The New York Times ran a surprising article last Friday, suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone rogue, accusing him of “forcing the pace of the war and feeding the revolt of the far right.” One doesn’t expect such harsh criticism of an Israeli PM in an American paper but that is changing and the article makes the case for why.

It points out that despite international condemnation, Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war against Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank “without any clear idea of its endgame.” It discusses the assassinations of senior Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, sharply raising the risks of a larger regional war.

The killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was particularly provocative. Haniyeh was key to the negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, and he was not only killed in Iran but on the first full day in office of Iran’s newly-elected president. Apparently Haniyeh was in Iran to participate in the president’s inauguration ceremony.

As a number of countries, including Qatar which has been involved in brokering peace, condemned the attack, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken quickly announced that the assassination was “something we were not aware of or involved in.”

Israel also assassinated senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denounced the attacks in Tehran and Beirut as a “dangerous escalation.” Is it possible that is exactly Netanyahu’s intention? To goad Hezbollah and possibly Iran into outright war? Two assassinations in two capital cities demand retaliation.

Suspicious minds suggest he is keeping the country at war in order to keep himself in power. He has legal problems at home and abroad. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity while in Israel he faces a trial on charges that include breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud.

Whatever his motivation—security for himself or security for his people—will he want to take out Hezbollah after Hamas? How about his greatest nemesis, Iran? He would definitely need U.S. help with that.

He certainly indicates no more intention of allowing negotiations for peace in Gaza to succeed than allowing negotiations for an independent state for the Palestinians to succeed.

President Biden, on the other hand, most assuredly wants success with both sets of negotiations. The Americans want success in ending the Gaza slaughter and success in establishing a Palestinian state. This is essential to achieving the U.S. objective of rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia to counter the Iranian sphere of influence without starting a war.

But Israel sets the agenda. It is the dog and the U.S. is the tail. Netanyahu has ignored requests from Biden to reduce harms to civilians and lower the intensity of the war. Israel continues to slaughter Palestinians and any journalists or aid workers who get in the way. Civilian infrastructure—hospitals, schools, camps for the displaced—continue to be bombed into rubble. U.S. demands that Israel increase the supply of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians are ignored. And the American response to all this? Acquiescence, as it has habitually been.

The darkest stains on America’s foreign policy record are the wars it has been drawn into by events that overwhelm its higher principles or its good sense. Think Vietnam or Iraq. Now it seems Benjamin Netanyahu may be creating just such events.