Biden Doesn’t Deny Netanyahu Prolonging Gaza Destruction For Personal Political Reasons

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:28 pm

President Joe Biden suggested in a recent Time magazine interview that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be prolonging the current conflict in the Gaza Strip for his own political preservation.

Biden discussed a range of foreign policy topics with Time magazine in a May 28 White House interview, including the nearly eight-month-long Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

At a point during the interview, published Tuesday, Time magazine journalists asked Biden to assess what’s slowing efforts to implement a lasting ceasefire. Biden initially replied that he believed Hamas was the primary obstacle to a deal and “could end this tomorrow” if they would accept what he described as “very generous” Israeli peace terms.

A Time magazine interviewer proceeded to raise claims within Israeli society that Netanyahu is also to blame for keeping the conflict going, and is prolonging the fighting for his own political benefit.

“I’m not going to comment on that,” Biden said, before adding, “there is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”

The U.S. president went on to note Netanyahu was facing political backlash prior to the current Gaza conflict, for pressing for changes to the Israeli judicial system. Last week, Times of Israel reported Netanyahu had shrunken an election polling gap against Israeli Knesset member Benny Gantz, with Israeli voters preferring him over Gantz for the first time since the start of the current Gaza conflict. Israel’s Channel 12 News, which conducted the survey, attributed the polling shift to Gantz’s threats to pull out of the current governing coalition over opposition to Netanyahu’s current wartime and postwar plans.

Biden comments to Time magazine came just days before he unveiled what he described as an Israeli-drafted three-part ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip. That proposal Biden described on May 31 has fueled consternation within the Netanyahu government.

While Netanyahu has repeatedly articulated a wartime goal to eliminate Hamas, the deal Biden described on Friday did not explicitly entail the Palestinian faction’s total elimination. Biden said only that Hamas would be unable to re-arm and unable to carry out attacks in Israel like it did on Oct. 7.

Netanyahu has denied any suggestion the ceasefire plan his government has offered would stop short of this wartime goal of eliminating Hamas. Still, his governing coalition is suspicious of the terms.

In a Monday statement, Ben-Gvir said Netanyahu gave his assurances that he hadn’t agreed to a peace plan without the defeat of Hamas, and that Biden had simply mischaracterized the plan he had put forward. Ben-Gvir said he pressed Netanyahu to show him the exact draft of the peace plan the Israeli prime minister communicated to Biden, but that Netanyahu has yet to reveal that record.

Ben-Gvir said he and his Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party would pull out of Netanyahu’s governing coalition if the Israeli prime minister had agreed to a “promiscuous deal” that ends the fighting without eliminating Hamas. Otzma Yehudit pulling out of the Netanyahu coalition could bring on the coalition’s collapse.

Speaking to members of the press on Monday, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller insisted that the peace deal Biden described does indeed describe the terms set by the Israeli government, but that “there are certain people in the Israeli cabinet, in the Israeli government, who would probably not look too kindly on this.

Biden and Netanyahu have disagreed in recent weeks over Israeli military actions in the southern Gazan city of Rafah. Still, Biden did not say Israel has crossed any specific policy redlines during his May 28 Time interview, and instead declined to comment on the issue.

Biden also rejected suggestions that Israeli forces are intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, but did say Israeli forces have “engaged in activity that is inappropriate.”