Two almost simultaneous incidents this past week could have easily provided fodder for "Saturday Night Live." On Sept. 21, the House of Representatives' failure to vote on a bill replenishing Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system unleashed harsh criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett by his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his Likud party lawmakers. Meanwhile, a clip making its viral way on social media showed Netanyahu, his head slumped and eyes closed, in an apparent mockery of President Joe Biden for allegedly nodding off during his recent White House meeting with Bennett.

Even as Netanyahu was deriding the president of the United States — the Likud subsequently issued a statement saying he had meant to mock Bennett, not Biden — his followers took to the airwaves and social media to insist that under Netanyahu, former Democratic President Barack Obama actually increased military funding for Israel, whereas now that Bennett is in charge, the United States is holding up vital military aid. This petty political wrangling could have been amusing were it not a fact of daily political life in Israel.

Just two days after pressure by progressive Democratic lawmakers prompted the removal of the Iron Dome funding from a spending package aimed at preventing a government shutdown, the House voted overwhelmingly (420-9) in favor of a standalone Democratic bill approving the aid to Israel. The outcome had been clear to begin with despite the procedural delay, but the incident nonetheless highlighted the erosion in the once-solid bipartisan congressional support of Israel. In a rare move, a group of progressive Democratic lawmakers, most of them openly critical of Israeli policies, embarrassed a Democratic administration and the party’s traditional Israel supporters, marking a trend likely to develop into a harsher split within the party.

Netanyahu is trying to make political capital out of this disagreement when in fact he is widely considered a factor in undermining the longstanding bipartisanship. His 12 years in office gradually deepened the gap between the two staunch allies Israel and the United States, made clearer now that a more liberal administration is back in office. The schism between a significant number of US Jews and Israel is also widening and threatening to turn into a permanent rift. Right now, the problem is still tactical in nature. Down the line, it will become strategic. To sum it up, if Israel continues on the current path it has chosen, it risks losing its greatest strategic asset: the alliance with the United States of America.