Biden warns Netanyahu must change government as Israel loses support over ‘indiscriminate’ Gaza bombing
- The US president’s comments on the handling of the war were his most critical so far, exposing a new rift in his relations with the Israeli prime minister
- The sharp remarks came as Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, prepares to travel to Israel for talks with the Israeli war cabinet
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that Israel is losing support over its “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza and that Benjamin Netanyahu should change his hardline government, exposing a new rift in relations with the Israeli prime minister.
Biden’s remarks, made to donors to his 2024 re-election campaign, were his most critical to date of Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza. They are a stark contrast to his literal and political embrace of the Israeli leader days after Hamas militants’ October 7 attack on southern Israel.
“Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world … But they’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” Biden said.
Israel’s retaliation to the Hamas attacks have killed 18,000, Gaza officials say, wounded 50,000 and created a humanitarian crisis. Biden’s remarks opened a new window into his blunt private conversations with Netanyahu, with whom he has had deep disagreements for decades.
Biden alluded to a private conversation in which the Israeli leader said: “‘You carpet bombed Germany, you dropped the atom bomb, a lot of civilians died.’”