My Brother's Keeper tells the behind-the-scenes story of how the American president and the Israeli prime minister clashed about peace, war, and the future of the region.
Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu viewed the world—and especially the Middle East—differently. The US president wanted to end what he saw as America's perpetual war against the Muslim and Arab worlds, use diplomacy to bring about a Palestinian state coexisting peacefully with Israel, and apply his signature foreign policy vision to reward the Islamic Republic of Iran in exchange for the scaling back of their nuclear pursuits. The Israeli premier wanted his country to thrive without the senseless bloodshed of terror and violence, and he was determined to protect the Jewish state from threats of annihilation by a member of the axis of evil that would one day be armed with nuclear weapons. Netanyahu wanted peace for peace, as well as the acceptance of Israel as a full-fledged part of the Middle East. In 2014, during a pivotal summer of terrorist violence, a war in Gaza, and the advancement of a nuclear deal with Iran, the two men clashed, threatening the US-Israeli strategic alliance and the future of the region. The Middle East would never be the same.