to go."
>> This morning, a special hour
of Meet the Press.
An exclusive network interview
with a key player in the
Middle East...
>> NARRATOR: On TV show after TV
show, he urged Obama to commit
to military action if Iran
crossed a "red line."
>> I think it's important to
place a red line before them.
I think it's important to
delineate a red line for Iran.
A red line should be drawn
right here.
>> He is so convinced
that he's right on it,
equally so convinced that Obama
is dead wrong.
And if he can persuade more and
more people, America can somehow
change its mind.
>> Don't let these fanatics have
nuclear weapons.
>> It puts enormous pressure on
the president, enormous pressure
on the White House.
>> NARRATOR: But Netanyahu's
media blitz did little to
persuade the president.
>> When Netanyahu pushes Obama,
it causes Obama's neck
to stiffen further.
And when Obama pushes Netanyahu,
it sends him toward his corner.
So it's all wrapped up in the
dysfunction between these two
men.
>> NARRATOR: By the fall of
2012, at the United Nations,
Obama wouldn't even sit in the
same room with Netanyahu.
>> There was an attempt to set
a meeting between the prime
minister and the president in
September at the U.N. when
they're both at the General
Assembly, and the president
won't take the meeting.
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu decided
to do something no other Israeli
prime minister had done:
appear to actively support
the president's opponent.
>> How are you, my friend?
Good to see you.
Thanks so much for making time
to say hello.
You're very kind.
>> It was a remarkable scene.
You've never seen an Israeli
prime minister get as directly
involved in a political campaign
as this one.
>> Governor Romney, Mitt,
it's a pleasure to welcome you
in Jerusalem.
We've known each other for many
decades.
We were so young then,
and for some reason,
you still look young.
I don't know how you do it.
>> It's a real gamble for
Netanyahu to embrace Mitt Romney
the way he does.
I mean, it's a relatively brazen
interference, in effect,
in an American election.
>> NARRATOR: And Netanyahu's
wealthy Jewish supporters in
America initiated a media
campaign.
>> The world tells Israel,
 "Wait, there's still time."
>> NARRATOR: The ad targeted
Jewish voters in Florida.
>> And I say, "Wait for what?
 Wait until when?"
>> The world needs American
 strength...
>> NARRATOR: At the White House,
administration officials said
Netanyahu had crossed the line.
>> It was, I think, pretty clear
that Netanyahu was now working
with the Republicans to try
to defeat him.
>> There is no doubt in my mind
that he was, he and Dermer,
had placed their bet on the
Republicans winning in 2012.
>> The voters vote,
 the counters count...
>> NARRATOR: On election night,
Netanyahu watched with
anticipation.
>> Campaign 2012.
>> We're closing in on the first
 results in the battle for the
 White House...
>> I know for a fact that
on election night, you know,
the champagne bottles,
metaphorically, were on ice.
They were waiting.
They were absolutely convinced
that the world could not fail
to see things as they did,
and therefore Romney would
almost certainly win.
>> This is an ABC News...
>> NARRATOR: But as the results
came in, Obama won state after
state.
>> Here we are, Ohio is in.
 We are projecting the
 battleground state...
>> The Israeli government
analysis was that Romney
was going to win.
>> You are looking at the
president of the United States.
>> NARRATOR: Again, Obama
received an overwhelming
Jewish vote: 69%.
>> Netanyahu was one of the last
people, really last people,
like midnight U.S. time on
election night, to sort of say,
"Oh, I guess he really didn't
have it."
He was like a Fox News
bitter ender in that sense.
>> NARRATOR: In victory, Obama
decided America would handle
Iran without Israel.
>> I think in that period,
the air went out of the balloon.
I think the president has
essentially written off
Netanyahu.
>> NARRATOR: Obama wanted
to talk with Iran, and saw an
opportunity to show diplomacy
would be more effective than
Netanyahu's confrontational
approach.
>> Obama comes to office on the
theory that we should talk to
our enemies, right?
And Iran is among them.
Yes, Iran is a hostile country.
Yes, Iran is sponsoring
terrorism.
But if we don't find ways
to connect with them,
there's no way to counter them.
And sitting down to talk, to
him, is a rational, reasonable
thing to do.
>> NARRATOR: Obama told his
staff to engage in a series of
secret negotiations with Iran,
and he ordered them not to tell
Netanyahu.
>> There was concern that there
were enough Israelis hostile to
the very notion of a channel
with Iran that it wouldn't
remain private and it would get
blown up politically before
we had a chance to explore
whether it would work.
>> NARRATOR: The secret meetings
continued for months in the
Gulf state of Oman.
But Israeli intelligence soon
found out, and they were
monitoring the travels of
William Burns and Jake
Sullivan, the U.S. negotiators.
>> Israeli intelligence learns
that the United States has a
secret back channel of
negotiation with Iran in Oman,
in Muscat.
And when it learned about this,
of course Benjamin Netanyahu
was furious.
>> It was a type of implosion.
We're confronted with this
reality in which our principal
ally has negotiated behind our
backs for seven months with our
worst enemy.
Now, that is hard to square.
>> Benjamin Netanyahu sees this
highly sensitive, secretive
intelligence coming from
Tehran.
The Iranians are happy, the
American delegates are making
concession after concession,
and it leads, I think naturally,
to harshen the line against
the U.S. government and say,
"This is a very bad deal.
You are going to make a very
bad deal."
>> Secretary of State John Kerry
 arrives in Israel today...
>> His next stop, Israel...
>> NARRATOR: Just as outlines
of a secret deal became public,
Secretary of State John Kerry
made a stopover in Israel.
Netanyahu rushed to Ben Gurion
Airport for a face-to-face
meeting with Kerry.
>> We felt it's ridiculous,
unjustified, immoral.
It's going to be more of the
same and worse than the same.
>> NARRATOR: While Kerry waited
in the first-class lounge,
Netanyahu stopped for a word
with the press.
>> I understand the Iranians are
walking around very satisfied,
as well they should be, because
they got everything and paid
nothing.
This is a very bad deal,
and Israel utterly rejects it.
>> NARRATOR: Then Netanyahu
headed for Kerry.
He did not hold back.
>> It was just Kerry and
Netanyahu, but I was outside
the room and I could hear it.
I could hear it, that's for
sure.
He had a really strong sense
of betrayal.
He was furious.
When Bibi gets upset, he starts
screaming and pounding the
table.
And so it was one of those
moments.
>> NARRATOR: But he was not
done.
Before leaving, Netanyahu
went before the cameras
one more time.
>> This is a bad deal,
a very, very bad deal.
It's the deal of the century
for Iran; it's a very dangerous
and bad deal for peace
in the international community.
>> NARRATOR: Later that day,
Netanyahu summoned Obama's
former advisor Dennis Ross.
>> Bibi asked me to come and see
him on Friday evening at the
prime minister's residence.
So it was Shabbat evening.
And I get there and I have
to wait about close to an hour
because he's on the phone
with the president.
>> NARRATOR: In an emergency
phone call from Air Force One,
Obama tried to calm Netanyahu
down and persuade him that
a deal with Iran would make
Israel safer.
But it didn't work.
>> As many times as I have dealt
with Bibi, I had never seen him
this way.
He wasn't angry, but he was...
The only way I can put it
is that he was feeling alarmed.
Not angry, but alarmed.
And the first thing he says
to me is, "The president has
decided he has no choice but
to do a deal with the Iranians,
force us off the table."
And I said, "He didn't say that
to you."
He said, "He did."
I said, "No, he didn't
say that to you."
He said, "He did."
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu believed
the Iranians would only respond
to the threat of force.
To him, if that was not an
option, Obama was surrendering
to the Iranians.
>> I have no recollection of the
president ever telling Prime
Minister Netanyahu that the
military option is off the
table.
The president was saying, "Look,
we have an opportunity here to
get more through diplomacy than
we could accomplish even through
taking military action."
And that's an argument he's had
with the prime minister multiple
times over the course of the
last two years now.
>> Bibi was convinced of what
he had heard.
He wasn't saying he said those
exact words, but he interpreted
what he heard as if the
president, "You know, there's
too much war weariness in the
States, I don't have the option
of using force.
This is the only option I have."
>> NARRATOR: Ross reached out to
Secretary of State John Kerry.
>> I actually contacted Kerry
and said, "Look, you have
a problem here.
It has to be fixed."
He said, "I'll call him."
I said, "No, it shouldn't be
you.
The problem isn't you.
The problem is what Bibi thinks
where the president is.
This needs to be fixed
by the White House."
And it wasn't.
He didn't get a call.
>> President Obama began the
 selling job for the nuclear
 deal with Iran...
>> NARRATOR: Instead, Obama went
to the American people to sell
a deal that would impose limits
on Iran's nuclear program and
allow international inspections
in exchange for lifting
sanctions.
>> From the perspective of U.S.
 interests, it is far better
 if we can get a diplomatic
 solution.
For the first time in a decade,
 we've halted the progress
 on Iran's nuclear program.
 Key parts of the program
 will be rolled back.
 A comprehensive agreement that
 prevents a nuclear-armed Iran,
secures America and our allies,
 including Israel, while
 avoiding yet another Middle
 East conflict.
>> Tough talk, as the president
 of the United States is trying
 to pull a major sales job...
>> For Obama, this is his chance
at a legacy in the Middle East,
which has been very, very
frustrating for him.
Iran is so central to his legacy
and his perception of American
national interests.
>> Iran has agreed to
temporarily freeze key parts...
>> NARRATOR: In March 2015, as
the president and Iranians
were on the verge of signing
a deal...
>> Green-light an historic
 deal... 
>> NARRATOR: Benjamin Netanyahu,
running out of time, arrived in
Washington to make that
controversial speech urging
Congress to block the deal.
>> You can see him walking by
 with Dana, maybe he'll stop.
>> See, Netanyahu has already
given up on Obama, he looks
at Washington and says,
"Who can I find as an ally?
Well, the Republicans now
control both houses of
Congress, and in effect,
he decides to make common cause
with them.
>> It's a big day on Capitol
 Hill.
 Israel Prime Minister Benjamin
 Netanyahu will address
 Congress.
>> Mr. Speaker!
The prime minister of Israel.
>> NARRATOR: He could count on
the Republican Party to be
against the president and
enlisted AIPAC-- the powerful
American Israeli Public
Affairs Committee-- to go on the
attack.
>> For him to go on such a tear
and denounce it and line AIPAC
up to spend $20 million to try
to defeat it is a huge mistake.
If he loses, the president will
have shown that he can stand up
to Israel and the vaunted
Israeli lobby, and that will
be a lesson for a long time.
>> I want to thank you all
for being here today.
I know that my speech has been
the subject of much controversy.
>> NARRATOR: A large number of
Democrats boycotted the speech,
choosing to stand by the
president.
>> You have this great drama
of American politics.
You have the drama of a
Republican Congress who almost
seems to want to have Bibi
Netanyahu as its leader rather
than Barack Obama.
>> Today, the Jewish people face
another attempt by yet another
Persian potentate to destroy us.
>> I think this is for him
the fight of his life.
He is no longer rational
about it.
A rational prime minister
of Israel, understanding the
importance of the U.S./Israel
relationship, would not confront
the president on the most
important agreement that he has
managed to negotiate in his
presidency.
>> We must all stand together to
stop Iran's march of conquest,
subjugation, and terror.
>> NARRATOR: It was rhetoric
he had perfected over decades,
delivered to a receptive crowd.
26 standing ovations.
But in the end, it would not be
enough.
>> May God bless the State of
Israel, and may God bless the
United States of America.
>> NARRATOR: Without the
Democrats, the Republicans alone
could not stop the deal.
On the one issue he cared most
about, Netanyahu would fail.
>> If, God forbid, it goes bad
in ten years' time, or 20 years,
I think that we will all go back
to these years,
from 2009 to 2015,
and we will be deeply saddened
by the fact that there wasn't
the ability to rise to the
challenge, to work together,
to get over the bad blood,
to get over the mistrust.
>> Yet another attack in the
 violence between Israelis
 and Palestinians...
>> ...seen an upsurge in
 violence in occupied territory
 and in Israel itself...
>> NARRATOR: In the months that
followed, violence returned to
Israel and the Palestinian
territories.
>> Pushed tensions between
 Israelis and Palestinians
 to a boiling point...
>> You do not have an Israeli or
Palestinian leader right now, or
an American president, frankly,
who's prepared to pay the price
of what it would take to lay
the basis for a conflict-ending
agreement of the Israeli/
Palestinian conflict.
>> Every bus station, every
 street corner is the scene of
 potential attack...
>> NARRATOR: The president who
had sought to bridge differences
can do little now but watch
as the conflict continues.
>> And they're just the latest
 victims in a wave of
 violence... 
>> The great dream he has when
he comes into office that he'll
be the president who finally
solves this, he basically tosses
that aside.
And he admits it.
He thought that if he simply
sat people down at a table,
that they would be reasonable
and they could figure this out.
And that was just obviously
not going to be the case.
>> Israeli officials are
 stepping up security
 measures...
>> NARRATOR: Netanyahu had
promised Israelis security
through strength, but still
presides over a fearful country
uncertain about its future.
>> It was so needed that the
president of the United States
and the prime minister of Israel
will work together in an
intimate way.
>> The peace process has been
 dead now for more than a year.
>> The fact that this never
happened, that it was all
bitterness and suspicion and
political boxing, it's a very
sad chapter of history.
>> Frontline is made possible
 by contributions to your PBS
station from viewers like you.
Thank you.
And by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting.
Major support for Frontline is
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Catherine T. MacArthur
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More information is available
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public awareness of critical
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at fordfoundation.org.
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And by the Frontline
Journalism Fund, with major
support from Jon and Jo Ann
Hagler.
Captioned by
Media Access Group at WGBH
access.wgbh.org
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 Frontline programs, visit our
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