HOW JOE BIDEN BECAME PRISONER OF BENJAMIN NETANYAHU

Editor’s Note

His long years and career commitment to promotion and protection of Zionism have turned US President Joe Biden into a prisoner of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s war of genocide in Gaza, and as result of his legacy,  has destroyed him and his Democratic Party politically.

Read these excerpts from Bob Woodward’s most recent book: WAR

“Secrets always exist. And often, the secrets have immense weight, especially in human relations. What do the main characters really think of each other? What is going on behind the scenes that others might not noticenor imagine? What might be the driving forces that are not articulated orvisible?President Biden’s frustrations and distrust of Israeli prime ministerNetanyahu had been building for years and, in the spring of 2024 finally erupted.“That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad fucking guy!” President Biden declared privately to one of his closest associates. “A bad fucking guy!“He doesn’t give a shit about Hamas. He gives a shit only about himself.”The president was preoccupied with bitterness and distrust ofNetanyahu, who he said had been lying to him regularly.Netanyahu was destroying the entire region of Gaza, pounding one ofthe most densely populated places on earth with an estimated 45,000bombs. Almost half, 47 percent, of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million werechildren under the age of 18. Hundreds of the bombs dropped on Gaza had been the massive 2,000-pounders. The carnage resembled some of the worstbombing during World War II.Netanyahu was continuing to say he was going to kill every lastmember of Hamas.Biden had told him that was impossible, threatening both privately andpublicly to withhold offensive U.S. weapons shipments to Israel.Netanyahu promised Biden that Israel would change strategy and pursueHamas with more carefully targeted and sophisticated operations. Theywould replicate the more systematic and patient year-long hunt to eliminatethe Black September Palestinian militants who killed 11 Israeli Olympicteam members in Munich 1972.No more battalions going in firing rockets and artillery without strategy,no more dropping huge bombs on urban areas. But Netanyahu continued toissue precisely those orders.

Before October 7, Netanyahu’s political leadership was in tatters. Hefaced criminal charges of fraud and bribery that had been delayed multipletimes, and he was widely criticized for pushing legal and judicial reform that weakened the independence of Israel’s judiciary. Netanyahu was closeto being ousted as prime minister.But after the large-scale October 7 Hamas attack on his watch,Netanyahu pushed aside questions of Israel’s catastrophic intelligence andsecurity failures and resurrected himself as a strong wartime leader. Israelhad rallied around their prime minister. Ongoing war shielded Netanyahu.President Biden told a friend that Netanyahu was now working hard to save himself politically and stay out of jail.Biden was amazed that Bibi’s leadership had lasted.“Why hasn’t there been an internal revolt?” Biden said. “A strong internal revolt about just voting Bibi out of office somehow, someway! Just get him out of there!”President Biden complained bitterly that Netanyahu had spent no time on a plan for Gaza and the region after the war ends. He knew this becauseof multiple secure calls with Netanyahu and several meetings Blinken hadreported back on over the last six months.The White House would issue brief readouts of the Biden-Netanyahuphone calls to the media suggesting they were fruitful, cordial andproductive.“I think he is somebody that believes that he is, first of all, the saviour for Israel,” DNI Avril Haines said about Netanyahu. “Secondly, he does not want to lose his legacy on what he’s done thus far and does not want to be remembered as the prime minister for October 7.“His politics are definitely, in my view, factoring into his decisionmaking at this point,” Haines reported.Biden had pushed Netanyahu in the immediate aftermath of October 7not to conduct a ground invasion into Gaza. Israel plowed ahead anyway.Biden pressured Netanyahu to allow sustained humanitarian aid into Gaza,but Israel’s military blitz made delivering the aid almost impossible.The humanitarian catastrophe continued to escalate in Gaza.Secretary of State Blinken had been working almost 24/7 for months.He was exhausted, emotionally and physically drained by Netanyahu’s dealings and maneuvering.Biden warned Netanyahu not to conduct a military offensive into Rafah.Netanyahu delayed, debated, and produced a plan to move civilians out ofharm’s way. But, ultimately, Netanyahu sent Israel’s military in.“He’s a fucking liar,” Biden said privately of Netanyahu. “Eighteen outof 19 people who work for him are fucking liars.”Biden believed if he were to firmly and publicly break with Netanyahu,it would risk Israel’s security—something he was not prepared to do afterOctober 7. Iran and Hezbollah were watching.Netanyahu expanded Israel’s military assault, and in late May wasforced to apologize after a ground attack in the south near the heavilypopulated Rafah Crossing killed dozens of civilians in tent camps. Hecalled it a “tragic accident.” U.S.-made munitions were used by Israel in thedeadly strike. Israel had designated the area as a safe zone. By the end ofMay 2024, at least 35,000 people had been killed in Gaza.Benny Gantz, a key official in the war cabinet and Netanyahu’s toppolitical rival, resigned from Israel’s emergency government on June 9,leaving the prime minister more dependent on far-right members of hiscoalition.“Unfortunately, Mr. Netanyahu is preventing us from achieving truevictory, which is the justification for the painful ongoing crisis,” Gantz said.He called on Netanyahu to set a date for Israel’s elections. Polling showedthat Gantz would beat Netanyahu.The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel was “the most colossalintelligence and operational failure in the history of the state of Israel,”Sullivan said. “Israeli intelligence should have known about it. Even if theydidn’t know about it before it happened, they should have stopped it. It wasnot the Wehrmacht,” he added, referring to the German armed forces. “Itwas a couple thousand guys in tennis shoes coming across open land.” Thewar in Gaza had done very little to rebuild the reputation of the IsraeliDefense Forces.In June, Israel’s military rescued four more hostages held by Hamas inGaza, but killed at least 274 Palestinians in the rescue operation. Hundreds more were wounded. Israel blamed Hamas for surrounding the hostageswith civilians in Nuseirat, a densely populated refugee camp.President Biden had successfully deterred wider Middle East war, for now, but failed to rein in Israel’s government to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. He would not alter U.S. policy toward Israel and continued to provide billions of dollars in military aid to Netanyahu.Biden was walking a rapidly fraying tightrope with Israel.”