President Joe Biden branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “a**hole”‘” on at least three occasions and called him the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East, according to a shocking new report.
The remarks come as Israeli airstrikes killed 67 Palestinians and wounded dozens more in Rafah, according to Gaza officials. The city in southern Gaza is filled with about one million displaced civilians.
A source close to the president told NBC News that Biden feels as though Netanyahu is ‘giving him hell’ over ceasefire negotiations.
‘He just feels like this is enough. It has to stop,’ another source told the network. The aging Democrat regularly calls Netanyahu ‘this guy’ and recently called him an ‘a**hole’ three times.
On Friday, the White House sought to downplay sharp criticism levied against Israelby President Joe Biden and a senior national security official over how Netanyahu has negotiated his nation’s response to Hamas‘ brutal October 7 assault.
Biden, speaking to reporters Thursday evening, called Israel’s military operations in Gaza ‘over the top’ and said the suffering of innocent people has ‘got to stop.’
While Biden has previously expressed concern about the mounting Palestinian civilian toll — more than 28,000 have been killed in Gaza since the conflict erupted — his direct criticism of the Israelis has been muted.
Then on Friday, the New York Times reported it had obtained a recording in which the president’s deputy principal national security adviser, Jon Finer, expressed a ‘lack of confidence’ in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
Those comments were taken from a meeting with Arab American and Muslim community leaders this week. The White House National Security Council confirmed that Finer’s comments, as reported by the Times, were accurate.
An administration official told The Associated Press that Finer was speaking specifically about the Netanyahu government’s commitment to pursuing a two-state solution — one in which Israel would co-exist with an independent Palestinian state — once the war ends.
Netanyahu throughout his political career has consistently opposed the creation of a Palestinian state.
More than four months on from October 7, much of the densely-populated strip of land on the Mediterranean is in ruins, with 28,340 Palestinians dead and 67,984 wounded, according to Gaza health officials, who say many others are buried under rubble.
The Israeli military says 31 hostages have since died. Still, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday’s rescue showed that military pressure should continue, brushing aside international alarm at its plans for a ground assault on Rafah.
Biden’s angry rhetoric toward Netanyahu has been somewhat of a pattern over the last few months.
Last week, the White House was forced to deny a report that President Joe Biden referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a ‘bad f***ing guy.’
Martin revealed that unnamed sources told him that Biden is ‘deeply suspicious’ of Netanyahu and used the expletive behind the Israeli leader’s back.
But the White House pushed back strongly and denied the report.
‘This is false. President Biden did not say that, nor would he,’ White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told DailyMail.com in a statement last week.
‘The president has been clear where he disagrees with Prime Minister Netanyahu, but this is a decades-long relationship that is respectful in public and in private.’
According to Politico’s Jonathan Martin, a House Democrat told him that it was ‘unanimous that this Israel-Gaza war needed to end now and that Biden needed to stand up to Netanyahu,’ adding the conflict in Gaza is ‘a disaster politically.’
‘Netanyahu is toxic among many Democratic voters and Biden must distance himself from him – yesterday,’ the lawmaker allegedly told Martin.
These revelations come shortly after it was reported that Biden hadn’t spoken to Netanyahu in a month as the president’s patience had reportedly run out with the nonstop bombing of Gaza.
When they spoke on December 23, Netanyahu reportedly rejected Biden’s request that Israel release Palestinian tax revenues, and an angry Biden ended the phone call by saying ‘this conversation is over.’
Sen. Chris Van Hollen told Axios: ‘At every juncture, Netanyahu has given Biden the finger. They are pleading with the Netanyahu coalition, but getting slapped in the face over and over again.’
Daily Mail
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